Turin. Art Nouveau Capital

A time of dreams, a resurgent middle class, a cultural movement that marked a shift from one epoch to another.
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed the birth of a new style: Italian Art Nouveau – known as the “Liberty Style” in Italy – which had its true capital in Turin. From poetry to music, interior design to architecture, painting to sculpture, and graphic design to decoration – everything co-existed together, with these different art forms united as one. The exhibition Turin: Art Nouveau Capital/Liberty. Art Nouveau Capital, being held in the wonderful surroundings of Palazzo Madama, brings together more than 100 works of art, displayed across five sections: The Eternal Feminine, The Modern Home, The Great Boulevard, New Languages for a New Society, and From the Sphinx to Mexico City. The entire route is designed around a single keyword: metamorphosis. Turin is accordingly viewed as the fulcrum of a total metamorphosis encompassing aesthetics, society and politics, within a new, boundless world. The engaging, highly original staging guides visitors round the myriad manifestations of Art Nouveau, bringing to the fore the focal points of a shared artistic and aesthetic creativity.
The exhibition and the catalogue – published by Silvana Editoriale – have been designed, curated and edited by Beatrice Coda Negozio, Roberto Fraternali, Carlo Ostorero, Rosalba Stura and Maria Carla Visconti, who have been working for decades with a view to charting and safeguarding the Art Nouveau culture in Turin. The exhibition, which is being orchestrated by Palazzo Madama, SIAT – Società degli Ingegneri e degli Architetti in Torino (Society of Engineers and Architects in Turin) and MondoMostre, is a key operation for the entry of Turin into the RANN in Brussels and for its candidacy as a UNESCO World Heritage City on the basis of its Art Nouveau heritage.