From 26 May to 24 September, 2023, at Palazzo Fava. Palazzo delle Esposizioni, it will be possible to discover the art of Lucio Saffaro (Trieste 1929 – Bologna 1998): a painter, writer, poet and mathematician who, since the 1960s, has established himself as one of the most original and unusual figures of Italian culture, receiving wide acclaim in each of the fields in which he worked.

The exhibition Journey towards the unknown. Lucio Saffaro between Art and Science, curated by Claudio Cerritelli and Gisella Vismara, is a project of the Lucio Saffaro Foundation that traces a path in the art of this multifaceted figure, presenting about one hundred works, including paintings, graphics, and books.

The exhibition itinerary offers an exhaustive overview of his artistic research (1954-1997), starting from the youthful phase – the least known – up to maturity, symbolized by the elegant and multifaceted forms that make his work unique. The exhibition will be complemented by a section made up of some unpublished photographs by Nino Migliori, recently found, which portray the artist and friend in the 1970s. Finally, the documentary Lucio Saffaro: The Forms of Thought, made in 2014 by the director Giosuè Boetto Cohen, with the narrations of friends and scholars such as Maurizio Calvesi, Flavio Caroli, Federico Carpi, Claudio Cerritelli, Bruno D’Amore, Michele Emmer, Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Riccardo Sanchini, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Walter Tega, and Gisella Vismara, will be presented. To these contributions are added the precious family films that allow one to enter the intimate and private dimension of the author.

The exhibition catalog is published by BUP – Bologna University Press, with critical contributions from Gisella Vismara (scientific consultant of the Saffaro Foundation), Bruno D’Amore (art critic and mathematician), and Claudio Cerritelli (former professor of history of art at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts).