70 architects for the Divine Comedy at the Royal Palace of Caserta

The exhibition “Divina Sezione. L’architettura italiana per la Divina Commedia” inaugurated on the 8 of March at the Royal Palace of Caserta. Curators Luca Molinari and Chiara Ingrosso, part of the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design Luigi Vanvitelli, invited the authors to transpose the Divine Comedy in the form of drawings, as an opportunity to reflect on the complex bond entangling narrative and image.

Dante’s exploration of hell, purgatory and paradise represents a powerful imaginary for Italian architects since a very long time. Among the first architects who transformed this exploration into an architectural vision was the rationalist architect Giuseppe Terragni, with the never built project of the Danteum. The exhibition collects the contributions of 70 Italian authors of three different generations as contemporary visions on the poem: among others Francesco Venezia, Paolo Portoghesi, Cherubino Gambardella, Aimaro Isola, Andrea Branzi, Michele De Lucchi, Franco Raggi, Ugo La Pietra, Renato Rizzi and Franco Purini. Published by Skira, the exhibition catalogue features all these contributions.