Of Acrobats and Other Stories. Photographs from the Driving Energy Award is a compendium, a selection, of work from the Driving Energy Award 2022 – Contemporary Photography exhibition, supplemented on this occasion by an exploration of award winner Paolo Ventura and of the profoundly narrative nature of his work and his research.

The full exhibition, which was held at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni from 15 to 27 November 2022, showcased the work of the forty photographer finalists in the competition whose theme, Cameras on driving energy, was the artistic interpretation of the Azienda’s mission. The photographers acquainted us with their view of the theme by recounting themselves, their vision of the world and their feelings – an individuality that was accompanied by their past and their memories, because every work of art consists not only of technique and style but also of the artist’s individual and collective history.

From 20 December to 29 January the Palazzo delle Esposizioni’s Fountain Hall will once again be hosting the work of Paolo Ventura (Winner, Seniors), Gaia Renis (Winner, Young Photographers), Andrea Botto (work most voted by Terna staff), Mohamed Keita (Winner of the special mention Contemporary Normality) and Eva Frapiccini (Winner of the special mention Circularity. Courses and Recourses), in addition to the photographs of Fabio Barile, Alessandro Dandini, Leonardo Magrelli, Raffaela Mariniello, Daniele Molajoli, Luca Nostri, Margherita Nuti and Flavio Scollo.

The exhibition spreads beyond the Fountain Hall to encroach on the Palazzo delle Esposizioni’s bookshop, where Paolo Ventura will be presenting his well-known award-winning series I Ginestra, whose visionary setting is animated by acrobats moving with mastery and elegance. These images echo the work of such celebrated 20th century painters as Sironi and Donghi in a complex fabric interweaving historical research with craftsmanship, handicrafts, scenographic composition, photography and painting.

Also on display will be a selection of other works, drawings, posters, books and dioramas recounting the world as envisioned by Ventura amid narrative and playfulness, dream and truth. In his magical work, reality is ceaselessly reinvented and revisited through the prism of the imagination and translated into a dreamlike dimension, into a new story. Paolo Ventura evokes distant and enigmantic worlds for us, he creates real and fantasy visions, recording the convulsions and anomalies of our time in a mythopoeic dimension.