IMPRONTE DI UN MASCARER
Luogo spazio e tempo del gesto

From 15 April to 1 October 2023

Venice, Carlo Goldoni’s House

Curated by Chiara Squarcina and Tobia Dall’Osto

The exhibition Impronte di un Mascarer – luogo, spazio e tempo del gesto (A Mask-Maker’s Casts: Place, Space and the Time of Gesture) will be installed on the ground and first floors in the form of a display of masks and their casts: small negative alabaster casts and large positive masks in papier-mâché and resin.

Artist Gualtiero Dall’Osto, the creator of the project, will offer many personal reflections on these particular symbolic objects, which are not only associated with Commedia dell’Arte but also a means of concealing a person’s identity from prying eyes. Masks are rich in meanings, both real and virtual, not least those closely connected to the art of their creator, the mask-maker.
In fact, due to Dall’Osto’s inspired proposal to exhibit his creations, it will be possible to analyse the hidden meanings, including anthropological interpretations, connected to the mask and its creator. The exhibition will also present the creative phases of this art and how it relates to today’s world in a vivid illustration of the inexhaustible fascination of masks.

The project will also be an opportunity to explore the history of mask-making. In fact, wearing masks was widely documented in Venice as early as 1271, the same year that the mask-makers formed a guild together with painters. Due to the increasingly frequent use of masks, especially during Carnival festivities, on 10 April 1436, the guild managed to obtain a special statute known as the mariegola, which regulated their activity. With this act, the Serenissima officially recognised their importance and artistic influence.