Show - Balloon Syndrome and Other Desires

As part of La Milanesiana, from 17 July to 30 August, the exhibition Marcello Carrà. The Ball Syndrome and Other Desires is on display at the Civic Museum of Bormio.

Opening hours: every day (closed on Mondays): 10.00-12.30 and 15.00-19.00

Marcello Carrà

Born in Ferrara in 1976, Marcello Carrà had, since childhood, enjoyed bringing new objects to life by letting his imagination run free, and little by little his love for drawing took over, starting with comics and magazines. During his university years, he began to devote himself to painting as a self-taught artist. After an initial surrealist phase, influenced by the works of Dalì and De Chirico, from 2000 his style moved closer to cartoons, with very vivid colors and subjects that were always rather unsettling. In 2000 he also delved into engraving techniques, creating about fifteen etchings.
Between 2000 and 2008 he continued to paint scenes halfway between surrealism and cartoons, without yet finding a personal identity, until he took part in a contemporary art orientation course for young artists that led him to exhibit new works based on the scanning of insect images printed on photographic paper and glued onto aluminum sheets. Using the ballpoint pen, a quick and practical tool, he began to depict giant insects on scenic paper.

The Ball Syndrome

The text, published by La Nave di Teseo in 2021, is made up of 11 chapters, in which the disease of football is analyzed, generated by a veritable bacterium, bacillus calcisticus, which attaches itself to brain tissues and then spreads through the blood throughout the body. The disease manifests itself in different forms, active, passive, mild and severe. The entire pseudo-scientific dissertation is scattered with illustrations (about 200), ranging from the macabre to the surreal, passing through anatomical and naturalistic drawing. There are herbariums inspired by the world of football and a football team made up of animals. Almost all the drawings, whose original dimensions are practically identical to those of the final publication, are made with very fine-nibbed pen nibs on cream-colored ingres paper; only some of the color illustrations are done in watercolor.

La Milanesiana

Founded in 2000 in Milan, on the initiative of and under the direction of Elisabetta Sgarbi, La Milanesiana aims to bring together different fields of knowledge and the arts, presenting to the general public international excellence from the cultural and scientific worlds: Nobel laureates in literature and science, Oscar-winning film figures and musicians who have received the most important international awards. Over the years, the festival has increasingly expanded its areas of activity and, in addition to Milan, takes place in different cities in Italy, including, for the past ten years, Bormio. Every year, La Milanesiana addresses a theme that defines and runs through the entire edition. This year it is "Desire and Law".

Download the poster