Bougies de berger
22,48 m² gallery presents Bougies de berger, Marco Emmanuele’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Conceived specifically for the space, the project transforms the gallery into a landscape crossed by glimmers, reflections, and apparitions, where light is never spectacular, but rather fragile, intermittent, and deeply sensitive.
The title originates from a popular Sicilian expression once used to refer to fireflies. I cannili di picurari – “the shepherds’ candles” – described the torches lit by shepherds at dusk, which, seen from afar, were sometimes mistaken for swarms of fireflies. Suspended between reality and imagination, this image becomes the starting point for a reflection on those discreet forms of presence that endure despite the overexposure of the contemporary world.
The exhibition brings together two big paintings from the ISO series, whose landscapes appear to be traversed by subtle luminous traces; an aluminium sculpture paying tribute to the poet Amelia Rosselli; a pinhole drawing on paper created specifically for the gallery and activated by natural light; as well as a group of paintings in which small bronze inclusions emerge from the surface like silent presences. At different moments of the day, sunlight itself becomes part of the exhibition, animating the works through shifting reflections and ephemeral projections.
Without giving way to nostalgia, Bougies de berger celebrates the persistence of what remains almost invisible. Fireflies become a metaphor for modest gestures, fragile desires, and forms of resistance that continue to inhabit our time. In a city known as the “City of Light”, Marco Emmanuele chooses a more discreet form of illumination: one that does not dazzle, but invites us to look differently.