Fata Morgana: Memories of the Invisible

The Fondazione Nicola Trussardi and Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine are delighted to announce Fata Morgana: Memories of the Invisible, an exhibition conceived and produced by the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi for Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Daniel Birnbaum, and Marta Papini.

The exhibition is designed by the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi specifically for the spaces of Palazzo Morando, a museum dedicated to the history of the city of Milan and once the residence of Countess Lydia Caprara Morando Attendolo Bolognini (b. 1876, Alexandria; d. 1945, Vedano al Lambro, Monza Brianza). Around the turn of the twentieth century, in her opulent quarters, the Countess put together a vast library on the occult, with spiritual and alchemical themes, now housed in the Archivio Storico Civico and Biblioteca Trivulziana.

Dedicated to artistic practices propelled by the invisible, psychic automatism, and trance like states as modes of creation, Fata Morgana takes inspiration from the figure of the Countess and her esoteric archive.

Fata Morgana (Morgan le Fay) is a mythological character whose story is woven into the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. She is often associated with mysterious places, such as the island of Avalon—a passageway between the worlds of the living and the dead. In the collective imagination, Morgana is a formidable sorceress—sometimes benevolent, sometimes ruthless—a keeper of secrets, illusions, and intermediate worlds, and capable of powerful spells, enchantments, and deceit. In more recent interpretations, she is also a free, independent, unconventional woman who disregards the rules imposed by society.

The exhibition draws inspiration from the poem “Fata Morgana”, written by André Breton in 1940, and intertwines history, art, and mysticism through visions, ecstasies, apparitions, and alternative imaginaries to explore the relationship between art, the occult, and inner dimensions. With paintings, photographs, documents, drawings, and ritual objects, Fata Morgana: Memories of the Invisible presents the works of mediums, mystics, visionaries, and artists who have opened up passageways between the seen and unseen. Exploring cross-pollination between the visual arts and paranormal phenomena, esotericism, spiritualism, theosophy, and symbolic practices, the exhibition offers a vibrant, fragmented panorama of research emerging in the margins of official history. Despite this fringe position in the annals, these various practices have, nevertheless, been capable of radically transforming the conventions of both art and society at large.

At the heart of the exhibition is a collection of works by the legendary Swedish painter Hilma af Klint, who, guided by mediumistic presences at the start of the twentieth century, developed a completely original abstract language—preceding pioneers of abstraction such as Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. This is a rare opportunity to view sixteen of her canvases in Italy, dating back to the very early stages of her “automatic” experimentation. It is also in line with the growing international interest in af Klint’s work, rediscovered by the general public in 2013 thanks to the Venice Biennale (curated by Massimiliano Gioni) and the retrospective organized by the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (then directed by Daniel Birnbaum, who is also the editor of the artist’s catalogue raisonné) and is now the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Alongside those of Hilma af Klint, works and documents by other extraordinary historical figures will be presented, including Georgiana Houghton, Emma Kunz, Linda Gazzera, Hélène Smith, Eusapia Palladino, Carol Rama, Man Ray, Pierre Klossowski, Victorien Sardou, Augustin Lesage, Annie Besant, and Wilhelmine Assmann, placed in dialogue with contemporary artists who have explored the same themes through new media and new languages, including Judy Chicago, Kerstin Brätsch, Marianna Simnett, Andra Ursuţa, Diego Marcon, and Chiara Fumai.

Also on view will be a few rare volumes from Countess Morando’s library, on loan from the Biblioteca Trivulziana.

Fata Morgana: Memories of the Invisible does not seek to confirm the existence of the supernatural but to recount how, at different moments in history, practices considered “eccentric” have disrupted artistic and social conventions, questioning gender hierarchies, scientific authority, and the limits of rational thought. In an age marked by new forms of obsession and neurosis, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and endless fascinations with the unknown, the exhibition also reflects on the dangerous relationships that tie technology, spirituality, and power together.

Through a network of visual narratives—from diagrams for “influencing machines” created in nineteenth-century psychiatric hospitals to spirit photographs and accounts of séances—Fata Morgana assembles an atlas of the invisible, a mosaic of inner worlds, utopias, mental drifts, and radical alternatives to dominant rationality.

“With Fata Morgana, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi renews its commitment to exploring unexpected artistic territories and giving voice to alternative narratives, bringing contemporary art beyond the boundaries of traditional institutions,” says Beatrice Trussardi, President of the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi. “In the wake of landmark exhibitions such as The Great Mother and The Restless Earth, we now turn our gaze toward the disquieting power of the invisible. In an era increasingly shaped by emergent spiritualities and quests for interior meaning, we have chosen to examine how that which eludes vision has persistently informed the language of art and continues to unsettle the present. It is no coincidence that André Breton’s poem “Fata Morgana” was written in 1940: in times of profound darkness, the impulse to envision elsewhere and to seek connection with imperceptible realms becomes even more imperative. This project arises from the convergence of radical imaginaries and unconventional sensibilities, weaving together art, science, and the unseen in a constellation that eloquently embodies the Foundation’s cultural mission.”

“With Fata Morgana: Memories of the Invisible, Palazzo Morando confirms itself not only as a civic museum devoted to preserving the historical memory of the city, but also as a place capable of hosting visionary and experimental exhibitions. This project—developed in collaboration with the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi and curated by an internationally renowned team—interweaves history, art, and spirituality, offering visitors a fascinating journey between the visible and the invisible, between imagination and introspective inquiry. It stands as a virtuous example of how culture can open new perspectives, revisiting the past through a contemporary lens and providing a space for reflection on themes that are more relevant than ever today, such as identity, mystery, and freedom of expression,” says Tommaso Sacchi, Deputy Mayor for Culture of the City of Milan.

With a selection of over fifty historical and contemporary artists, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, through Fata Morgana: Memories of the Invisible, invites us to reconsider the role of the marginal, the inexplicable, and the visionary in artistic creation. The project is entrusted to a curatorial team with extensive international experience—which, for the first time in Italy, includes not one but two former directors of the Venice Biennale—and transforms Palazzo Morando into a portal suspended between past and present, imagination and reality.

Fata Morgana: Memories of the Invisible

with works and documents by (list yet to be finalized):

Hilma af Klint, Eileen Agar, Aloïse (Aloïse Corbaz), Giulia Andreani, Kenneth Anger, Antonin Artaud, Wilhelmine Assmann, Annie Besant, Hildegard von Bingen, Kerstin Brätsch, André Breton, Marguerite Burnat-Provins, Marian Spore Bush, Claude Cahun, Chiara Camoni, Milly Canavero, Guglielmo Castelli, Ferdinand Cheval, Judy Chicago, Fleury-Joseph Crépin, Maya Deren, Fernand Desmoulin, Marcel Duchamp, Germaine Dulac, Cecilia Edefalk, Max Ernst, Minnie Evans, Madame Favre, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, Chiara Fumai, Dominique Fung, Linda Gazzera, Madge Gill, Anna Hackel, Gertrude Honzatko-Mediz, Georgiana Houghton, Anna Mary Howitt Watts, Victor Hugo, Hector Hyppolite, Emma Jung, Corita Kent, Pierre Klossowski, Emma Kunz, Ethel Le Rossignol, Sheila Legge, Augustin Lesage, Lars Olof Loeld, Goshka Macuga, Diego Marcon, James Tilly Matthews, Henry Michaux, Lee Miller, Jacob Mohr, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Jill Mulleady, Nadja (Léona Delcourt), Louise Nevelson, Eusapia Palladino, Paulina Peavy, Stanisłava Popielska, Carol Rama, Man Ray, Victorien Sardou, Marianna Simnett, Hélene Smith (Catherine-Elise Müller), Kiki Smith, Lily Stockman, Rosemarie Trockel, Gustave Pierre Marie Le Goarant de Tromelin, Kaari Upson, Andra Ursuța, Giuseppe Versino, Vanda Vieira-Schmidt, Günter Weseler, Johanna Natalie Wintsch, Adolf Wölfli, Anna Zemánkovà, Unica Zürn.

Captions

1.
Man Ray
Groupe Surréaliste (Séance d’écriture automatique), 1924-1980
photograph, new print
printed by Pierre Gassmann
17 x 22 cm
Private Collection
Courtesy Gió Marconi, Milan
SIAE 2025

2.
Hilma af Klint
Primordial Chaos, The WU/Rose Series, Group 1, 1906-1907
oil on canvas
53 x 37 cm
HaK017
By courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation
Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

3.
Hilma af Klint
Primordial Chaos, The WU/Rose Series, Group 1, 1906-1907
oil on canvas
53 x 37 cm
HaK006
By courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation
Photo: The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

4.
Carol Rama
Opera n. 54, 1941
watercolor on paper
48 x 33 cm
Collezione privata

5.
Stanisława Popielska
Séance photo, 1913
silver gelatine photo
9 x 14 cm
Elmar R. Gruber Collection of Mediumistic Art

6.
Chiara Fumai
The Book of Evil Spirits, 2015
single channel video
color, sound
duration: 26 min 24 sec
video still
Courtesy Archivio Chiara Fumai

7.
Wilhelmine Assmann
Untitled, 1905-1906
colored pencil on paper
70 x 50 cm
Elmar R. Gruber Collection of Mediumistic Art

8.
Diego Marcon
La Gola, 2024 [Still]
digital video transferred from 35mm film
CGI animation, color, sound
Duration: 22 min 22 sec
© Diego Marcon
Courtesy the Artist; Sadie Coles HQ, London; Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Kunstverein
Hamburg; Kunsthalle Wien; and Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève for BIM ’24

9.
Milly Canavero
Untitled, 1985
marker on paper
46.5 x 65 cm
exhibition copy
Elmar R. Gruber Collection of Mediumistic Art

10.
Kerstin Brätsch
Unstable Talismanic Rendering_Schrättel (with gratitude to master marbler Dirk Lange), 2017
pigment, water color, ink and solvents on paper
ca. 275.6 x 182.6 cm
Courtesy the Artist; Giò Marconi, Milan
Photo credit: Kirsten Kilponen

11.
Guglielmo Castelli
Cronaca di uno sfacelo, 2025
oil on canvas
60 x 80cm
Courtesy the Artist, Sylvia Kouvali, Mendes Wood DM

12.
Pierre Klossowski
Le Jeune Ogier dans les bras du Frère Lahire II, 1972
pencil and pastel on paper
110 x 75 cm
Collezione Bilinelli, Milano

13.
Andra Ursuta
Nocturnal Omission 1, 2021-2022
photoreactive dye on velvet
90 1/2 x 50 1/4 inches
229.9 x 127.6 cm
framed: 93 1/2 x 53 3/8 x 3 1/2 inches
237.5 x 135.6 x 8.9 cm

14.
Eusapia Palladino
Seduta con la medium Eusapia Palladino. Alla presenza di Sally Proudhomme e della Baronessa de Watteville, tra gli altri, 1985-1900
annotations in ink below the image, caption in black pencil on the verso of the mount
gelatin silver print mounted on cardboard
11,9 x 17 cm; 14,8 x 19,3 cm foglio;
19,5 x 23,2 x 3,5 cm con cornice