07.09.2021
Kupferstichkabinett
During this year’s Festival of Lights, from 3‒12 September 2021, which can be seen at diverse locations in the city, the Italian Embassy in Berlin is placing several works of art from the collection of the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) literally under the spotlight. The embassy, which is taking part in the Festival of Lights, 2021 for the first time, is dedicating a video installation on the façade of its building in Tiergartenstraße to the topic “Dante Alighieri, Father of Culture and Creativity”. It is very much in the spirit of the international events commemorating the 700th anniversary of the death of the renowned Italian poet and philosopher.
Under the artistic direction of the Antaless Visual Design creative studios in Palermo, video artist Alessio Cassaro has specially created a project for this occasion and this location. In his forms and light shows, Cassaro uses images of 15th-20th century works of art inspired by Dante. Four of these artworks are part of the Kupferstichkabinett collection, which preserves numerous prints, drawings and early editions of The Divine Comedy, Dante’s magnum opus. Famous works by Sandro Botticelli and Gustave Doré also found their way into the video installations, as have motifs from a woodcut series by the Danish artist Ebba Holm and the German artist Klaus Wrage, who can be seen in the exhibition Hell’s Black and Starlight: Dante’s Divine Comedy in Modern and Contemporary Art. Like the video installation at the embassy, this Kupferstichkabinett exhibition was conceived to commemorate the Dante anniversary. Although the catalogue publication is now making its debut in September, the exhibition opening has been postponed until February 2022 due to the pandemic.
The Kupferstichkabinett is delighted to contribute to this video installation during the Festival of Lights with the virtual light show presence of its works of art. The museum and the Italian Embassy in Berlin have been linked by mutual collaboration and numerous joint projects for many years: creating a bridge between art and its urban surroundings, between the Renaissance and the present, and last but not least, between Italy and Germany.