Marco Tirelli - Anni luce

Organised by the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale and Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, with the support of the Silvano Toti Foundation, the exhibition at Palazzo Esposizioni is dedicated to one of the leading figures in the renewal of Italian and international painting since the late 1970s.

The large-scale exhibition-installation comprises a core of previously unseen works created specifically by the Roman artist Marco Tirelli for the spaces of Palazzo Esposizioni (rooms 9, 10, 11 and 12). All of the same height, the forty-one large works on display, whilst retaining their individuality, form an organic and continuous fabric, a veritable “ideal ribbon” that runs through the exhibition space: a single, vast pictorial and mental cycle where visual memories intertwines with fragments of cinema, literature, art history and shadows of inner visions.

The exhibition project showcases the most advanced stage of Tirelli’s research and is structured around two main themes: the mapping of the world through a symbolic and mnemonic language, and the constant dialogue between light and darkness. As both a generative principle and a tool of revelation, it is light that creates space, gives form to the formless and substance to thought, transforming the perceptual experience into an inner journey. At the heart of the project lies the working method devised by the artist, which involves a lengthy process of execution and the use of various techniques. The time taken to create the work is an integral part of it: each painting is the result of an accumulation, a layering that renders thought visible in its very making.

Cover picture: Marco Tirelli, Untitled, 2025, ink and tempera on panel, photograph by Stefano Bonilli