Diego Marcon: Dramoletti

Now in its twentieth year, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi presents a new project for the city of Milan: the first institutional exhibition in Italy by Diego Marcon (b. 1985, Busto Arsizio), from June 5 to 30, 2023, at Teatro Gerolamo, the puppet theater famously known as “la piccola Scala,” by virtue of its miniature size and fine architectural details. It was designed in the nineteenth century by Giuseppe Mengoni—the same architect to create the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, where the Foundation started its nomadic project two decades ago.

Through films, videos, and installations, Marcon constructs mysterious chamber dramas inhabited by puppets, children, and creatures suspended between the human and post-human. Blending melodrama and special effects, the artist imagines a new humanity shaken by profound moral doubt and trapped in distressing, endlessly repeating actions. Presented in this miniaturized theater, Marcon’s works spin around like toy dancers in a hypnotic music box, evoking the micro-worlds of Joseph Cornell as well as the fantasies of Carlo Collodi and Lewis Carroll.