Fata Morgana: Memories of the Invisible

Fondazione Nicola Trussardi and Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine present “Fata Morgana: Memories from 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.

Specially designed for the historic spaces of Palazzo Morando, a museum dedicated to the history of Milan and former residence of Countess Lydia Caprara Morando Attendolo Bolognini (Alexandria, Egypt, 1876 – Vedano al Lambro, 1945), the exhibition takes inspiration from the Countess’s remarkable library of occult, spiritualist, and alchemical writings—today preserved at the Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana.

From this evocative setting emerges a project devoted to artistic practices inspired by the invisible, psychic automatism, and trance as creative methods. The title refers to Fata Morgana, the mythical sorceress from the Arthurian legends—guardian of illusions, secrets, and liminal worlds, often seen both as an enchantress and a symbol of feminine freedom and rebellion.

Drawing on André Breton’s 1940 poem Fata Morgana, the exhibition intertwines art, history, and mysticism in a journey through visions, apparitions, and alternative imaginaries. Paintings, photographs, drawings, and ritual objects reveal how artists, mystics, and mediums have sought to bridge the visible and the invisible, exploring intersections between art, esotericism, spiritualism, and symbolic practices.

Fata Morgana: Memories from the Invisible does not seek to prove the supernatural but to show how, at different moments in history, eccentric and visionary practices have challenged artistic and social conventions, questioned gender hierarchies, scientific authority, and the limits of rational thought. In an era marked by obsession, misinformation, and fascination with mystery, the exhibition also reflects on the uneasy relationships between technology, spirituality, and power.

Through a network of visual narratives—from 19th-century psychiatric “influencing machines” and spirit photography to accounts of mediumistic séances—the exhibition builds an atlas of the invisible, a mosaic of inner worlds, utopias, and radical alternatives to dominant rationality.

At its core is a rare group of sixteen early abstract paintings by Hilma af Klint, the legendary Swedish artist who, guided by spiritual presences, developed a unique abstract language before Kandinsky and Mondrian. This marks a rare opportunity to see these works in Italy, reflecting the growing global recognition of af Klint’s influence—revived since the 2013 Venice Biennale (curated by Massimiliano Gioni), the Moderna Museet retrospective in Stockholm (directed by Daniel Birnbaum), and her current major exhibition at MoMA, New York.

Alongside af Klint, the exhibition features works and documents by Georgiana Houghton, Emma Kunz, Linda Gazzera, Hélène Smith, Eusapia Palladino, Carol Rama, Man Ray, Pierre Klossowski, Victorien Sardou, Augustine Lesage, Annie Besant, and Wilhelmine Assmann, in dialogue with contemporary artists including Judy Chicago, Kerstin Brätsch, Marianna Simnett, Andra Ursuța, Diego Marcon, and Chiara Fumai.

Also on display are rare volumes from the Countess Morando’s personal library, on loan from the Biblioteca Trivulziana.