From 26 May to 24 September, at Palazzo Fava. Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Genus Bononiae, together with the Carisbo Foundation, presents Journey towards the unknown , an exhibition curated by Claudio Cerritelli and Gisella Vismara dedicated to the complex and multifaceted figure of Lucio Saffaro (Trieste 1929 - Bologna 1998): painter, writer, poet and mathematician among the most original of Italian culture and art of the second half of the twentieth century.

On the occasion of the opening day of the exhibition, Friday 26 May at 18, the Library of San Giorgio in Poggiale will hold a conference by the art historian Flavio Caroli focused on the life and production of the author. Thursday 15 June, again at 6 pm, will be followed by a meeting with the mathematician Piergiorgio Odifreddi.

The exhibition Journey towards the unknown is a project of the Lucio Saffaro Foundation. It traces a path through the author's art by presenting about a hundred works including paintings , graphics and books . The exhibition itinerary offers an exhaustive overview of his research (1954-1997), starting from the youthful phase - the least known - up to maturity, symbolized by the elegant and multifaceted forms that make his work unique.

Lucio Saffaro is a totally independent figure with respect to the world of culture and art. Difficult to classify, he carries out his research solitary and secluded from the main artistic and cultural currents of the second half of the twentieth century. He moved to Bologna with his family in 1945 and will remain forever linked to the city of Bologna. Young, he enrolled at the University graduating in pure physics, continuing in parallel to cultivate his artistic, literary and philosophical-speculative interests.

Always in search of a refined and plural language, refusing the definition of artist-mathematician, Saffaro has been able to merge his profound scientific culture with the pictorial and graphic investigation of symbolic forms linked to the enigmas of space and time. In his work, the deepening of the relationship between the classical world and modern knowledge is fundamental. With a marked aptitude for linking the memory of the past to the awareness of the present time, the author projects the image of the future with visionary force, capturing the complex links between the ancient and the contemporary.

The exhibition offers the possibility of following the multiple dimensions explored by Saffaro during his singular pictorial and graphic research: symbolic identifications, imaginary monuments and portraits, allegorical visions, canonical polyhedra, dodecahedra and tetrahedra, dimensions of creative thought, metaphysical images and emblems of infinite time.