Curated by Fabio Cafagna and Elena Volpato, the exhibition presents about a hundred works from prestigious European institutions and the collections of the GAM.

The exhibition explores the night as a space for technical experimentation, scientific reflection, and poetic introspection from the early 17th century to the present day. Organized thematically, in a sequence aimed at respecting the chronological succession of different cultural seasons in its main path, the exhibition invites reflection on the allure of the nocturnal as a place of ambiguity, mystery, and discovery, in a constant dialogue between rationality and emotion, science and visionary.

From the seventeenth-century research of Galileo and Maria Clara Eimmart in dialogue with works by Johann Carl Loth, Giuseppe Antonio Petrini and Antonio Canova, to contemporary cosmic visions by Vija Celmins and Thomas Ruff. Ample space is dedicated to the Romantic and Symbolist nineteenth century and the Dreamlike twentieth century, presenting works where the night is woven with transcendent visions and imaginations, such as the nocturnes of Victor Hugo, Odilon Redon, Franz von Stuck, František Kupka, Marc Chagall, Jackson Pollock and Joseph Cornell.