TAROT CARDS OF DE ANDRÉ

Created in 2008 for the exhibition on Fabrizio De André (1940-1999) commissioned by the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, I Tarocchi (Tarot Cards), curated by Studio Azzurro, takes the form of a large video triptych – an immersive environment in which images, music and storytelling are intertwined. In the centre of the work, instead of abstract, symbolic figures, there are characters from De André’s songs: outsiders, rebels, losers and visionaries, who duly come to life and, in the process, allude to the Major Arcana.

Since its emergence in the late Middle Ages, tarot has made its way across centuries of history by reinventing itself repeatedly: from pastime to divinatory instrument, and from pictorial repertoire to potent narrative mechanism. The power of the cards lies in their capacity to condense universal experiences into open-ended images, ready to be reinterpreted. This same openness enables De André’s characters to enter into a dialogue with the universe of tarot, infusing it with new life and new stories.

The triptych recalls the European figurative tradition, associated with the representation of saints and intercessors. Here, though, occupying that solemn space is a humanity far-removed from any consecration: Piero, Marinella, Geordie and Nancy, amongst many others, do not embody idealised models but, rather, stories that are fragile and profoundly human. In the flow of music and images, these figures “overlap” with the archetypes of tarot, without ever hardening into fixed symbols.

In the Sala delle Capriate at Palazzo della Ragione, the video triptych echoes off the fragments of frescoes that animate the walls, giving rise to an interplay between past and present, between painting and images in motion, between the glories of history and the popular world.