The Mart in Rovereto is dedicating an in-depth anthological exhibition to Luigi Serafini on the artist's vast creative activity in the fields of architecture, design, painting, sculpture, graphics, photography and digital art.

The exhibition starts with the Codex Seraphinianus, Serafini's universal undertaking that first attracted critical attention. A fantastic encyclopaedia, first printed in 1981 by Franco Maria Ricci, then reprinted several times and published internationally. A cult object throughout the world, the Codex has garnered favour in various circles and counts enthusiastic and well-known supporters in intellectual and artistic circles, such as Italo Calvino, Federico Zeri, Umberto Eco, Tim Burton, Jean-Michel Jarre, Orhan Pamuk, Philippe Starck and Fernando Arrabal.

In a layout designed by the artist, the route highlights Serafini's unbeatable mastery in the production of the fantastic image, crossing his entire creative arc: from his experience as a member of the architecture and design group Memphis, to the artist's house, today the subject of a legal battle for its preservation. The wide selection of original Codex drawings introduces the relationship between the artist and the book object, explored through the drawings of two other publications by Serafini, Pulcinellopaedia Seraphiniana, a fantastic interpretation of the Neapolitan myth of Pulcinella, and Storie Naturali, an atlas of imagined botany. Taken as a whole, the project highlights a universe led by invention and lightness in which whimsy and truth, irony and seduction constantly swap sides.

The exhibition is sustained by Altemasi, Fondazione Silvano Toti, Casse Rurali Trentine and Cassa Rurale AltoGarda e Rovereto.