No Masks. The Real Reality Beyond the Social Filters

The Cultural Associations Biennale Spaces - chaired by Roberto Caruso, a true Venetian raised in the Castello district - and Edizioni Paguro (based in Salerno), both dedicated to artistic and cultural promotion on local, national, and international scales, are proud to present a contemporary art exhibition in the lead-up to the 2025 Venetian Carnival. Aimed at enriching and incentivizing targeted tourist flows to the Castello neighborhood, the exhibition, titled "NO MASKS. The Real Reality Beyond the Social Filters," will run from January 24 to April 15, 2025, at the "biennale spaces | Il Giardino Bianco" on Via Garibaldi 1814.
Curated by Michele Citro - known for his direction of prominent international artistic showcases such as the Biennale del Gattopardo in Palma di Montechiaro, La Biennalina di Maiori Costa d'Amalfi, Raffaello visita le carceri di Salerno, Futurismi Contemporanei, and The Philosophy Festival of Campobasso 2024 dedicated to Artificial Intelligence - the exhibition gathers a diverse group of artists: Elia Alunni Tullini, Alvin, Saturno Buttò, Giovanni Cavaliere, Sabatino Cersosimo, Luigi Citarrella, Raffaele Cornaggia, Emanuela De Franceschi, Mario Ferrante, Angelo Giordano, Emanuele Gregolin, MiTch Laurenzana, Matteo Lo Greco, Marco Manicardi, Giuseppe Negro, Eliana Petrizzi, Emanuele Scuotto, Terenzio Sonda, Fernando Spano, and Marialuisa Tadei.
Through their ethical-aesthetic, and in this case, psycho-socio-anthropological poetics, the artists aim to unveil or redefine the true "Mask" - not just as a literal face covering but as the symbolic "specter" of reality. This unfiltered essence of the "Real" is something each "Person" conceals daily, only to playfully and gleefully reveal during Carnival. Carnival thus becomes an anniversary of ontological freedom, a celebration of individual expression liberated from societal filters, prejudices, or pressures.
This concept echoes the work of Giacomo Casanova, an eccentric figure both historical and mythological, to whom this edition of the Venetian Carnival is dedicated. Casanova, a charismatic aesthete, used his literary, alchemical, and esoteric talents to strip love of its romantic illusions, revealing it for what it truly is: pure, simple, and delightfully irrational erotic energy.