Location: MAR - Ravenna Art Museum
Curator: Marcello Landi, Enzo Pezzi and Fulvio Fiorentini in collaboration with MAR and Liceo Artistico Nervi-Severini of Ravenna
Inauguration: Saturday, 10th October | 6pm
Dates: 10th October - 8th November 2015
Opening hours: every day 9am - 6pm; closed on Mondays

The exhibition retraces the origin and implementation of La chambre turque by Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski de Rola), an ironic and mysterious man and the last great painter of our century's figurative tradition (Paris, 29th September 1908 – Rossiniére, 18th February 2001).

Balthus first came to Ravenna in 1995, to admire the mosaic adaptation of his painting, created with the invaluable contribution of Cristina and Riccardo Muti and Pietro and Marilena Barilla and still preserved in the modern and contemporary mosaic collection of MAR. Among the delegates who welcomed Balthus at the time of his first visit there was Marcello Landi, who gives him homage with an exhibit which reconstructs the process of creation of the work through 40 original photographs and a peculiar mosaic work by Ines Morigi Berti.

Balthus's painting was inspired by the image of his Japanese wife Setsuko wrapped up in the drapes of a sumptuous kimono, created between 1965 and 1966 in Rome. The different phases of its mosaic adaptation, taken care of by Marcello Landi for Pro.Mo in 1995, were under the artistic direction of Ines Morigi Berti, who also contributed to the creation of some details, Marco De Luca (technical coordinator), Arte e Lavoro, Artes Mutae, Alessandra Caprara, Cooperativa Mosaicisti, Silvana Costa, Luciana Notturni, Felice Nittolo, Paolo Racagni and Andrea Raccagni.