EXHIBITION CURATED BY CHIARA GATTI
NIVOLA MUSEUM
July 23, 2026 – October 25, 2026

Orani
Museo Nivola, Via Gonare n. 2

In the heart of Barbagia, the Nivola Museum is preparing for a season of extraordinary encounters. This is not merely a series of exhibitions, but a narrative journey titled “Nivola vis-à-vis with his time,” a project centered on the monumental figure of Costantino Nivola (1911-1988) in a close and intimate dialogue with the great minds of the 20th century.
The title itself, vis-à-vis, suggests a play of gazes and reflections. Curated by artistic director Chiara Gatti, the exhibition is inspired by philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas’s concept of the “epiphany of the face”: the face as a place of authentic relationship. In this setting, Nivola is not an island but a bridge connecting Sardinia to the world, intertwining his research with companions like Gianni Colombo, Bruno Munari, and Regina.
The exhibition unfolds through chapters that reveal previously unseen aspects of the master from Orani. In the first chapter, “Rooms,” Nivola’s famous Dream Room dialogues with Gianni Colombo’s Elastic Space, transforming the environment from mere architecture into a place “to be inhabited with the body”. Here, his “teatrini” (little theaters) and dream boxes emerge—volumes designed to welcome humanity and relate the individual to their surroundings through light and modular forms.
The exhibition also touches on more personal notes of his life. It explores the figure of Ruth Guggenheim, Nivola’s wife and a visionary artist in her own right, whose lightweight sculptures are displayed alongside intimate portraits her husband dedicated to her. Finally, the connection to his homeland becomes even more tangible with the first-ever display of a series of photographs taken by Nivola in the streets of Orani, capturing the people, hidden corners, and the cold monumentality of the talc mines.
Visiting this exhibition means immersing oneself in a “luminous and malleable substance,” where Nivola’s art continues to question how we inhabit space and memory.