Atlas of the New World
Giulia Piermartiri, Edoardo Delille
4. October 2025 - 8. February 2026
OPENArchival Platform
Fondazione Scabia
On May 21, 2021, Giuliano Scabia made himself invisible, grew wings and has been flying into the next world ever since. Immediately afterwards, his wife Cristina and his children Marco and Aurora decided to keep him alive also through a concrete act of love that promoted his work. Thus the idea of creating a Foundation in his name was born.
The deed of incorporation of the Giuliano Scabia Foundation was signed on 30 May 2022, and in October of the same year the Foundation became a Third Sector Body. The family, with the support of many friends, ventured into this undertaking with the aim of preserving, enhancing and making Scabia’s work known, especially to young people.
On May 21, 2021, Giuliano Scabia made himself invisible, grew wings and has been flying into the next world ever since. Immediately afterwards, his wife Cristina and his children Marco and Aurora decided to keep him alive also through a concrete act of love that promoted his work. Thus the idea of creating a Foundation in his name was born.
The deed of incorporation of the Giuliano Scabia Foundation was signed on 30 May 2022, and in October of the same year the Foundation became a Third Sector Body. The family, with the support of many friends, ventured into this undertaking with the aim of preserving, enhancing and making Scabia’s work known, especially to young people.
curated by di Andrea Mancini
The exhibition explores the collaboration between Franco Basaglia and Giuliano Scabia, which began in 1971 with the theater workshop “Fourteen Actions for Fourteen Days.” Together, they carried out an artistic project at the Psychiatric Hospital of Trieste, culminating in the creation of the symbolic Marco Cavallo. This project anticipated the Basaglia Law, which revolutionized the treatment of mental illness.
As stated by the curator, Sentiero del Teatro accanto alla follia, was already a project by Giuliano Scabia, accompanied by at least one of the Quaderni del Teatro Vagante, written as an in-depth look at his work. This led to the publication of two notebooks and an exhibition. The first of these books is an extraordinary repertoire of images – partly also featured in the exhibition – that document day by day the commitment of Scabia, Vittorio Basaglia,
curated by di Andrea Mancini
The exhibition explores the collaboration between Franco Basaglia and Giuliano Scabia, which began in 1971 with the theater workshop “Fourteen Actions for Fourteen Days.” Together, they carried out an artistic project at the Psychiatric Hospital of Trieste, culminating in the creation of the symbolic Marco Cavallo. This project anticipated the Basaglia Law, which revolutionized the treatment of mental illness.
As stated by the curator, Sentiero del Teatro accanto alla follia, was already a project by Giuliano Scabia, accompanied by at least one of the Quaderni del Teatro Vagante, written as an in-depth look at his work. This led to the publication of two notebooks and an exhibition. The first of these books is an extraordinary repertoire of images – partly also featured in the exhibition – that document day by day the commitment of Scabia, Vittorio Basaglia, and many others in Laboratorio P, a disused ward of the psychiatric hospital of Trieste, directed – as is well known – by Franco Basaglia; the other is a book of materials, often unpublished or rare, that tells the exceptional journey of Scabia, alongside mental illness, with a series of critical insights, confessions, uncertainties, deviations, and euphoria, which are hard to imagine, but which tell, better than many other things, the nature of this path, a nature sometimes uncertain, not always oriented towards positive outcomes, even though there is a strong presence of Marco Cavallo, and that – as Giuliano was keen to specify – of the Blue Dragon, seen as magical characters, to solve every problem faced by the hero.
The exhibition thus presents materials from Laboratorio P in Trieste, including drawings, sculptures, photographs, and historical footage. Notable works include the Earthly Paradise, Miss Rosina, and the Blue Dragon of Montelupo. The documentation also celebrates the closure of other asylums, such as the Vigil of Marco Cavallo at San Salvi in 1998.
