OPENING CEREMONY: Saturday, the 7th of February at 4.30 p.m.

Plates, burins, chisels, engravings, pencils, drawings: in the evocative setting of the Archaeological Museum of Cremona, Chiara Toni's artistic world testifies that her entire life was dedicated to observing the human soul with delicate sensitivity and acute intelligence, deeply investigating even its darkest sides.

The introspective touch of her works surprises us with the power of her analysis and, at the same time, leads us to find some possible solutions, alternative escape routes from a world that seems it has lost its way. Many of her works are dedicated to the reality we live in, to the conformism that crushes us, to those interchangeable masks behind which we too often take refuge, losing our identity. It is precisely the problem of identity that the artist returns to in many of her works, whether it is the female identity, that of an oppressed population, or even simply that of each of us, daily threatened by sirens singing us completely artificial melodies.

The engravings, for which he received important awards that fostered his reputation, reflect his feelings and are almost a mission that he never failed to fulfill. An example of this is the collection of two thousand pieces in the Print Room of our Town Museum, the result of donations from artists participating in the ten Biennials of International Contemporary Graphic Art, “L'Arte e il Torchio” (Art and the Press), conceived and organized together with Vladimiro Elvieri, her partner in Art and Life.

Her exploration of different techniques, and in particular her experimentation with engraving, led her to an increasingly convincing freedom of expression and unusual technical achievements. The same is true for drawing, to which she devoted herself with increasing frequency over the years and which she always treated as a technique to be experimented with and not just used. Her freedom in art and in life has allowed her to express her view of the world in the most vital way, giving us an expressive value of rare intensity and an amazing technical performance.

The exhibition is curated by Vladimiro Elvieri and Donatella Migliore.

The exhibition catalog is on sale at the ticket office for €8.