Luigi Serafini Named Guest of Honor at Orticolario 2026 on Lake Como

Key facts

• Orticolario 2026, titled En rêverie, runs October 1–4 at Villa Erba and its park on Lake Como.
• Luigi Serafini is the Guest of Honor; his talk is on October 2 at 11:30, introduced by Moritz Mantero and moderated by Chiara Rostagno.
• Serafini was named Artist of the Year 2026 by Rai Radio3 and will receive the Un Felliniano nel Mondo award on November 22 in Rimini at the Amarcort Film Festival.
• He completed the final pages of the Codex Seraphinianus in summer 1981 in Giuslino, a hamlet of Cerano d'Intelvi, with help from Giuliano Corti, delivering it to publisher Franco Maria Ricci; it was shown at Palazzo Grassi in Venice in November 1981.
• In 2008 he created Balançoires sans frontières for Arte Bregaglia in the Val Bregaglia, installing two swings near a border fence between Castasegna and Villa di Chiavenna.
• Serafini uses AI without prejudice and is developing a 'retro-generative' method that works backward from finished artworks to their primary images.
• He cited the Artist of the Year 2025 prize promoted by Artuu Magazine and presented at the Pinacoteca di Brera.
• He referenced a seesaw installation across the US-Mexico border by architects Ronald Rael and Virginia Sanfratello.