Dante's Divine Comedy Reimagined Through Photography at Palazzo Barberini

The exhibition 'Lo sguardo di Dante – The Mimetic Observer' opened in December 2023 at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, curated by Alessandro Coco and Peter Lang with coordination by Giorgio Di Noto. It features 27 photographic works by Carlotta Valente and her mentor Joaquin Paredes, divided into three sections corresponding to Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. For Inferno, nine zoomorphic silver gelatin prints employ pseudosolarization, a technique associated with Man Ray. Purgatorio is represented by cyanotypes backlit on glass with blue backgrounds, evoking Dante's 'sweet color of oriental sapphire.' Paradiso uses rare mercury daguerreotypes on silver-coated brass plates, becoming mirror-like; one work reproduces the sky of April 13, 1300, the date Dante enters Paradise. Literary critic Giulio Ferroni praised the show for combining technology with artistic intentionality.