Franco Biagioni's ex-voto paintings chronicle Italian history in Rome

The exhibition 'Santuario mobile. Archivio dipinto della memoria' at Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome presents for the first time nearly the complete collection of Franco Biagioni's painted wooden tablets. Over 25 years, Biagioni (born 1952 in Jesi, lives in Chiusa Pesio) has created hundreds of small oil-on-wood panels inspired by traditional ex-voto offerings, depicting contemporary history through his personal lens. The show also includes his 'mobile sanctuary,' a cart that can be assembled as an altar, which he uses to travel through towns presenting selections of his archive. Biagioni's work avoids hierarchies or predetermined narratives, capturing whatever strikes him from daily news—from the Ustica massacre to migrant rescues at sea, from Aldo Moro's imprisonment to Stefano Cucchi's death. His technique uses raw wood impregnated with linseed oil and a medieval-inspired color palette, with theatrical lighting and out-of-scale figures. Daniele Pitteri's catalog essay describes the work as 'a place of suspensions and pauses, a place to learn to remember,' offering possibilities rather than explanations. The exhibition is curated by Luca Arnaudo.