Paolo Leonardo Exhibition at Binaria Blends Contemporary Art with Solidarity

Binaria, the community center of the Gruppo Abele association in Turin, has launched a new project integrating contemporary art into its former industrial spaces at Via Sestriere 34. Curated by Luisa Valentini in collaboration with Carla Barovetti, the initiative will run throughout 2021, hosting new artists every three months. The inaugural exhibition features Turin-born artist Paolo Leonardo (b. 1973), who presents a series of eleven works derived from family and private archival photographs, on which he intervenes painterly. Printing on paper and working in black and white, Leonardo deforms and erases the images, likening his process to a jazz musician improvising on a fixed theme. The show also includes a video created with filmmaker Daniele Gaglianone, inspired by a childhood memory of the artist looking through Rossana candy wrappers, resulting in near-abstract images of Turin filtered through a red lens. The exhibition is open to the public even under orange-zone restrictions, as it is held in the library space. Beatrice Scolfaro, vice president of Binaria, stated that art can synthesize and give voice to the themes the association addresses daily in welcoming and supporting the vulnerable. The project aims to counter market-driven trends that limit art access, restoring art as a tool for sharing and human connection.