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Free admission until seats are full
Saturday, September 20, 2025, at 4:30 PM, at the Sala Sant’Ansano, the presentation of the book will take place Fausto Melotti. In Lightness | A Tribute to Italo Calvino, edited by Michelina Eremita and published by Silvana Editoriale.
The book serves as the catalogue of the eponymous exhibition hosted at Santa Maria della Scala in 2023, created to celebrate the ideal encounter between two leading figures of 20th-century culture: Fausto Melotti (1901–1986), sculptor and poet of form, and Italo Calvino (1923–1985), among the most important Italian writers of the last century.
The bond between the two authors is built around shared concepts such as lightness, quickness, exactness, visibility, multiplicity and coherence, the six values Calvino chose for his American Lessons and which also describe with surprising precision Melotti's artistic universe.
Two kindred visions, capable of inhabiting the space of abstraction with balance, rigor and imagination.
Joining the curator:
Domenico Scarpa, scientific advisor of the Primo Levi Study Center in Turin and one of the leading scholars of Calvino's work.
Riccardo Castellana, full professor of Contemporary Italian Literature at the University of Siena and author of one of the texts in the catalogue.
Rudi Cerri, head of the Fausto Melotti Archive
Locations
Others Events
- Initiatives
Museum in motion. Sport, music and tastings
5 Mar 2026/5 Mar 2026On the occasion of the Siena Sport Experience event, which culminates with the Strade Bianche 2026, on Thursday, March 5 the Santa Maria della Scala museum complex will be open exceptionally from 9:15 PM to midnight.
- Exhibitions
Metamorphoses of the Sacred - selection of works
20 Feb 2026/30 Aug 2026From February 20 to August 30, the former stable of the Santa Maria della Scala museum complex hosts the new reinstallation of the exhibition Metamorphoses of the Sacred by Teodora Axente, featuring a selection of 14 works.
- Guided tours
The water routes at Santa Maria della Scala
24 Jan 2026/28 Mar 2026After the large turnout, the guided tours "Water Routes at Santa Maria della Scala".
- Initiatives
Photography Readings - 5th edition
14 Mar 2026/15 Mar 2026After the great success of recent years, on Saturday, March 14 and Sunday, March 15, 2026, Letture di Fotografia returns to the Santa Maria della Scala museum complex in Siena, the event entirely dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary photography, now in its fifth edition.
- Exhibitions
Photography Readings – Exhibition SHARED VISIONS
14 Mar 2026/15 Mar 2026During the Letture di fotografia event, in the Italo Calvino hall, the collective photographic exhibition Visioni Condivise, curated by the Siena Foto Club, will be on display.
- Exhibitions
DOUBLE MEANING 4. THE INK AND THE COLOR
28 Feb 2026/12 Jun 2026The Giuliano Briganti Library and Phototheque renews its appointment with the DOPPIO SENSO biennial, the collective exhibition of artist's books now in its 4th edition, entitled INK AND COLOR.
- Initiatives
Photography Readings - In-depth seminar “Gianni Berengo Gardin the photographer of reality”
15 Mar 2026/15 Mar 2026Sunday, March 15 at 5:30 PM, in the Italo Calvino Hall, the museum dedicates an important event to Gianni Berengo Gardin curated by Fulvio Merlak, Honorary President of FIAF.
- Initiatives
Closing of the exhibition “Paper Garden. The thread and the mark: grafts, assemblages, diary-books”
6 Jun 2025/6 Jun 2025On the occasion of the exhibition's closing, on Friday, June 6 we are offering a finissage made up of several moments throughout the day. The artist will be present at the finissage.
- Exhibitions
"Oh Good!" by Moustapha Cessay at the Briganti Library
24 Sep 2025/31 Oct 2025On the occasion of the fifth edition of the Festival Voci Migranti, the Biblioteca e Fototeca Giuliano Briganti hosts from 24 to 31 October the work Oh Good! by the artist Moustapha Cessay, created as part of the project Le Valigie Digitali.
- #MeetingsAtLaScala
#IncontriallaScala- Museology and perception. From the contemplation of beauty to the aesthetic experience
18 Sep 2025/18 Sep 2025Thursday, September 18 at 5:30 PM, the Santa Maria della Scala hosts a new event in the #IncontriallaScala series, dedicated to the presentation of the book Museology and Perception. From the contemplation of beauty to the aesthetic experience, written by Domenico Piraina and Maurizio Vanni and published by Pacini Editore.
