Rocca Albornoz 25/07/2026

DARIO FO PITTORE: LE MACCHINE TEATRALI

From 28 June 2026 to 25 April 2027 at the Rocca Albornoz – National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto, the first of four exhibitions to celebrate the centenary of the Nobel laureate.

On 28 June 2026, the exhibition Dario Fo pittore: le macchine teatrali (Dario Fo, painter: theatrical machines), curated by Stefano Bertea and Mattea Fo, opened at the National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto. 


The exhibition is organised and produced by the Directorate-General for Libraries and Cultural Institutes and the Directorate-General for Museums of the Ministry of Culture, the National Museums of Perugia – Regional Directorate of National Museums of Umbria, the Umbria Region, the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the Dario Fo and Franca Rame ETS Foundation, and the National Committee for the Celebrations of the 100th Anniversary of Dario Fo’s Birth, in collaboration with the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendency of Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige and the State Archives of Verona. 

The event, the first of four scheduled for 2026 in Umbria, forms part of the calendar of celebrations for Dario Fo’s centenary and the programme of the Festival dei Due Mondi: indeed, it was in Spoleto in 1999 that Fo made his debut with Lu Santo Jullare Francesco, the backdrop for which is once again on display after 27 years in the grand halls of the National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto.

Dario Fo’s painting has never existed in isolation from the stage. Painted backdrops, moving silhouettes, scenic tapestries, sketches and paintings. Everything comes to life alongside the text, as part of the same creative process. This exhibition explores precisely that process: Fo’s ‘theatrical machine’ – the system of images, materials and visual inventions that transforms an idea into a performance, the central theme of the entire exhibition.

The works on display are taken from four major theatre productions: Isabella, tre caravelle e un cacciaballe (1963), Mamma! I Sanculotti! (1993), Lu Santo Jullare Francesco (1999) and La figlia del Papa (2014). Through these works, spanning over fifty years of activity, the exhibition traces Fo’s evolution in the use of theatrical devices as narrative tools: from the scenographic tapestries of the 1960s to the large painted backdrops inspired by the illustrated storyboards of medieval storytellers, right up to the moving silhouettes of his most recent productions.

For Fo, the mechanism that precedes everything is the drawing, a system in which painting and direction are not two separate stages but a single creative act. The backdrop is not designed merely as a background, but as a co-protagonist. The silhouettes do not merely decorate but define the space of the action and give the characters their face and form. The works on display are not illustrations of past productions. They are the ‘machines’ themselves: visual devices still capable of setting the spectator’s imagination in motion.

Dario Fo (1926–2016) was one of the most important figures in 20th-century Italian culture: an actor, playwright, director, set designer, painter and intellectual who profoundly revitalised the language of contemporary theatre. Alongside his work in theatre, Fo pursued an intense artistic and painterly practice throughout his life, regarding it as an integral part of his creative process. One hundred years after his birth, his legacy continues to serve as an international benchmark for theatre, the visual arts and contemporary cultural reflection.

EXHIBITION INFORMATION
Venue: Rocca Albornoz, Spoleto
Open until 25 April 2027
9.30 am – 7.20 pm (last entrance 6.45 pm)

Further information:
Musei Nazionali di Perugia – Direzione regionale Musei nazionali Umbria
Rocca Albornoz – Museo Nazionale Ducato di Spoleto
Piazza Campello, 1 – 06049 Spoleto (PG)
Ph. 0743 223055
https://www.musei.umbria.beniculturali.it
drm-umb.muducatospoleto@cultura.gov.it

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Spoleto is an exemplary synthesis of nature and culture, a center on a human scale, with a prominent medieval and Renaissance appearance, but of very ancient formation, with an urban stratification that is easily readable in its precious and millenary historical-architectural heritage

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