La materia dei sogni - Mondi e visioni dall'opera di Shakespeare

**The Matter of Dreams - Worlds and Visions from the Works of Shakespeare: Opening Today, Friday, July 17.**

Dear Colleague, below is the press release regarding the exhibition "The Matter of Dreams - Worlds and Visions from the Works of Shakespeare." It was presented this morning in the presence of Anita Guarnieri, director of the Svevo Castle in Bari - Regional Directorate of National Museums of Puglia, Pietro Copani, director of the Carlo V Castle in Lecce, the mayor of Lecce, Adriana Poli Bortone, and curators Peter Bottazzi and Silvia Rigon. The exhibition officially opens today - Friday, July 17 - and will remain open at the Carlo V Castle in Lecce until January 10, 2027.

"The Matter of Dreams - Worlds and Visions from the Works of Shakespeare" is an original interdisciplinary and international project, promoted by the Svevo Castle in Bari - Regional Directorate of National Museums of Puglia, curated by Bottazzi and Rigon, and realized with the scientific consulting of Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute. This project intertwines theater, visual arts, installations, and historical research in a pathway that is capable of “staging” the work of the great English playwright through contemporary technologies and languages in an accessible, inclusive, and innovative manner.

The entire artistic project has been conceived and executed by Peter Bottazzi and Silvia Rigon, who developed all the creative elements – installations, sculptures, video works, original music, soundscapes, and multimedia devices – in dialogue with the scientific framework elaborated by the Shakespeare Institute. The choice of the Carlo V Castle is not accidental. The city’s strong theatrical tradition, from the Roman amphitheater to the Roman theater, and up to the more modern theaters that have emerged over the centuries right next to the castle walls, makes the still little-known undergrounds of this location the ideal context to experience an exhibition where installations transform monumental spaces into sensory and cultural environments capable of connecting the past and the present.

The exhibition features seven large installations, each conceived as a different access point to the richness of Shakespeare's works. Poetry, dialogue, monologue, and song become tools to convey the complexity of the playwright's production in a multidisciplinary environment where his words resonate again in contemporary forms. Welcoming the public is The Boat of Prospero, a large installation inspired by the protagonist of The Tempest, symbolically composed of all of Shakespeare's works. As visitors pass through it, they are immersed in a soundscape constructed from poetic verses read in numerous languages, testifying to the universal dimension of his literary legacy.

The Shakespeare Laboratory guides visitors on a journey through documents, images, digital content, and suggestions dedicated to the playwright's biography, historical context, and analysis of his works. With Soliloquy, the exhibition explores the most intimate dimension of Shakespearean theater through Hamlet's famous monologue, "To be or not to be," transformed into a multisensory environment that invites the public to confront the great questions of existence. With The Fantastic, the pathway opens to a space where video mapping and songs from The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Hamlet bring to life an immersive environment where the visible and the invisible meet, and words transform into visual and musical experiences. Radio Shakespeare invites the public to listen to some of the most famous monologues and dialogues from Shakespeare's theater. With Through the Words, pages, letters, and verses dissolve into light and traverse the walls of the castle, transforming the book into an experience that narrates how Shakespeare's work continues to live through reading, voice, and the transmission of memory.

"More than telling Shakespeare's story, we have sought," explain curators Bottazzi and Rigon, "to convey his extraordinary ability to generate, even today, new questions, new interpretations, and new forms of imagination. The installations place theater, visual arts, research, and sound design in dialogue, transforming the undergrounds of the Carlo V Castle into a place where words, images, and voices continue to resonate." The goal of the project is to transform the visit into an emotional and exciting experience, but also educational and formative, where scientific rigor and artistic creativity meet.

During the exhibition period, it will also host workshops, meetings with artists and scholars, activities dedicated to schools, performances, and an exhibition on the making of the project, transforming the Carlo V Castle into a permanent laboratory of research and cultural creation. "With The Matter of Dreams," declares Anita Guarnieri, director of the Svevo Castle in Bari - Regional Directorate of National Museums of Puglia, "we continue our commitment to promoting projects that combine scientific research, the enhancement of heritage, and contemporary languages. The exhibition was inaugurated on Friday, July 17, and will remain open to the public until January 10, 2027."
Web: www.ilcastellodilecce.it/