Angels. Fifty Years of Stories of Pastificio Cerere is a story in images spanning half a century of cultural history, designed to paint a portrait of the former pasta factory and reconstruct the creative ferment that has characterised it since the 1970s.

The title of the exhibition, Angels, is inspired by the famous photographic series of ‘angels’ (From Angel series, 1977; From a series on Angels, 1977; Angels, 1977-1978) that artist Francesca Woodman (Denver, 1958 – New York, 1981) developed between May 1977 and August 1978 in the spaces of the former pasta factory. In some of these shots, the artist portrays herself wearing only a white cotton petticoat, while large sheets of paper in the background evoke the image of white angel wings. Having arrived in Rome thanks to a study programme promoted by the Rhode Island School of Design, Woodman landed at Pastificio Cerere and captured its charm, as dictated by the large architectural volumes and walls marked by time.

“This is almost a visual transposition of the poem ‘The Necessary Angel’ by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955),” explains Marcello Smarrelli, “in which the famous American writer describes the angel of reality that shows the way to the world. It is necessary because the world only lives again when seen through the len of poetry and art. By translation, artists are seen as angelic figures, marking the path of humanity and harbouring the extraordinary possibility of flight, but also the tragic and ruinous one of the fall.”
The exhibition presents a narrative of the artists, intellectuals, gallery owners, curators and
figures linked to Pastificio Cerere over time, some for short periods of time, others for longer.