In choosing the theme for “Liberated Dreams”, I was particularly stimulated by the experience of an international artist residency that I recently attended as curator, and which has given me the chance to carefully observe artists at work, concentrating on their white canvases, aiming to let their own interior imaginary start flowing, quickly or slowly, into works where the visible and the invisible, by powerfully interacting, originate strong vibrations.

As a curator who is particularly fond of contemporary art, I strongly believe that the emotional and intuitive aspect of a work of art – but also the way we approach it – has an extraordinary power and always proves the first protagonist of today’s art, in which free imagination plays a key role. It is precisely that – imagination – the source from which all artists draw when they set off for their fascinating journeys that – stimulated by dreams, fantasies, vague memories but also by reality as it is perceived – they then transfer through creative instinct into matter.

This exhibition introduced to the public a group of innovative – and brave, I think – artists, who love to dream and create in perfect freedom of thought and who, in their interpretations of the “Liberated Dreams” theme, reveal their strength, fantasy and talent, developing them into a wide range of shades and expressions. The result was a multicoloured and harmonic path in which it was not possible to escape the exciting sensations generated by the pureness and the energy springing from the chromatic vibrations, the powerful pictorial marks, the formal compositions and the variety of textures.

In front of the works on exhibition – paintings, sculptures, analogue and digital photographs – we got inebriated by the lively colours and joyful formal liberties, as well as by the poetic and suggestive sights of the Imbarcadero Rooms of the Este Castle. Artists, through their own expressive language, could give life to the magic game of the forces that live and act in their works and out of them, involving space, images, colours and instincts.

And once again Ferrara was proud to host a quality international art exhibition that inevitably fascinated and took us all on a journey, teaching us the meaning of new emotions.