The Archivio Carol Rama is opening its new operational and cultural space within a landmark complex of the Turin art scene, already home to the Fondazione Giorgio Griffa, the Archivio Marco Gastini, and the studios of Luigi Mainolfi, Elisa Sighicelli, Grazia Toderi, and Gilberto Zorio.

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Titled The Freedom of Pyromaniacs, the exhibition stems from a vision of Carol Rama as a seminal figure. Her legacy transcends time and space, acting as a vital, stimulating presence capable of transforming her monumental stature into fertile ground. Rama was not merely a protagonist of the twentieth century; her work continually engages with the contemporary era, fostering an open dialogue with the public and with younger generations of artists. Consequently, the Archivio Carol Rama assumes a role that goes beyond conservation, academic research, and safeguarding. It actively promotes and produces contemporary culture, continually shining a light on modern works that resonate with Rama's practice.

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The title was inspired by Guglielmo Castelli’s first encounter with Carol Rama. “I remember an interview with Carol Rama where she was asked what freedom meant to her,” Castelli recalls. “She replied that it is a relative concept, because for a pyromaniac, freedom means setting things on fire.”

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The exhibition features five works by Castelli—four of which have never been shown before—in conversation with five pieces by Rama, spanning various moments of her eclectic seventy-year career. A natural interplay of echoes emerges between their works, revealing aesthetic and thematic affinities and an intimate correspondence of sensibilities. This connection stems from an anatomical gaze upon a humanity made flesh—an exploration encompassing drawing, painting, and collage, rooted in childhood as a primordial dimension that lingers as an internal landscape into adulthood.

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Over the past year, the Archive has been conducting an ongoing series of interviews to document and explore the memory, legacy, and influence of Carol Rama—both within her historical context and in the present day. As part of this project, Castelli engaged in a long dialogue, delving into his personal experience and relationship with the artist.

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“Meeting her forced me to recalibrate,” Castelli explains. “Carol Rama always inscribed trauma into the body. And somehow, drawing from that vision and teaching, I stage trauma in my own work. She was always a settlement, an insinuation within the folds of something fundamentally tied to the human condition. I have always found her resilient ability to endure almost moving—her drive to continue, to negotiate, to barter, to push and stretch the human experience right to the breaking point.”

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The five works by Carol Rama on display—ranging from a striking 1939 watercolor to the figurative abundance of her 1980s paintings—offer a glimpse into the vast diversity of mediums, materials, and stylistic approaches that defined her practice. She anticipated many methods used by younger artists today, planting seeds that in Castelli’s work regenerate and bloom with personal, autonomous flair.

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“Carol was a braid, she was a pearl, but also bitumen; she was sanguine, but also velvet,” Castelli notes. “I believe her enormous talent and knowledge outgrew any single medium. This kaleidoscope, this prolific galaxy of output, her ability to sustain the same sheer power across different materials—all of this serves as a fundamental benchmark for new generations of artists.”

The resonance between the two artists is also embodied in a shared concept of the archive: the practice of collecting elements from the outside world, casting a wide, horizontal net without prejudice or hierarchy. For Carol Rama, this even extended to collecting the iconography of her own works, as seen in her surprising and intriguing “matchbox.”

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Their studios seem to approach the collection of existence as a sort of catalog. It is a memory gathered piece by piece, made up of small, seemingly negligible things—an intimate and precious Wunderkammer that functions like a personal diary. An available atlas of motifs.

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Castelli describes the archive as a primer, an alphabet book: “That gap, that seismography between high and low, when you feel an inexplicable visceral attraction—a literal rise in body temperature—toward something you encounter, and you just know it belongs to you, that it contains a piece of you.”

You can almost hear an echo of Carol’s voice in his description of this omnivorous curiosity—one that brings the body and spirit of the world into an artist's work, rendering it deeply personal yet profoundly universal.

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Text and images are the property of:
Archivio Carol Rama