By Gaia Giordani. Cover image: © Margaret Mitchem for I’M Firenze Digest.
The world of Tim Burton is a very creepy, imaginative place, packed with bright colours, less dark than the maestro is willing to admit. His travelling exhibition, ongoing since 2014, showcases the unique atmospheres of Burton’s works all over the world and in Turin for the winter.
Until April 7, 2024, you can visit it in an astonishing location that Burton himself defined as the perfect place to resonate with his own art: the Mole Antonelliana in Turin in the National Museum of Cinema, a 3-hour speed train ride from Florence.
Tim Burton in Turin, how is the exhibition
We were sitting in front of Tim Burton in October when he attended the inaugural ceremony inside the Mole. “I always felt reality in fantasy”, said the maestro, presenting over 500 selected masterpieces from his archive, exhibited up the spiral staircase at the Cinema Museum.
Amazing drawings that he sketched as a kid, paintings and Polaroids he took during his school years at CalArts, sculptures and prototypes for the legendary movies he directed and produced, from Beetlejuice (1988) to Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).
To find a little bit of fantasy in reality, as Tim Burton suggested, Turin is the perfect city break to discover suggestive atmospheres, not only inside the Mole but also around the town: the Italian capital of creepy and horror films is packed with gothic and art deco architectures.
Do you feel like you’re being watched? Don’t worry, it’s the gargoyles looking at you from ancient wooden gates of historical buildings. If you enjoy getting goosebumps, you can walk a few minutes up the hills that surround the historical centre to reach Villa Scott, the house of Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso.
In winter, you can also see Luci d’Artista lights (from October 27 to January 14 2023) with dozens of art pieces, transforming the city into an open-air museum during the holiday season.
While you’re at the Mole Antonelliana, don’t miss the opportunity to take the lift ride from the panoramic terrace and enjoy a bird’s eye view of the city.
A popular urban legend claims you won’t graduate if you climb up to the Mole, but experts say it only applies to local students. If you’re an Istituto Marangoni student from another place, you’ll be fine!
