Costellazioni is the first personal exhibit in Italy dedicated to the Belgian artist Dominique Goblet, master and pioneer of the experimental comics genre, to whom the festival dedicates its special project. 

The exhibition was born from the meeting between Goblet and the unique history of the ex-church of San Mattia: built by the nuns of San Mattia, then deconsecrated and used as a warehouse, and lastly restored and given back to the city, the church strongly resonates with the works by the author. Her gaze on the vulnerability and the resilience of the female body and her research on identity weave themselves with the layers of time and the eccentric female presences that inhabited the church in days long past. 

Centerpiece of the showcase is an installation composed of the original panels from the first two chapters of an ongoing trilogy that explores the relationship between the female body and the landscape: Ostende (published in 2021 by Frémok), a tale of rebirth in which mature bodies expose themselves in a dialogue with the shores of the Northern Sea, and the cycle Les forêts sombres - unpublished as of yet and showcased in a first-ever exclusive preview at the festival - in which women, once again depicted in their nudity, walk both physically and symbolically through a forest, under a play of light and darkness, of white and black and color. Goblet ponders upon the ideas of beauty and of canon, exploring the relationship between gaze and power, between nudity and self-affirmation, between environment and body, displaying subjects thick with layers of stereotypes and precise iconographical models. 

Her other works branch off from this core - opening the main theme of this edition of the A occhi aperti festival - like stars in a constellation: from her debut with her autobiographical comics of the late nineties and her collaboration with fellow artists and illustrators, until her more personal researches, sketches and study carnets, allowing for a complete and complex portrait of the author’s work, one that has left a mark on the history of the comics genre during the last thirty years. 

On this special occasion, Sigaretten will publish the Volume Paesaggi di Carne (Flesh Landscapes), the first Italian book by Dominique Goblet, containing several works and an interview curated by Hamelin. 

Costellazioni is part of a special project dedicated to Dominique Goblet, complete of events, meetups and movie screenings.