#SERIALMANIA - Immaginari narrativi da Twin Peaks a Squid Game (#Serialmania. Narrative Imaginaries from Twin Peaks to Squid Game)

Staged on the Reception Level of the Mole Antonelliana, this is the Museum’s first exhibition project devoted to television series.
 

The Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin presents #SERIALMANIA. NARRATIVE WORLDS FROM TWIN PEAKS TO SQUID GAME, curated by Luca Beatrice and Luigi Mascheroni.

The exhibition, located on the Reception Level of the Mole Antonelliana, explores the close relationships, influences, connections, affinities and differences between cinema and television series from the 1990s to the present day. It highlights how cinema has undergone profound transformations over the years in response to a medium that is constantly expanding and evolving.

#SERIALMANIA is the first exhibition project in Italy devoted to television series and the new forms of viewing they have introduced alongside more traditional ones. In this context, time is extended, viewing habits change, and platforms and screens multiply. This epoch-defining transformation represents one of the most innovative developments in audiovisual entertainment and is closely connected to the social fabric of our time.
Television series have created a new aesthetic in constant dialogue with the visual arts, although in a sense they have always existed, dating back to the programmes first broadcast on television in the 1950s and 1960s.

The exhibition combines a chronological approach with a thematic one and presents a selection of twelve titles: Twin Peaks, Friends, Breaking Bad, House of Cards, ER, The Simpsons, Sex and the City, The Crown, Game of Thrones, Squid Game, Romanzo criminale and Mare fuori. Each represents a particular genre and was selected from countless possible titles for its ability to be interpreted and presented beyond the screen, becoming a three-dimensional object and inspiring new, sometimes unexpected, connections. Cinema and television series share the same genres, but serial storytelling should not be regarded simply as an extension of cinema. Rather, it makes a powerful and innovative contribution to keeping those genres alive.
 

Throughout the exhibition, amid shots and sequences, visitors will encounter numerous references to art. Gregory Crewdson’s photographs of the American suburbs appear almost to anticipate Twin Peaks; Mario Schifano becomes a kind of anti-hero in the 1970s Rome depicted in Romanzo criminale; and Alejandro Cartagena’s images from his Car Poolers series strongly recall the misadventures of Breaking Bad. There are also explicit references. In Squid Game, the directors and screenwriters drew on a work by Escher from the 1950s as a precise visual source through which to convey the anxiety of a dystopian future.

The exhibition includes the following accessibility resources: an orientation map, an introductory video in Italian Sign Language (LIS), and content available via QR codes and the website, including English translations of the texts, highly legible information sheets using an easy-reading typeface, and audio content in Italian and English.

The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue #Serialmania. Narrative Worlds from Twin Peaks to Squid Game, published by Silvana Editoriale. In addition to institutional forewords by Enzo Ghigo and Domenico De Gaetano, respectively President and Director of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, it includes essays by curators Luca Beatrice and Luigi Mascheroni, contributions by Giulio Base, Cristina Battocletti, Armando Fumagalli, Mariarosa Mancuso and Costanza Rizzacasa d’Orsogna, and information sheets on the television series featured in the exhibition.

Admission is included with the Museum ticket.