Paolo Poli. Photographs from the archives of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Theatre Institute in Venice

An exhibition dedicated to Paolo Poli, a unique figure in 20th-century Italian theatre, opens, entitled Paolo Poli. Photographs from the archives of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Theatre Institute in Venice. The exhibition pays tribute to his flair, irony and creative freedom that has been able to cross genres, eras and taboos.

The exhibition, organised in collaboration with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Institute of Theatre and Opera in Venice, is part of the programme of the ninth edition of BE POPULAR, the Festival of Popular Theatre staged in Vicenza from 20 to 31 August.
Hosted in the gallery of Palazzo Thiene, the exhibition highlights – through photographs from the Institute archive – one of the freest and most creative figures of 20th-century Italian theatre.

Playbills, black and white and colour photographs retrace the career of an artist who made the stage the place for subversive elegance, refined and irreverent comedy and who knew how to be both popular and cultured, unsettling and profound.

Paolo Poli (Florence, 23 May 1929 – Rome, 25 March 2016) is an actor, singer, director and author. Gifted with a very personal stylistic signature, he is the representative of a theatre that is at once biting and light, refined and desecrating, which takes its cues from operetta, revue, vaudeville, avanspettacolo and variety, but which is, however, difficult to frame in definitions of genre and content.

Opening hours and admission

Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The exhibition is free of charge.