The exhibition Quanto sarà mai alto il sole?, opening on Thursday 11 September at 6.30 pm, presents a recent series of works by the Norwegian artist Vibecke Hetland, inspired by Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Curated by Greta Martina and Giulia Pedersini, the exhibition reveals the intrinsic connection between music and painting in the artist’s practice.

As the curators write:

The works on view, created between 2023 and 2025, emerge from the encounter between the evocative power of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and an artistic research that adopts material and colour as its primary narrative tools.

Drawing inspiration from the celebrated opera, the artist transforms the tale into image, working with acrylic paint and heterogeneous materials—including canvas and textiles—which become living elements within the composition.

These materials, with their own texture and history, not only enrich the pictorial surface but also lend the works a pronounced sense of tactility and three-dimensionality. The characters of the opera—including Papageno, the wandering bird-catcher covered in feathers, the Queen of the Night accompanied by a small monkey, and the Three Ladies—appear to emerge from the canvas, suspended between the magic of the narrative and the physical presence of matter. In doing so, they create a visual and sensory bridge between the fantastical world of opera and the viewer’s reality, inviting participation in a mystical, dreamlike dimension.

Each character is given a dedicated space, a representation through which the artist’s voice adapts to the forms of her subjects, unfolding through colour combinations that range from cerulean tones to deep magenta reds, from vibrant ochres to vivid greens.

Colour plays a central role: the works are distinguished by bold, high-contrast palettes capable of generating immediate visual impact. Bright fields and daring combinations enhance the expressiveness of the figures, while infusing the entire body of work with a dramatic tension that echoes the emotional nuances of Mozart’s music. Painting becomes theatre, and each canvas a stage.

The exhibition programme is enriched by two events exploring the relationship between the works and the influence of The Magic Flute. On 23 September, Giacomo Fornari will place Hetland’s work in dialogue with Mozart, addressing themes and insights related to the opera. The second event, titled Flauti Magici e Flauti Incantati, scheduled for 2 October, will feature flautist Martina Brigadoi performing selected pieces from the opera, offering a collective listening experience of Mozart’s melodies.

VIBECKE HETLAND

Vibecke Hetland (b. 1959, Bergen, Norway) is a Norwegian artist whose practice explores acrylic and oil on canvas, often incorporating textiles and other materials. Her approach is deeply tactile, favouring a repeated layering of colour that acquires an almost sculptural dimension.

In the 1980s, she was both a student and assistant to her father, the artist Audun Hetland, in his studio at Bryggen, Bergen, where she trained for several years. She later established her own studio in Bryggen and, over the past fifteen years, has lived in Hardanger, Norway.

Hetland’s work has been exhibited in Norway at Titt Inn, the Pentagon Room at the Reksten Collection, Galleri M, Korskirken and Halsnøy Kloster, as well as internationally in Denmark, Sweden, Houston and New York. She has also collaborated with the Norwegian Embassy in Tunisia. From 2019 to 2023, she created the Sunniva Award for the Bergen Chamber of Commerce, a prize dedicated to women entrepreneurs.

Vibecke Hetland
Quanto sarà mai alto il sole?
11 September > 8 October 2025

GALLERIA STUDIO CENACCHI
Via Santo Stefano 63
40125 Bologna