Quanto sarà mai alto il sole? opens at Galleria Studio Cenacchi in Bologna on Thursday 11 September 2025 at 6.30 pm. The exhibition presents a recent series of works by Norwegian artist Vibecke Hetland, inspired by Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Curated by Greta Martina and Giulia Pedersini, the show explores the intrinsic connection between music and painting in Hetland’s practice.

The curators write:

“The works in the exhibition were created by Hetland between 2023 and 2025. They emerge from an encounter between the evocative power of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and an artistic practice in which material and colour become instruments of storytelling.

Drawing on the celebrated opera, Hetland translates the fairy tale into images. She works with acrylic paint and a variety of materials, including canvas and fabric, which become active elements within each composition.

Their texture and history not only enrich the painted surface but give the works a pronounced tactile and three-dimensional quality. Characters from the story — among them Papageno, the wandering bird-catcher covered in feathers; the Queen of the Night accompanied by a small monkey; and the Queen’s Three Ladies — seem to emerge from the canvases. Suspended between the magic of the narrative and the physical presence of the materials, they create a visual and sensory bridge between the imaginary world of the opera and the viewer’s own reality, drawing us into its mystical, dreamlike realm.

Each character is given a space of their own, a distinct representation through which the artist’s voice shifts in response to the forms she depicts. Colour moves from celestial blues to assertive magenta reds, from vibrant ochres to vivid greens.

Colour is indeed central to the series. Strong, sharply defined contrasts give the works an immediate visual force. Bold fields of colour and unexpected combinations heighten the expressive quality of the figures while creating a dramatic tension throughout the series that echoes the emotional nuances of Mozart’s music. Painting becomes theatre, and every canvas a stage.”

Two events during the exhibition will further explore the relationship between Hetland’s work and The Magic Flute.

On 23 September, Giacomo Fornari will bring Hetland’s art into dialogue with Mozart, exploring themes and curiosities surrounding the composer’s opera.

The second event, Flauti Magici e Flauti Incantati, takes place on 2 October. Flautist Martina Brigadoi will perform a selection of historical music from the opera, offering an opportunity to experience Mozart’s music alongside Hetland’s works.

Vibecke Hetland

Vibecke Hetland (b. 1959, Bergen, Norway) is a Norwegian artist whose practice explores acrylic and oil painting on canvas, often incorporating fabrics and other materials. Her approach is deeply tactile, with repeated layers of colour building surfaces that acquire an almost sculptural presence.

During the 1980s, she studied and worked as an assistant to her father, the artist Audun Hetland, at his studio in Bryggen, Bergen, where she trained for several years. She later established her own studio in Bryggen and has spent the past fifteen years living 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, Hetland created the Sunniva Award for the Bergen Chamber of Commerce, an award celebrating women entrepreneurs.

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

GALLERIA STUDIO CENACCHI
Via Santo Stefano 63
40125 Bologna