Transposable aphorisms from Pitigrilli to Marty Hines

During a recent interview held in Italy during the event La Repubblica delle Idee, Dan Brown paraphrased a well-known quote by Alfred Hitchcock. The next day, the newspaper Repubblica cited the aphori…

27 june 2013

Kierkegaard and the dual nature of anxiety

“La fuga e il silenzio” (“The escape and the silence”), a solo exhibition of Miro Gianola, will be inaugurated in exactly one month. The exhibition catalog will offer this brie…

16 june 2013

We were used to cut along the edges

Magicians are not the only ones cutting women. Advertisers do it in a more subtle way, persuading them to do it by themselves.

14 june 2013

Eco, Bartezzaghi and the irony of adverbs

Bilocation? Today it is possible. On the evening of June 8th I was in the Teatro Verdi in Florence, to see “Ferite a morte” by Serena Dandini, and at the same time in the Palazzo Vecchio,…

11 june 2013

Serena Dandini’s two creative wavelengths

I was moved to tears and laughed at the same time. Then I speculated about the trick. How did Serena Dandini produce in me – and in the other 1,500 spectators – such conflicting emotions?

10 june 2013

Fellini, Sorrentino and magic as a metaphor

Exploring Italian decadence through magic. We can do it thanks to two movies released half a century away.

9 june 2013

The “ballerina ballot”: the trick revealed by Roberto Saviano

How do criminal organizations monitor the election results? With a magician’s trick. It is one of the revelations made by Roberto Saviano at “La Repubblica delle idee” event. The method has a specific…

8 june 2013

Orhan Pamuk and the stories shaping reality

During the Presentation Speech for the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded to Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish writer was praised for his ability to recreate – in his novels – “credible&…

7 june 2013

I sawed her in half for love

Today La Repubblica delle Idee event has hosted the presentation of the book by Michela Murgia and Loredana Lipperini L’ho uccisa perché l’amavo (“I have killed her for love”), edited by Laterza (Rome…

6 june 2013

Dan Brown’s re-enchanted world

When asked why there is no sex in his novels, Dan Brown replies that it would be a dirty trick to capture readers: good novels should be emptied of all that is redundant and gratuitous. In order to st…

5 june 2013

A magician at “La Repubblica delle Idee” in Florence

Today, the illusionist is an old-fashioned figure. With his balloon sculptures, gaudy handkerchiefs and doves, his aesthetic evokes the pastimes of childhood and village feasts. David Metcalfe frankly…

3 june 2013

Women in half

My documentary about femicide and magic.

1 june 2013

On Dante’s tomb

Dan Brown’s novel Inferno has been released on May 14th.