March 11 – July 12, 2026
LUNARIA | Luca Missoni
The Colors of the Moon
The photographic alchemy of Luca Missoni, the artist who, with scientific method and poetic language, preserves the image of the Moon on Earth.
The opening of a new space dedicated to temporary exhibitions within the Casa Museo Zani park coincides with the inauguration of a new exhibition project, a truly site-specific installation dedicated to the Moon. The new exhibition hall, located outside the Casa Museo Zani’s permanent exhibition, offers the opportunity to experiment with new exhibition concepts, not only closely linked to Baroque culture—the true stylistic focus of the museum’s rich permanent collection—but also in line with more contemporary, transversal trends. LUNARIA is a project that unites beauty, awe, and all the mystery of the Moon, Earth’s satellite that has always been a source of inspiration for humanity. Exactly sixty years ago, on February 3, 1966, the USSR accomplished the first soft landing on the Moon, using the automatic probe Luna 9, sending the first images from the lunar surface back to Earth. From that moment, the American Surveyor program launched an extraordinary search for landing sites, paving the way for the first manned moon landing on July 20, 1969, with the Apollo 11 mission. Six decades later, under the aegis of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the crescent moon, guardian of the moon’s image on Earth and protector of explorers, the European Space Agency’s ARTEMIS II mission will return humans to lunar orbit in February 2026, prior to a second moon landing scheduled for 2027.
The exhibition conceived for Casa Museo Zani is therefore a true tribute to the moon, celebrated and transformed into a work of art by photographer and designer Luca Missoni. After years dedicated to creating fabrics, 1997 saw Luca Missoni fully merge his professional life with his passion for astronomy, a passion he had cultivated since the 1960s. He created a Missoni Men’s Collection inspired by Jupiter, Saturn, and the galaxies, transforming celestial phenomena into jacquard weaves. That same year, he met astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Aldrin wore one of his sweaters for a famous interview in the American magazine Forbes.
Also in 1997, observing the Hale-Bopp comet led Missoni to spend a night on a glacier at 3,000 meters, discovering that stars aren’t just white dots, but colored gems: blue, orange, pink. Thus was born the idea of bringing that “wall of stars” indoors: the sky transformed into a domestic window.
The exhibition encompasses Missoni’s entire creative journey, as he repeatedly pursued a work of observation, discovery, and awareness of the Moon’s many faces. This work is the perfect synthesis of the scientist (who observes the stars), the pilot (who gazes at space from above; Missoni, in fact, obtained his pilot’s license in 1976), and the artist (who manipulates color) to convey the emotion of observing the Moon up close.
Upon entering the exhibition, it’s impossible not to be mesmerized by the explosion of colors on the moon, created by a truly gentle obsession: that of the sky and the tools needed to capture its light and colors. Color, shape, and material are none other than the elements the artist has always experimented with in the creation of his textile creations.
A process that reflects his training under his father, Ottavio Missoni: just as the “master” created material harmonies by combining different yarns, the artist “weaves” moonlight using photographic filters as spools of color, transforming a celestial body into a purely decorative and abstract material emotion.
Thus, a fundamental shift occurs: from scientific documentation to poetic vision. The artist returns to photographing the Moon, no longer to study its craters, but to explore its color. This emotion ignites a methodical curiosity, a question worthy of both an engineer and a painter: “How many colors can be generated from the same, single negative?”
In the darkroom, the artist thus questions the “Moon Gray.” Through a skillful use of enlarger filters, he discovers that the sunlight reflected by lunar ash actually contains every possible hue. Thus began a systematic production of “contact sheets”: long strips of photographic paper emerging from the developer, revealing a stunning chromatic sequence.
The next phase of Missoni’s work was the Metamorphosis of Color, with the creation of a veritable “Moon Color Library,” from which the artist derived the idea for a calendar in which twelve phases representing a lunar cycle are associated with twelve different colors, one for each month.
The works on display tell not only the story of a photographer and designer, but also that of a man who has spent his life trying to bridge the gap between Earth and the cosmos, moving from pure scientific observation to the creation of a visual language where color becomes the tool for exploring “other worlds.”
Luca Missoni’s Moons are conceived precisely as a space exploration by a scientist who, through a telescope, patiently captures the image of the Moon in all its facets. It is a dynamic process that, through photography, transports the Moon to Earth, inside his artistic laboratory, where he transforms the Moon into a sort of Goddess, endowed with a soul of color and a molded body that, through specially selected materials, enhances its luminosity.
LUNARIA offers the opportunity to immerse oneself among dozens of Moons suspended in the darkness of cosmic space, like a mystical and extemporaneous experience that can only be enjoyed by those who approach art and science in a contemplative way.
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SIDE EVENTS
Lunaria in Music
Auditorium Casa Museo Zani
March 11, 2026, 8:00 PM
The inauguration of the exhibition project will be accompanied by an evening event in which the Moon becomes the leitmotif of musical pieces selected by soprano Elisa Balbo and pianist Michele D’Elia.
A journey between darkness and light, past and present, with arias and melodies composed by Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Verdi, Camille Saint-Säens, Clara Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn.
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Lectures
Auditorium Casa Museo Zani
March-April 2026
– March 21, 2026, The Moon: From the Apollo Mission to Artemis/Stefano Piccin
– March 28, 2026, The Moon in Cinema/Matteo Asti
– April 11, 2026, Lunaria. Luca Missoni and the Moon/Luca Missoni and Maurizio Bortolotti
– April 18, 2026, The Moon in Art/Ilaria Bignotti
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Educational Activity
From the House Museum to the Sky
Look at that moon!
On the occasion of the Lunaria exhibition, Luca Missoni brings his photographs of the moon to the Paolo and Carolina Zani Foundation, always photographed with the same instrument and from the same position. Images reworked through color show a moon that is always the same, yet different each time. The workshop draws inspiration from this aspect: participants will create their own book of the moon, with movable elements, experimenting with different techniques and colors, and achieving, like Missoni, a moon that is always the same, yet always different.
For whom
Kindergarten, Elementary school, Middle school, and High school
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Evening Guided Tours
Especially in the evening… Lunaria Special
June 18, July 2, and 9, 8:00 PM
Special opening of the exhibition in the evening with a special guided tour.
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UNTIL APRIL 6, 2026
Tiepolo and Pellegrini | Light in 18th-Century Venetian Painting
These are the last few weeks to admire the works of two of the most important 18th-century Venetian painters, who made light their hallmark, bringing their genius to life in the Baroque courts of Europe!
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For information and reservations: 0302520479 – info@fondazionezani.com