Edoardo Bennato, the celebrated singer-songwriter with rock music in his soul, has a degree in architecture and attended art school. In addition to music, he has also turned throughout his life to other art forms such as photography, videoclips and, above all, painting to express his creativity. He even created some of his paintings specifically for use as the covers for his albums La torre di Babele, Rinnegato and Io che non sono l’Imperatore.

In the early ‘noughties he began to paint a series of pictures entitled In cammino… (On the road…), some of which are now on display in this one-man show at the Palazzo Esposizioni Roma. On the road… is a comprehensive painting project presenting an in-depth visual and poetic exploration in dialogue with his musical output. His paintings set out to provoke a debate by using images urging the public to reflect on the rapid changes that are such a feature of our times, and on the urgency of adapting to a constantly evolving reality. They are paintings in which Bennato depicts immigrant vendors walking on our beaches (and often doing so with greater dignity and elegance than the more fortunate bathers themselves), they are paintings that capture the “constant march of the Human Family over the millennia”.

Palazzo Esposizioni Roma will also be hosting the artist’s most recent works, painted in late 2021 and early 2022, that are part of a cycle in which Bennato sought to depict the schizophrenia that is so often a feature of our “Human Family”: emblematic images of a planet in turmoil. “The first picture I painted shows two young boys looking bewildered and disorientated in a city in ruins,” he explained, adding: “When I painted that picture, I never thought I’d hear people talking about the threat of a world war ever again”.