Pasolini: Politics & Poetry is a project that combines cinema, music, theater, visual arts and academic reflection to rethink the figure and legacy of one of the most visionary and controversial intellectuals of the twentieth century.
Curated by professor and author Ara H. Merjian (NYU) and creative producer Mila Tenaglia, the exhibition aims to question the present through Pasolini, transforming his voice — poetic and political at the same time — into a living interlocutor for the contradictions of our time. “It is not a matter of commemorating, but of reactivating the radical force of his vision,” the curators explain.
The program goes well beyond the simple retrospective cinema. In addition to film screenings, from Cinetecas, the Criterion Collection and the Light Archives, they find space installations, performances and scenic readings inspired by his work and legacy. The goal is to show a “live” Pasolini, able to speak to the aesthetic, political and moral crises of the present, and to inspire new forms of thought and art.
Among the prominent guests, director and writer Bruce LaBruce, who will discuss the influence of Pauline on contemporary aesthetics after the projection of Theorem (1968), and actor and director Marco Calvani, who will stage A Marxist in New York, a scenic reading inspired by the famous Pasolini interview with Oriana Fallaci.
The exhibition opens on 3 November with Studies on Bach’s style, a concert-performance that interweaves Pasolini’s reflections on music with the performances of guitarist Luigi Attademo and actress Laura Croce. During the two weeks there will be projections of key films such as La Ricotta and La rage (1963), the rare film I turcs tal Friúl — the only theatrical work written in Friuli — and the documentary Pasolini’s Last Words (2012) by the director Cathy Lee Crane, who will personally introduce the screening.
To close the exhibition, on November 11, a historical event: the first North American version of the original color version of The Gospel according to Matthew (1964), restored by Fondazione Arco. The introduction will be entrusted to Stefano Albertini and Antonio Monda. At the same time, in the spaces of the Galleria della Casa Italiana, the Pasolini exhibition will be open: Durations, a video-installation by artists Cathy Lee Crane and John Di Stefano, dedicated to Pasolini’s relationship with time and visual thinking.
SALIENT POINTS OF PROGRAMME
Exhibition – Pasolini: DurationsExposition: 3–14 November 2025 | Lun–Ven, 10:00–18:00 | Galleria, Casa Italiana Artists and filmmakers Cathy Lee Crane and John Di Stefano present a video meditation on the poetic, time and visual thinking of Pasolini.
Performance – Studies on Bach’s style Monday, November 3, at 18:30 | AuditoriumThe guitarist Luigi Attademo and actress Laura Croce intertwine Pasolini’s reflections on Bach with live execution, revealing the spiritual and dramatic resonances that shaped his thought. (In Italian with English survivors. )
Double Projection – La ricotta (1963) & La rage (1963)Wednesday November 5, 18:30 | AuditoriumDue of Pasolini’s most penetrating film essays on morality, faith and modernity. (In Italian with English subtitles. )
First in the United States – I turcs tal Friúl (1996)Thursday 6 November, at 18:30 | AuditoriumRara projection of the only theatrical work of Pasolini in Friulian language, filmed during the Venetian production of 1995 directed by Elio De Capitani. (In French with Italian and English titles. )
Projection and Conversation – Theorem (1968)Friday, November 7th, at 18:30 | AuditoriumA follow, a conversation with director Bruce LaBruce on the influence of Pasolini on aesthetic queer and radical cinema. (In Italian with English subtitles. )
Stage reading – At Marxist in New YorkSaturday 8 November, at 17:00 | AuditoriumScritto, directed and interpreted by Marco Calvani, this work reimagines the dialogue of Pasolini with America through his historical interview with Oriana Fallaci. (English and Italian. )
Projection – Pasolini’s Last Words (2012)Monday, November 10th, 18:00 | AuditoriumThe director Cathy Lee Crane introduces his film-saggio elegiaco that traces the last year of Pasolini’s life, followed by a poetic reading by Stacy Szymaszek, author of The Pasolini Book (2022). (English. )
Restored Projection – The Gospel according to Matthew (1964)Tuesday 11 November, 18:30 | AuditoriumThe Gospel according to Matthew of Pasolini will be presented in the original color version, restored by the Arco Foundation and shown in the first North American. Introduction by Stefano Albertini and Antonio Monda. (In Italian with English subtitles. )
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The Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, part of New York University, was founded in 1990 with the aim of promoting Italian culture and promoting dialogue between Italy and the United States. It offers a rich program of free public events that involve internationally renowned scholars, artists and cultural figures.
Casa Italiana is a lively centre of language, literature, cinema, music, theatre, visual arts, politics and economics. The artist remains a figure of contradiction — revered and criticized, prophetic and vulnerable — but this anniversary invites something more than the mere commemoration. Pasolini: Politics and Poetry instead aims to reactivate the radical force of his vision, questioning his literary and film production along with political, moral and linguistic provocations that continue to shape the global cultural discourse.
Article Pasolini: Politics & Poetry. New York celebrates the artist 50 years after his death proviene da IlNewyorkese.