In a Rome exhibition, an artist draws his own atlas: the body becomes world

Luca di Luzio's exhibition "Atlas ego imago mundi" at Palazzo Mattei in Rome, hosted by the Italian Geographical Society, presents a personal geography where the artist's body becomes landscape and world. Curated by Anna Cestelli Guidi, the show features around 40 maps, three large canvases, and a handmade book created between 2015 and 2023. Di Luzio uses his body as a palette, pressing skin directly onto paper or canvas to generate imaginary territories that merge sensory experience with artistic expression, referencing Merleau-Ponty's philosophy and Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

This exhibition matters because it reimagines the Renaissance concept of man as the measure of all things through a contemporary, embodied artistic practice. By placing the body at the center of map-making, Di Luzio challenges objective cartography and scientific rigor, offering instead a subjective atlas that blurs the boundaries between self and world. The choice of venue—the Italian Geographical Society—underscores the dialogue between art and geography, making the show a significant contribution to ongoing conversations about corporeality, perception, and the representation of space in contemporary art.