Italy Through Our Eyes

An exhibition that reveals much more than what meets the eye

This project didn’t come to life all at once.
It grew over time—just like culture does, when it becomes a dialogue. A dialogue between different voices: between those born in Italy and those who are discovering it for the first time. Between personal stories and shared memories.

Italy Through Our Eyes took shape within the walls of the classroom, of course, but also far beyond: in the hallways, in workshops, during field trips, in moments of quiet observation and heated debate.
It’s the outcome of a journey where art became a tool—not just for expression, but for understanding, for connecting, for thinking. A way to bring different backgrounds together around a shared question:
What does our gaze reveal about the world around us?

The students didn’t explore Italian culture as spectators, but as active participants.
Those who had always lived it saw it through fresh eyes. Those who were new to it observed it from surprising angles. Each of them, in their own way, stepped into it with curiosity and care.
They experimented with techniques, searched for symbols, interpreted gestures and rituals, weaving together fragments of lived experience and imagination.

And from this multiplicity of perspectives came an unexpected strength: the ability to tell the story of Italy through diverse, often surprising, points of view.
For some, it was a journey into their roots. For others, a way to feel part of something new. For everyone, it was an invitation to pause, to notice, and to ask:

What does it mean to belong to a place? What symbols truly represent us? What role does memory play? And how can we tell all of this—without using words?

The project ran like a thread throughout the entire school year. It became an educational, creative, and identity-building journey, bringing together subjects, disciplines, and languages.
Each class developed its own path, independently and originally, choosing themes, techniques, and formats aligned with their reflections.
Some focused on landscapes, others on folk traditions, daily gestures, architecture, or collective rituals. Some drew, some painted, others took photographs or built structures. No piece was just a school assignment: each work was an act of understanding.

This was made possible thanks to the deep, intentional work of the teacher, Miss Denisse Schlack Silva.
Her role was never about giving answers, but about creating the conditions for questions to thrive. She designed frameworks, sparked connections, welcomed intuition, and challenged ready-made views. She made space for the unexpected, and transformed mistakes into learning moments.

The result is an exhibition that gathers a plurality of languages and viewpoints. A rich, layered, non-linear mosaic—just like culture itself.
The works on display are both individual and collaborative, because doing things together was just as essential as expressing oneself. In this process, learning also meant listening to others, sharing perspectives, and building meaning as a community.

Craftsmanship, Territory, Memory

Another key part of the project was the involvement of external partners who enriched the journey with their expertise, experience, and generosity.
Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua, on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, donated five original fabrics to the project—offering our students a direct connection to the heritage of Venetian textile tradition and craftsmanship. Their gift was more than symbolic: it allowed students to literally touch a piece of local material history.

In the same spirit, Grafiche Tintoretto documented the creative process through photography. Their lens captured not only the final outcomes, but also the in-between moments: hands stained with paint, sketchbooks full of ideas, faces lost in concentration. Because learning doesn’t only happen in the final result—it lives in the process.

Art as a Way to Understand the World

Italy Through Our Eyes is not just a school exhibition.
It’s a visual map of a year full of questions, discoveries, and choices.
It’s tangible proof that art can be a powerful tool for reading the world—and for telling others who we are, where we come from, and what connects us.

In a time when everything moves quickly, this exhibition invites us to slow down, to observe, to pay attention to the details.
To truly see.