"The Art of Seeing – States of Astronomy” showcases 65 Maximiliana or the Illegal Practice of Astronomy, a 1964 work by Georgian artist, poet, and editor Ilia Zdanevich (1894-1975) and Max Ernst (1891-1976), along with its related archives. This book is dedicated to Wilhelm Ernst Tempel(1821-1889), a German astronomer and lithographer who lived and worked in France, in Marseille and Italy, notably in Venice where he observed comets from the escalier Lombard, the winding staircase of the Palace Contarini del Bovolo. Recognized for his “sharp eyes”, Tempel advocated for an unconventional and sensual astronomy that does not rely heavily on instruments.

The story of this book can be traced back to Tbilisi, where Zdanevich created a publishing house, named “41 degrees” that promoted a futurist poetic language known as “ZAUM”, a sort of language of the stars. He adopted the name Iliazd soon after arriving in Paris in 1921 and brought out several major books, including Maximiliana, a landmark project that spans four countries and three languages, merging poetry and astronomy to highlight the experience of exiles in both physical and metaphysical senses. The exhibition, held at Palazzo Palumbo Fossati, features Maximilianaalong with rarely seen materials from Iliazd’s archive that show the importance of stellar patterns and comet-like shapes within the work of Iliazd as well as his journey from Marseille to Florence, as well as Venice in his persistent efforts to recover Tempel’s biography.

Curators Julia Marchand (France) and David Koroshinadze (Georgia) have crafted an original concept for a living archive, inviting the audience to engage with the fascinating story of how the friends conveyed Tempel’s biography through typography and painting that brought the language of the cosmos to life.