Tommaso Fiscaletti's exhibition in Cape Town

This morning, the exhibition The Appearance (Hemelliggaam or the Attempt to Be Here Now) by Tommaso Fiscaletti and Nic Grobler opened as part of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, organized with the support of the Italian Consulate in Cape Town and under the patronage of the Italian Cultural Institute in Pretoria. The opening was attended by Italian Ambassador to South Africa Alberto Vecchi and Consul in Cape Town Giulio Mignacca.

Fiscaletti, originally from Pesaro, Italy, is a photographer and visual artist who has been based in Cape Town for years, exhibiting and publishing in both Italy and South Africa. Since 2018, he has collaborated with South African artist Nic Grobler to create Hemelliggaam, a visual archive comprising photographs, videos, and installations.

The Appearance presents itself as a visual investigation of the ancestral relationship between humans, the environment, and astronomy. Rooted in 20th-century South African science fiction, the project explores the intersections between astronomical progress and everyday reality.

The works that make up Hemelliggaam—presented here under the title The Appearance—can be described as "encounters." The images depict places where nature, humans, artifacts, and technology take on meanings beyond their immediate appearance, converging through a mysterious, ancestral act of magic with the unsettling silence of the sky, the night, and the vast landscapes of South Africa’s far southeast.

Fiscaletti and Grobler act as conscious witnesses of these encounters, collecting evidence, seeking new ones, and endlessly scanning the skies—toward the stars and beyond—as if searching for gateways to other universes.

The exhibition is the result of years of collaboration between the Italian Consulate, the Italian Cultural Institute, and the Investec Cape Town Art Fair—the most important contemporary art fair on the African continent, known for launching artists onto the international stage.

The Appearance will be on view at the Central Methodist Mission in Cape Town from February 16 to March 4, 2024.