The secret of the face

The secret of the face. Riccardo Falcinelli Saturday 11 October | 8:30 pm | Piazza del Sole, Bellinzona Sconfinare Festival 2025

«Il buon Dio è nascosto nei dettagli», said Aby Warburg, the famous German art critic. And often, to really read a face, it is precisely in the details that we must immerse ourselves, especially when it comes to artificial or invented faces - those created by art, cinema, comics. Because what artists and designers have done throughout history is precisely to narrate using the power of detail: the glint in an eye, the texture of a complexion, the materiality of hair. But what is really the secret behind these works? And what, after all, is the secret of the face itself?

Starting from his recent book Visus. Storie del volto dall'antichità al selfie (Einaudi, 2024), Riccardo Falcinelli takes us on a journey through the history of the face, exploring how the representation of this universal symbol has changed over time, from the masterpieces of antiquity to contemporary images. A journey that interweaves art, culture and technology, and invites us to reflect on how the face, in its infinite forms, continues to narrate our identity.

Full: CHF 25 AVS / AI: CHF 20 Students, children 6-16 years: CHF 15 AG Culture holders and children up to 5 years: free of charge

Riccardo Falcinelli is a graphic designer and writer. For over twenty years, he has edited graphics for major Italian and foreign publishing houses, including Einaudi, Harper Collins, Laterza, Zanichelli, and Disney. He has been teaching ‘Psychology of Perception’ at Isia Roma Design since 2012. He has published several essays on the relationship between design and visual perception, including: Critica portatile al visual design (Einaudi, 2014); Cromorama (Einaudi, 2017), Figure (Einaudi, 2020) and Visus (Einaudi, 2024). His books are translated into English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.