For that matter, he could not see well what he did not yet know, for to see a thing one must know approximately what it is.
C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
Prima Vista, Silvia Giordani’s solo exhibition at Andrea Festa, brings together a body of work centered on the moment of encountering the unfamiliar. Drawing from a passage in C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet, the exhibition reflects on the tension between seeing and knowing—the idea that perception is filtered through expectation, memory, and language. What do we truly see when we do not yet know what something is?
Giordani’s paintings, composed primarily in oil and acrylic, are dreamlike yet precise. They depict vast, imaginary terrains that resist clear definition. Lacking any human presence, the landscapes appear suspended in time, defined by otherworldly hues and fluid forms. Bright chromatic openings, recurring in many compositions, function as conceptual “gateways”—portals to unseen or layered realities.
Rather than providing definitive interpretations, Giordani encourages introspection. The viewer becomes a traveler at the edge of comprehension, where nature’s shapes and colors hover just beyond clarity. Through this threshold between worlds—internal and external, real and imagined—the artist proposes a vision of nature as a space of both discovery and disorientation. In this liminal visual field, perception itself becomes the central subject.
