Valerio De Paolis | Lanterne magiche | Museo Carlo Bilotti
14 February – 6 September 2026
Museo Carlo Bilotti – Aranciera di Villa Borghese presents Lanterne magiche. Fotografie dalla collezione Valerio De Paolis, a photography exhibition drawn from one of Italy’s most significant private collections.
The exhibition takes its title from the magic lantern — the ancestor of cinema and projected image — to describe a collection that unfolds as a sequence of luminous visions. Works from the Valerio De Paolis collection trace the history of photography as an artistic medium across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from documentary and humanist traditions to conceptual and contemporary practices.
Set within the elegant rooms of the Aranciera di Villa Borghese, the works are shown in dialogue with the neoclassical architecture and the parkland setting — a contrast that underscores photography’s capacity to capture both the ephemeral and the monumental. The collection includes works by major international photographers whose images oscillate between reportage and artistic vision.
Lanterne magiche offers visitors a rare opportunity to encounter a private collection of depth and range in one of Rome’s most evocative museum spaces.