GENOA
Palazzo Ducale
2015 – 2022 - 2025
/ Overview
Palazzo Ducale in Genoa is one of the places where Luca Agnani Studio developed three completely different video mapping projects: a pictorial narrative for “From the Impressionists to Picasso”, a scientific story for INFN dedicated to the Higgs boson, and a large floral show for Euroflora. The same facade became, at different times, an open-air museum, a particle accelerator and a digital garden: three independent visual languages designed to dialogue with the palace’s historic architecture and the public dimension of Piazza Matteotti.
/ Project Details
Name: Palazzo Ducale Genoa – Three Video Mapping Works
Projects: From the Impressionists to Picasso / INFN Higgs / Euroflora Flower Power Lights
Location: Palazzo Ducale, Genoa
Date: 2015–2016 / 2022 / 2025
Technique: Architectural Projection Mapping, 2D/3D Animation, Live Visual Show
Artist: Luca Agnani Studio
/ Challenge
The challenge was not to repeat a formula, but to show that the same architecture could generate three radically different experiences. Palazzo Ducale had to remain recognizable while changing identity according to each narrative. In 2015 the facade became a pictorial canvas linked to masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts; in 2022 it turned into a large science-communication device to tell the story of the Higgs boson; in 2025, with Euroflora, it opened into a botanical scenography synchronized with music and the square.
/ Visual Development
01 / From the Impressionists to Picasso
The first project brought the world of the exhibition “From the Impressionists to Picasso” onto the facade. Painting left the palace rooms and became urban animation: brushstrokes, colors and compositional details moved across the architecture, creating a monumental preview of the exhibition path.
02 / INFN – Higgs Boson
The second work changed register completely: for INFN, Palazzo Ducale became a particle accelerator. Trajectories, collisions, detectors, the Big Bang and the Higgs field transformed physics into a readable, spectacular and rigorous visual story.
03 / Euroflora – Flower Power Lights
The third project, for Euroflora 2025, opened the facade to a botanical and musical imaginary. Digital flowers, plant patterns, 3D/4D depth and synchronization with the DJ set transformed Piazza Matteotti into a nocturnal audiovisual garden.
/ Solution
Each work was built as a specific dramaturgy, not as a simple decorative projection. The palace is not covered: it is interpreted. The windows, frames, solids and voids of the facade become active parts of the story, able to support very different registers: modern art, science communication, urban event and musical show.
/ Technique
Site-specific mapping
The facade is digitally reconstructed and treated as a spatial score: every architectural element can become a frame, pictorial surface, scientific machine or plant organism.
Three visual identities
The work does not repeat a single style: it moves from pictorial matter to scientific graphics and then to an immersive floral imagery. Its recognizability comes from the ability to adapt the language to the content.
Urban impact
Each intervention is designed for collective viewing in the square: rhythm, readability, depth and sound synchronization create an immediate, monumental and accessible experience.
/ Context
The first project, “From the Impressionists to Picasso”, was presented from 11 December 2015 to 10 January 2016 as an audiovisual installation connected to the Detroit Institute of Arts exhibition, with music by Antonio Vivaldi and Giovanni Sollima. In 2022, with “Shapes and Colors of a Discovery”, Luca Agnani Studio created a video mapping work for INFN dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson, presented on the facade of Palazzo Ducale during the Science Festival. In 2025, for Euroflora, “Genoa Flower Power Lights” transformed Piazza Matteotti into a floral event of light, music and 3D/4D images synchronized with the DJ set.