Samantha Casella directs “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” a play by William Blake translated by Giuseppe Conte and enhanced with illustrations by Mimmo Paladino in a book produced by Lamberto Fabbri. She composed the soundtrack for the opera, written by Pino Jodice.
William Blake’s enchantment accompanies a symbolic journey. Innocence is never pure: it corrupts, it wears away like a child’s feet, worn out by walking through time. Flowers turn into crosses, milk challenges blood-stained water. A reel of film rewinds, as if rewriting memory. Dolls and puppets, silent spectators, seem more alive than the hill with the Hollywood sign. It’s a dream that shatters, a visual ritual where experience doesn’t erase innocence: it transforms it.
Part of the video art was filmed at the Renzo Savini House Museum in Bologna.
Films were also shot in the United States, Turkey, and France.
The video was presented at Lerici Castle during an exhibition featuring poet Giuseppe Conte and artist Mimmo Paladino.