CILA - Centre Interculturel Leila Alaoui

"To Art, Love and Friendship. The only three worth committing the beautiful gift of being in the world. the world." Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Maurizio Rigillo, founders of GALLERIA CONTINUA GALLERIA CONTINUA is delighted to present The Ability to Dream, a group exhibition in three chapters at its French spaces in Les Moulins and Paris, and at the Centre Interculturel Leila Alaoui (CILA) in Fontvieille in Provence, marking the inaugural exhibition of this new art centre. This new trilogy follows the eponymous exhibition presented at GALLERIA CONTINUA / San Gimignano in 2022. The Ability to Dream is the title of a documentary produced and directed by Sky Arte and TIWI, retracing thirty years history of GALLERIA CONTINUA, through the voices and memories of some of the of some of the protagonists of this incredible adventure. On this occasion, GALLERIA CONTINUA would like to thank the artists, craftspeople, curators, professionals, institutions, collectors and everyone else who has supported its project over the years, as well as the entire gallery team for its passionate work and unstinting commitment, and of course the the public who pass through the doors of its eight spaces around the world every day. With these three chapters from Les Moulins, Paris and CILA, GALLERIA CONTINUA invites you on an artistic journey through time and space, giving spirit and body to the quotations of its three founders, and consecrating an unprecedented and abundant platform of thirty years of work and passion. To give colour to the ephemeral nature of the ideas, reflections and sensations accumulated over the years, this narrative celebrates three feelings - art, love and friendship - divided into three temporal axes - past, present and future. Around these values, The Ability to Dream pays tribute to all the gallery's artists with major pieces. It is thanks to each of them, to the imprint they have left, to their contribution, to the paths they have opened up, that the history of the gallery has been written, borrowing different silhouettes, forms, colours and languages. The Ability to Dream presents a body of work that includes all the artists who have accompanied the gallery on this journey from the outset, as well as those who have joined more recently. Each work presented here bears witness to the unique bond that has been forged over the years between GALLERIA CONTINUA and its nearly seventy artists, in order to give concrete expression to the gallery's fundamental objective: to be a meeting point, for all and sundry, through art and creation. Over the course of its three chapters, The Ability to Dream will invite visitors to an immersive experience made up of unusual objects, fantastical characters and installations that play with light and colour and defy the laws of physics, space and time. The Tour des Abbés is part of a centuries-old heritage and the new CILA is committed to bringing this history to light, just as Leila Alaoui has used photography and the visual arts to reveal social realities that are silenced or ignored.