One of the featured artworks, Limes, combines artist Tommaso Durante’s photographs with the poems from professor emeritus, Chris Wallace-Crabbe.

The poems were carefully translated into Italian by Mariella Barbara and accompany the stunning photos Durante took in Rotorua, New Zealand.

Durante is not only an artist, he is a teacher and researcher at the School of Culture, Communication and Political and Social Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

He interpreted the bubbling volcanic activity in Rotorua as “the mouth of hell” that perfectly captured the infernal nature of modern life, engulfing mankind in a whirlwind of frenetic rhythms, pollution and the pursuit of ephemeral success – notions captured in Wallace-Crabbe’s poems.

The exhibition will be hosted in the Baillieu Library until June 26

“I chose the medium of photography because it is a modern technique that depicts our complex reality in the best way,” Durante said.

“It has replaced illustration, in that regard.

“I believe that Dante’s analysis of human vices and virtues is still profoundly relevant.

“It’s applicable to discourses on globalisation and the ethics of politics.

“Alighieri himself argued in one of his famous verses that the worst places in hell are occupied by those who do not take a stand in a time of moral turpitude – a concept which seems more relevant than ever to our time.”

The title, Limes, derives from the same Latin word which means both “border” and “passage”.

“By mixing space with time, the Middle Ages with modern times, poetry and photography, Limes has become a philosophical and political prompt,” Durante said.

“It asks viewers to consider the human condition in an age that is increasingly mediated and globalised.”

Tommaso Durante (Photo: Vicki Bell)

But Durante is not the only contemporary and local artist who has found space within ‘Epic and Divine’; others include Bruno Leti, Angela Cavalieri and Peter Lyssiotis.

The exhibition, like Limes itself, is composed of both modern and ancient works, featuring sketches by Sandro Botticelli, Gustave Doré and Salvador Dalí, among others.

Each of them, through their art and techniques, gives visitors a chance to understand the life and work of the Florentine poet, prompting reflection on the meaning of their own existence.

“In a century as complex as ours, art does not need to become the sociology of everyday life,” Durante said.

“Art must not challenge life but, if possible, overcome it and we hope we have succeeded in fulfilling that brief.”

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