Event details
Start: 20/10/2025
End: 25/10/2025
Location: Chiesa degli Artisti, Piazza del Popolo 18, Rome
Held in October 2025, “The Fifth Dimension” marked the third edition of the Morani Prize, the first since the establishment of the Casa BluVolturno Morani art gallery. Featured in the official Rome Art Week (RAW) calendar, the initiative found its natural venue at the prestigious Chiesa degli Artisti in Piazza del Popolo, Rome.
The event unfolded across three key moments: the opening vernissage, a high-profile multidisciplinary conference, and the final awards ceremony, offering a profound reflection on the concept of “The Fifth Dimension” through the language of painting and theological-scientific thought.
A Year of Anniversaries and Spirituality
2025 coincided with the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Neo-Constructivist Spatialism movement, founded by Volturno Morani in 1965. In this Jubilee year, exhibiting one of the Master’sLord’s Prayer Icons(inspired by the Jubilee of 2000) right inside the Chiesa degli Artisti forged a spiritual bridge of rare intensity, 25 years later.
The Conference and Cultural Reflection
On October 24, 2025, the Chiesa degli Artisti hosted a dialogue between art, science, and faith, aimed at exploring how innovations in quantum physics have reopened the debate on the spiritual value of the individual in the Universe. Moderated by Flavio Morani, the panel included:
- Giorgio Di Bernardo:Scientific journalist and orientalist, who explored dimensional implications beyond physical perception.
- Mons. Antonio Staglianò:President of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, who analyzed the theme from the perspective of spirituality and “Pop-Theology.”
Open Letter to Volturno Morani
On the occasion of the event, Mons. Antonio Staglianò dedicated this extraordinary reflection to the Master, defining his painting as “visual theology.”
Vatican City, October 24, 2025
“Esteemed Master Morani,
With this letter, which I hope may reach you through echoes and refractions in the timeless dimension you now inhabit, I wish to express my deepest gratitude for your work.
My thanks stem not merely from pure aesthetic admiration, but from the revelation that your unique and vibrant pictorial language represents.
Your art, with its color palettes that seem to come from another sun and its forms that defy the gravity of the visible world, has achieved something miraculous for me: it has made intuitive a concept that reason alone struggles to grasp.
Through your work on the “Fifth Dimension,” you have given form and substance to the urgent need for a new Enlightenment — a Christic Enlightenment. Not an era of pure, skeptical rationality, but an era of inner Light, where the Revelation of Christ—understood as a principle of Love, Unity, and the Transfiguration of matter—does not oppose knowledge but becomes its capstone.
In your canvases, the Cosmos is not a cold machine, but an organism pulsating with spirit; matter, as quantum mechanics demonstrates, is not inert but energy and relationship. In this wonder before the mystery, Faith and Science find a ground for dialogue beautifully prepared by your colors.
Your work, Master, is a perfect manifestation of what I call Pop-Theology: a theology of the imagination that does not merely speak of the divine in the abstract, but shows God using the universal languages of art. You did not write a theological treatise; instead, you offered a “visual theology.” You used the most powerful language—that of beauty and symbol—to speak to contemporary man, quenched by images but starved for Meaning. Your painting does not illustrate, it evokes; it does not impose, it proposes. It is an act of humility and courage: humility in recognizing that the Mystery cannot be harnessed by words alone; courage in believing that an image can serve as its portal.
Thank you, then. Thank you for reminding us that art is not an ornament, but a path of access to the Truth that always transcends us and always grounds us in our infinite dignity as human beings—symbolic animals in love with Beauty. Thank you for helping us imagine a world where spirit imbues matter, love is the cosmic glue, and the Light of Christ is not a memory of the past, but the arrow of the future piercing our present, inviting us to look, at last, through the eyes of the Fifth Dimension.
With esteem and gratitude,
A contemporary seeker
+ Antonio Staglianò”
Vernissage and Awards Ceremony
The event kicked off on Monday, October 20, with the opening Vernissage, a gathering for artists and the public in one of the capital’s most iconic locations. The week concluded on Saturday, October 25, with the Painting Competition Awards Ceremony, celebrating works capable of visually interpreting the abstraction of the fifth dimension.
The evaluation of the numerous submissions was entrusted to a prestigious multidisciplinary jury:
Elisabetta La Rosa– Jury Chair (Art Historian)
Massimiliano Padovan Di Benedetto (Founder of Rome Art Week)
Giorgio Di Bernardo (Scientific Journalist & Writer)
Mons. Antonio Staglianò (President of the Pontifical Academy of Theology)
Francesca Zangrillo
Penelope Filacchione
Marianna Scuderi
Lucia Quasimodo
Flavio Morani (Founder of Volturno Morani Casa Blu)
Founder’s Note
“Asking artists to depict THE FIFTH DIMENSION was a successful gamble. The Neo-Constructivist Spatialism movement sought to unveil the mysteries of creation and faith: astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and theology generating works where the infinite is enclosed within the One.”
—Flavio Morani
The Winning Artwork
Gianluca Fascetto
Quinta Dimensione
Acrylic on canvas – 80×120 cm
The Artists of the 2025 Morani Prize
• ANDREOCCI Tommaso • ANZALONE Angela • ARGENTINO Monica • AZZENA Stefano • BELICCHI Luigi • BONFORTI Alessandro • BONOLO Cristiano • BOTTA Stefania • CAPPELLO Irene • CARUSO Mariella • CAVEDO Cristiano • CIABATTI Aldo • CIUCCIU Maria Maddalena • DOTTOR Carlo • FASCETTO Gianluca • FAGGION Roberto • FRADEANI Nicoletta • GENTILE Miriam • GIAMPÀ Mariagrazia • GIRARDI Annamaria • GIUNTOLI Michela • IULIANO Antonio • LEKA Ingrid • LORENZIN Arianna • LOTTI Priscilla • MAIONE Vincenzo • MARAMIERI Gabriella • MARPICATI Giovanni • MECCANI Mascia • MELI Stella • MIDURI Sebastiano • MILAZZO Tina • MODESTI Luigi • MULARONI Stefania • MUSTO Ornella • NASCA Cruciano • PANICO Paolo • PEONIA Barbara • PIRAS Stefano Mario • RINGE Paulina • SANTINI Michele • SARROCCO Liliana • SCAGLIOLA Davide • SCALABRIN Roberta • SPILLINO Cinzia • STECCA Aurora • STEFANI Lucia • TACCHINI Maria • TIBERTI Osvaldo • TOMASSI Emanuela • TONELLI Anna • TORO Francesca • ZOTTI Giuseppe •
Morani Award 2025 – III Edition Artworks Archive
