On 16 March 2019, a large exhibition on soap bubbles in art and science opened in Palazzo dei Priori, home of the National Gallery of Umbria in Perugia, Italy. Marco Pierini, the director of the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria and cocurator with me of the exhibition, wrote in the introduction to the catalog that the Soap Bubbles: Forms of Utopia Between Vanitas, Art and Science exhibition was inspired by my book Bolle di sapone. Tra arte e matematica. The exhibition was initially intended to be a kind of mise-en-scene of the volume, physically bringing together the images accompanying the text. However, as organization and research efforts progressed, variations, additions and deviations to the framework were implemented, modifying the guidelines and rendering the initial catalog, which was already abundantly vast and well structured, even richer.
The history of soap bubbles most likely begins with the slow diffusion of soap in Europe;...