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“Debranne Cingari teaches us that even the simplest word can become image, form, memory—if only we learn to see it anew”
— Elisa Larese Moro
At the heart of today’s artistic reflections on language and image, Little Words Project by Debranne Cingari offers a vision that is at once delicate and incisive. The American artist takes us on a journey through words, stripping them of their habitual meanings and returning them to a more intimate, visual, and symbolic dimension. These are not declarations nor slogans, but fragments of language removed from daily noise and relocated into a poetic, imaginative space. The artistic gesture lies in listening to what a word can become once it’s freed from the clutter of the world.
After being among the most acclaimed works at the Villa Carlotta exhibition, three pieces have been specially selected for display at the Torre delle Arti in Bellagio. Each of these works, in its own way, captures the semantic openness and layered complexity that define the project as a whole.
Tomorrow is Just a Maybe (2024) stands as a sort of manifesto for the series. The phrase hangs suspended, just like the future it evokes. “Tomorrow” is not presented as certainty, but rather as a possibility—a field open to transformation. The image mirrors this tension with restraint and poise: an almost still sky, crossed by a barely visible flight path, a time that seems to pause, inviting us to contemplate what cannot be foreseen. This is an artwork about time and waiting, but also about the necessity of not taking anything for granted. The word dissolves into the landscape, echoing a quiet and necessary hope.
Free Fall (2025) introduces a more dramatic, almost existential tension. The small airplane that appears to be plummeting into the void is more than a visual object—it is a symbol of surrender, of losing control, perhaps even of liberation. The “free fall” implied in the title can be read as an invitation to let go, to break free from the established order of things. Yet it also suggests a sense of vertigo and vulnerability. The piece thrives on this ambiguity: word and image chase and overlap, leaving the viewer free to construct their own meaning. The thermal sublimation on aluminum enhances the contrast between apparent lightness and symbolic weight.
Everybody Knows (2025) stands out for its enigmatic tone. The phrase—so common in everyday speech and pop culture—takes on a subtle sense of unease here. Everybody knows, but what? The piece invites reflection on the unspoken, the implicit messages that permeate human communication. It speaks of collective secrets, half-truths, of things we sense but do not say. The image accompanying the text does not complete the message—it amplifies its ambiguity. Once again, the word becomes both visual and conceptual stimulus, sparking an emotional and critical response in the viewer.
These three works clearly express Debranne Cingari’s artistic poetics: a practice grounded in subtraction, suspension, and attentive listening. In a world overwhelmed by messaging, Little Words Project offers a call for silence and focus. Each word is a gesture, an image, a possibility of meaning. The photographic medium, paired with her thoughtful use of metallic supports, gives the works a tactile, reflective quality where even the surface becomes a space for thought.
In the quiet, intimate setting of the Torre delle Arti in Bellagio, this dialogue between word and image resonates anew. The lake glimpsed through the windows, the ancient stones of the architecture, the suspended stillness of the atmosphere—all contribute to creating an ideal environment for contemplating language as a form of art and as a space of encounter between inner life and the world.
In the end, Little Words Project is a silent statement of poetic resistance. An invitation to begin again from the simplest of words—those we’ve forgotten, but that still have the power to surprise us.
© Elisa Larese Moro for Tablinum Cultural Management, 2025
DEBRANNE CINGARI – BIOGRAPHY
Debranne Cingari is a multidisciplinary American artist whose work spans photography and visual storytelling.
A self-taught photographer, she has shaped her artistic practice by blending formal education with practical exploration. Cingari holds an Associate in Advertising from Endicott College and both a Bachelor’s degree in Media and a Master’s in Education from Sacred Heart University. Over the course of her career, she has deepened her photographic experience through mentorships—including with renowned photographer Joyce Tenneson—and by attending various workshops on photo transfer techniques, sculpture, glassblowing, collage, and mosaics, including specialized training in Ravenna, Italy.
Her art fuses photography with dynamic compositions that interlace imagery captured during her travels. These visual narratives evoke dreamlike landscapes, intertwining memory, nature, and storytelling in a way that invites contemplation.
Cingari’s work has been exhibited in prestigious venues such as the Grand Palais in Paris, Art Miami, and the Villa Carlotta Museum and Botanical Garden. Beginning on June 14, 2025, she presented a solo exhibition, Little Words Project, at the Villa Carlotta Museum. She is represented by leading galleries including Tablinum Cultural Management (Bellagio), Cavalier Galleries, Christopher Martin Galleries, and Chase Edward Gallery.
Her achievements have garnered numerous accolades, including the Philip Isenberg Award and recognition from the Salmagundi Art Club in New York. Her artworks are part of important public and private collections, including that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
In addition to her artistic work, Cingari has taught in a variety of academic settings and contributed to numerous publications in magazines and books, further solidifying her influence in the art world.
SELECTED ARTWORKS:
Tomorrow is Just a Maybe, 2024, Thermal sublimation on aluminum assembly,
40×60 cm
Free Fall, 2025, Thermal sublimation on aluminum assembly, 20×30 cm,
Everybody Knows, 2025, Thermal sublimation on aluminum assembly, 20×30 cm