(ANS Turin) – To refer to the life of St John Bosco (1815-1888), a leading figure of nineteenth-century Piedmontese social holiness, without mentioning the world of dreams, is to suppress an important aspect of his identity. Through the dreams that God sent him, the life of the saint was marked by the supernatural.

Between the ages of nine and ten Don Bosco had his first dream, which he described in his memoirs, at the request of Pope Pius IX, after an audience in Rome (1858). The memory of the dream is found in the Memoirs of the Oratory written by Don Bosco and written between 1873 and 1875. Deeply impressed on his mind, the Dream returned in different forms throughout his life: it was a prophetic dream in which he glimpsed his future mission, which would promptly become a reality. It guided his future steps, inspired the birth of his Work and his charism.

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Dream at nine years of age (1824-2024), the museum housed in the Salesian Mother House in Valdocco, Turin – the Casa Don Bosco Museum – organised a temporary exhibition, open from May 22 to September 22, 2024. The exhibition celebrates this important event in Don Bosco’s biography and is dedicated to delving into the narration, history and iconography of the Dream that changed the life of the Turin saint.

The exhibition, “Between Past and Present“, is dedicated to iconographic representation in the arts and the resonance of the dream today, two hundred years later. The exhibition traces the history of the Dream, which begins in the meadows of the Bechhi, takes shape in the city of Turin and reaches all parts of the world where today there is a Salesian presence.

Along with historical photographs, works and objects from the period between the beatification (1929) and canonization (1934) of Don Bosco are presented, at which time the representation of the dream in the arts begins: prints on books, postcards, commemorative coins, oil paintings, paintings on paper, etc.

The exhibition presents an important selection of original panels that have extensively illustrated this biographical episode: Corrado Mezzana (1890-1952), Guido Grilli (1905-1967), Cosimo [Nino] Musío (1933-2017) and Alaricco Gattia (1927-2022) are some of the authors.

Grilli, Musío and Gattia’s comics were commissioned by the Libreria della Dottrina Cristiana (1941), founded by Don Bosco’s fourth successor, Fr. Peter Ricaldone (1870-1951). The current Editrice Elledici preserves these works that have been disseminated in different publications, supports and languages around the world; in this exhibition the originals are exhibited for the first time.

To complete the exhibition, the winning photographs of the international photographic competition launched in January 2024, promoted by the house museum and organised by the curator of the exhibition, which welcomed the artistic and creative talent of the entire Salesian world, are on display. This project was free of charge and open to all: a novelty since the opening of the museum in October 2020.

The seventeen photographs selected capture different moments, portraying people and places in geographical areas far from where the founder of the Salesians was born and where “the Dream of Don Bosco” continues today. The snapshots are described by the same authors in their original language and come from Italy, Mexico, Panama, Slovakia, Spain and Venezuela. These images involve past, present and future and make us reflect on how, two centuries later, Don Bosco’s Dream has become a reality in Salesian presences around the world.