Look what happens in the gallery
A hilarious sitcom in 10 episodes
“The Gallery” is a television series which demonstrates with irony and light- hearted humour what is behind the scenes in the art market. Conceived by Antonio Orler and Laura Galigani and directed by Salvatore Billeci, the series was shot entirely within the Orler Gallery in Mestre, Venice and is aired every Saturday on 867 Sky channel 867 and digital terrestrial channel 144. As the young actor and singer, descendant of one of the most historic and influential families of gallery owners in Italy, tells us, it is a sit-com, a real television series capable of making fun of the common place in art in a fresh and easy-going way.
Where did the idea to produce and create the television series come from?
The idea of contributing a creative feeling to the emptiness resulting from the pandemic came to us in the first lockdown in a very silent Venice. With the contribution of the authors Lorenzo Riopi and Tobia Rossi we began to plan the series, to contact the actors and to carry out the rehearsals (by necessity only via Skype). By the time the summer arrived, we had very rapidly completed what to date are the ten episodes of the first season. It is unique in the history of sit-coms because no one had ever talked about art, perhaps with absurd situations, but all plausible and naturally hilarious.
The cast: an authoritative GALLERIST, an unmotivated employee and a set of unlikely characters
In short, who are the characters and what are their roles?
There are two main characters in the cast, Linda Tagliapietra, an enterprising and authoritative gallery owner, and Manuel, an inadequate and unmotivated employee. Unlikely and sometimes ridiculous characters take shape around them; Fuxia, Ferdi, Carla and Andrew enliven the days in the gallery with their tics and behaviors that are not always beyond reproach. There are also short cameos to which Catone Biasioli, Giovanni Faccenda and Cesare Orler have sympathetically lent themselves, while the authors have thought of a real and proper role for Giorgio Regali, that of Gilberto.
Despite the pandemic, what was the work atmosphere like?
The atmosphere was always wonderful during the filming, we worked with a smile on our faces and in such a sad situation we can say we are happy to have given life to a well structured and professionally successful project. The acclaim we receive justifies the efforts made, encourages us to continue and at the moment we are already thinking about the second season.
Let’s take a step back, how did you come to undertake this job?
With my passion for music first and foremost (recently I was selected of the 60 young people for San Remo) and with the stimuli and enthusiasm of my parents who have always supported me and my travels so that I could learn to sing and play with the best teachers . I had the satisfaction of being part of the cast of “Romeo and Juliet” by Cocciante and then “Sister Act” by Whoopi Goldberg where I met my wife Laura. I worked in Germany for a long time, playing “Rocky”, produced by Stallone, while last February in Milan we had to stop the show “The Chocolate Factory” due to Covid.
What do you expect from this new project?
This series, which was born in one of the most difficult historical moments for showbusiness, at a time when theater, song and dance suffer from the lack of a public, we would like to become a means to reach as many people as possible in their homes, so as to loosen with lightness the tensions of this period. We all sincerely hope with all our hearts that this will be the effect of our show.
