SOLE IN VIRGO

Orlando couldn’t miss the latest exhibition by one of its favorite illustrators in the world, with whom it created the diptych Orlando Furioso by Ariosto and Orlando by Virginia Woolf for its first two print issues: Elisa Seitzinger.

The exhibition in question is Sole in Virgo, open to the public until October 4 at Highline Milano, located on the top of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It has been developed in collaboration with Meneghello Edizioni, Associazione Musei dell’Ossola, and Atelier Giulia Tamburini, and is curated by Flavio Di Renzo, Artistic Director and Curator of Highline Milano.

Why this name? The starting point for the exhibition was a simple and at the same time fascinating question: “What zodiac sign is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II?” Its inauguration on September 15, 1867, symbolically places it under the sign of Virgo, an archetype of order, measure, and harmony between function and aesthetics.

From this intuition emerges a narrative that transforms the Galleria into a symbolic organism, in dialogue with the zodiac and the tradition of tarot. The exhibition unfolds between the Clock Room—a fascinating space because once housed the beating heart (and ticking clockwork) of the entire city, where the mechanisms of Milan’s clocks were regulated—and the Skybridge, the elevated walkways overlooking the heart of Milan, creating a narrative that brings together past and present.

The exhibition opens with a monumental Sun—a reference to Sol Invictus, the solar deity of ancient Rome and later an esoteric symbol—which serves as both a generative and symbolic element. In dialogue with the Moon, a permanent installation by Davide Groppi in the Clock Room, it introduces a reflection on time as a universal dimension.

The Galleria’s zodiac sign, Virgo, and the centrality of the Sun become the symbolic synthesis of the project, bringing together the identity of the site and the artist’s vision.

Our founder sat down with Elisa Seitzinger for an exclusive conversation about tarot, creative and personal time, the Major Arcana, black cats, birth charts, and much more. Discover the interview below.

Antonella Dellepiane Pescetto: Let’s begin with this extraordinary location, suspended between heaven and earth: the Time Room. How does time flow for you? The time of creation, of intimacy—meaning family and personal life—and of relationships with others?

Elisa Seitzinger: The Clock Room is a place I feel deeply connected to. After all, time is a central dimension in everyone’s life, and the thought that all the public clocks of Milan were once regulated from that room feels profoundly resonant to me.

For me, the time of creation is never linear. It is made up of sudden intuitions, silent accumulations, and moments of intense concentration. An image is often born long before it is drawn: it takes shape gradually, settles over time, and eventually emerges with clarity.

The time of family and personal life, on the other hand, is my anchor. It is a tangible time, made of daily routines and presence. I try to protect it because it represents the space where I can regain balance and avoid becoming alienated within my imagination, within the constant creative flow that would otherwise consume me.

Then there is the time of relationships with others, which I perceive as a continuous exchange. Through my work, I enter into dialogue with people I often do not know personally, yet who recognize something familiar or symbolic in my images. It is a shared time that transcends the individual dimension and creates unexpected connections.

Perhaps what fascinates me most is precisely the fact that these different temporalities are not separate: they continuously intertwine and influence one another.

A.D.P: You had already illustrated tarot decks for the publishing house and world leader in tarot production, Lo Scarabeo and for Sabat Magazine, the latter featured in the exhibition. When did your relationship with tarot begin, and how has it evolved over time?

E.S: My relationship with tarot began first and foremost through a visual and symbolic interest. Since childhood, I have been drawn to archetypal images, mythological narratives, and those iconographic systems capable of condensing multiple meanings into a single figure. In tarot, I found an extraordinarily rich universe where art, symbolism, history, and esotericism intertwine.

Working on the decks for Sabat Magazine and later for Lo Scarabeo allowed me to explore this language through my own artistic expression. Drawing the Major Arcana means entering into dialogue with images that belong to a collective imagination while simultaneously requiring reinterpretation through an individual sensibility. It is a delicate balance between respect for tradition and personal research.

Over time, my relationship with tarot has evolved. Today, I see it primarily as a tool for reflection and storytelling. What interests me is its ability to generate connections, suggest open-ended interpretations, and accompany inner journeys without imposing definitive answers. These are living images that continue to transform alongside those who observe them.

In Sole in Virgo, tarot becomes part of a broader constellation of symbols and figures. They are not merely objects to contemplate but presences that invite visitors to question themselves and construct their own path through the exhibition.

A.D.P:Today tarot is everywhere again—fashion, art, social media, publishing. Why do you think this symbolism speaks so strongly to the present moment?

E.S: I believe tarot’s resurgence is connected to a deeply contemporary need for meaning. We live in an age characterized by an enormous quantity of information, images, and stimuli, but also by a widespread sense of disorientation. Tarot offers a different language: it does not provide definitive answers but opens spaces for interpretation and reflection.

Its strength lies precisely in its symbolic nature. The archetypes embodied in the Arcana speak of transformation, desire, fear, loss, and rebirth—themes that transcend every era and continue to concern us profoundly. This is why tarot can engage with the present without losing its ancient dimension.

I also think there is a growing interest today in more intuitive and imaginative forms of knowledge. In this sense, tarot is not merely an esoteric tool but also a narrative and visual device capable of activating the imagination. Fashion, art, and publishing have rediscovered it precisely because of its extraordinary ability to generate stories and images that remain open, never fully decipherable.

Personally, what continues to fascinate me is its fertile ambiguity: every card contains multiple possibilities of interpretation and changes according to the gaze of the person encountering it. In a time that often tends toward simplification and polarization, tarot reminds us of the value of complexity, doubt, and mystery.

A.D.P: During the Renaissance, tarot decks were often gifted as card games celebrating alliances between powerful families, such as the Visconti-Sforza. In your opinion, on what occasions might new tarot decks be created and gifted today?

E.S: I like to think that today a tarot deck can be gifted during moments of transition rather than occasions celebrating power. If, during the Renaissance, it sealed alliances between families and dynasties, today it could accompany a personal transformation or a new phase of life. It could certainly be a wedding gift, but also a gift for a birthday, a relocation, or the beginning of a new creative or professional journey. After all, tarot speaks of transformation, and every transformation deserves a symbol that can preserve and narrate it.

I believe that gifting a tarot deck today primarily means offering a space for imagination and introspection. It is very different from giving a purely decorative object. It is like saying to someone: “I entrust you with a tool to dialogue with yourself and with the world.”

Perhaps this is precisely what makes tarot so relevant today. In a society that values speed and efficiency, a deck of cards invites us to pause. More than a material gift, it becomes a gesture of attention and care, a wish for awareness along the path that lies ahead.

A.D.P: How much is your sensibility influenced by reading cards or by other divinatory practices?

E.S: Rather than influence, I would speak of dialogue. I do not consider tarot or other divinatory tools as something that can determine my choices or predict the future in a definitive way. What interests me is their ability to open perspectives and illuminate aspects we may not be observing closely enough.

My work originates primarily from observation, iconographic research, and imagination, but also from a profound attention to what is invisible and to the symbols that emerge and reappear. In this sense, tarot is part of a broader mental and creative landscape, alongside mythology, folk traditions, astrology, art history, and ritual practices.

I do not experience these tools as sources of certainty but as opportunities for listening. Often, the most interesting card is not the one that confirms what we already know but the one that confronts us with an unexpected question. I believe their value lies precisely here: in their ability to stimulate deeper reflection about what we are living through.

As an artist, I am fascinated by all those languages that attempt to give form to the invisible—not to find absolute answers, but to keep open our relationship with mystery, which I consider an essential component of artistic creation and human experience.

A.D.P: Turin is often considered Italy’s esoteric capital. How much do you feel the city’s energy, and how does it influence your art? Are there other places where you find a similar energy?

E.S: Turin is a city with which I have a very deep bond. I let myself be adopted by it in the early 2000s. Beyond the esoteric narratives that surround it, what fascinates me is its ability to hold together seemingly opposite dimensions: rigor and mystery, rationality and imagination, respectability and subcultures.

It is a city that invites slow observation, one that preserves traces, symbols, and layers that reveal themselves suddenly—perhaps by peering through a gateway into the inner courtyard of a noble palace or by discovering a hidden garden beside a busy street.

More than a strictly esoteric energy, I perceive a particular cultural and symbolic density. Walking through Turin, one often has the impression that the past continues to converse with the present.

Its architecture, arcades, squares, museum collections, and stories constantly nourish my imagination. Like many Italian cities, but without the mass tourism that characterizes so many of them.

Then there are the rivers—the Po above all, but also the Dora—and the proximity of wooded hills. These elements make Turin my city of the heart because they allow me to feel the strong presence of nature as well.

This atmosphere influences my work primarily in the way I look at images. It encourages me to search for what lies beneath the surface and to construct narratives that bring together historical, fairy-tale, and contemporary elements.

Turin is a city that suggests rather than declares, and I believe this attitude resonates deeply with my artistic practice.

There are, however, other places where I find a similar intensity. Palermo comes to mind, where different cultures and symbols have coexisted for centuries, generating an extraordinarily powerful imaginary world; and Naples, with its natural and everyday relationship to the sacred, ritual, and superstition.

A.D.P: You dedicated some artworks of this exhibition to Milan. Could you tell us how they were developed and which elements you chose to integrate?

E.S: Yes, I created a series of works dedicated to the colony of black cats that still lives above the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. As a tribute, I hybridized six black cats—an animal that is sacred to me, the quintessential witch’s familiar—with six aspects of Milan that I love.

Thus we have the Biscione Cat, living in symbiosis with the Visconti serpent emblem; the Duomo Cat, from whose body emerge the late Gothic spires; the Vittorio Emanuele Cat, proudly crossing the grand archway of Italy’s most majestic gallery; the Gio (Ponti) Cat, moving gracefully among the delicate vases designed by the great Milanese master of architecture and design; the Velasca Cat, sipping an aperitivo in the “Milano da bere” atmosphere; and finally the Metro Cat, dynamic and modern like the efficient subway network designed by Albini, Helg, and Noorda.

A.D.P: Could you tell us about the zodiac signs that characterize your birth chart? How do they manifest in your daily life? Which signs do you feel an immediate affinity with, and which less so?

E.S: My natal chart is an intertwining of very different energies. My Taurus Sun represents my center: a connection to beauty, patient work, and the need to transform ideas into something tangible. I recognize myself in the perseverance and search for authenticity that guide my creative path.

My Scorpio Ascendant adds intensity and depth. I am drawn to what is symbolic, archetypal, and transformative; in images and stories, I often seek what lies beneath the surface. It is one of the keys to my artistic imagination.

My Aquarius Moon brings a need for freedom, experimentation, and independence. It is the part of me that loves original ideas and unconventional paths. In relationships, my Venus in Gemini makes me curious and attracted to dialogue: I need intellectual exchange, lightness, and continuous discovery.

I believe this combination creates a kind of creative tension between stability and change, rootedness and experimentation. As for affinities, I often feel an immediate connection with Scorpio, Aquarius, Gemini, and Pisces—for the intensity, intellectual curiosity, and symbolic sensitivity we share.

The most important relationships, however, are often those that challenge my certainties and encourage me to view the world from new perspectives. My daughter is a Leo, and professionally I also need to be surrounded by fire signs to realize my dreams. Fire is the great missing element in my natal chart, and I constantly seek its presence to nourish myself with its energy.

A.D.P: Which tarot card feels closest to your imagination, and which one continues to challenge you?

E.S: The card I feel closest to is probably the High Priestess. I am fascinated by her role as guardian of hidden, intuitive, symbolic knowledge. She is a silent yet immensely powerful figure who does not need to assert herself because she already embodies profound wisdom. I identify strongly with this idea of inner research and with the ability of images to reveal meanings that are not immediately apparent.

The Moon is another card with which I feel a strong resonance. It speaks of thresholds, mystery, symbols, and what emerges from the unconscious. It is a territory I often explore in my work, where the boundary between the visible and the invisible becomes very thin.

The card that continues to challenge me is The Fool. Not because I fail to understand its value, but because it represents something that is always difficult for me—and something I possessed more naturally when I was younger and have since lost: the complete surrender of control, the leap into the void, absolute trust in the unknown.

My Taurus Sun and Scorpio Ascendant seek depth and rootedness; The Fool, by contrast, invites us to depart without guarantees, without knowing where we will arrive.

And yet, precisely for this reason, I continue to consider it a fundamental card. The cards that challenge us are often the ones we most need to encounter. The Fool reminds us that transformation begins when we accept that we do not have all the answers—and I believe every creative journey begins exactly there.

A.D.P: You created Arcana inspired by contemporary villains. Could you tell us about them? Are there other Arcana you would like to add?

E.S: The Kings and Queens of the Minor Arcana featured in Sole in Virgo were originally created for a previous exhibition, Outer Space, dedicated to Italian project spaces. On that occasion, the gallery Le Dictateur presented my project, Minor Arcana.

Minor Arcana is an investigation into the ludic, divinatory, and narrative functions of the Latin-suited deck of cards, partially redesigned according to tradition and partially renewed in its formal aspects and purpose. It becomes a contemporary metaphor for the game of life, where anyone can identify with the characters of a modern fairy tale and, as in a card game, chance determines the sequence of events.

Inspired by Calvino’s narrative intuition in The Castle of Crossed Destinies, the project revolves around two questions: What connects the divinatory meaning of tarot to its iconographic appearance? And is there a symbolic relationship between this and the narrative sequences of traditional fairy tales theorized by the Russian scholar Vladimir Propp?

This forty-card deck—fully playable for traditional Italian card games such as scopa and simultaneously an incomplete tarot deck composed of Minor Arcana—contains, as in Calvino’s work, a third function beyond play and divination: storytelling.

Each card, from Ace to Seven, is associated with one or more of Propp’s narrative functions, while each court card corresponds to one of the character types he identified in folk tales. In this way, the deck can also be used to invent stories. The extraordinary discovery emerging from this process is that there is a genuine correspondence between the divinatory meanings of the Minor Arcana and the narrative structures and characters theorized by Propp.

Traditionally, each suit represents a social class: Wands symbolize the common people, Coins the aristocracy, Cups the clergy, and Swords the military. In this deck, however, each element is reinterpreted through a contemporary lens filtered by an atmosphere of dystopian realism. There are no virtuous figures here; even kings, queens, and would-be heroes embody the negative stereotypes of a postmodern society adrift.

A.D.P: Upon arriving at the exhibition, I was invited to pick a face-down tarot card (I drew The Magician) and the card depicting my zodiac sign (Pisces), illustrated by you.
If you were to create an auspicious tarot spread for Orlando’s readers, which cards would you choose?

E.S: If I were to create a blessing spread for Orlando’s readers, I would choose three Major Arcana: The Magician, The Star, and The World.

The Magician because it is Arcana number one, the card of curiosity and the ability to transform intuition into concrete action. It feels especially significant because it is also the card you drew. It speaks of creativity, possibility, and the courage to step into the game.

The Star is a card I consider precious. It represents enduring trust, the ability to continue imagining and creating even during moments of uncertainty. It invites us to remain faithful to our vision without losing our openness and sensitivity toward the world.

Finally, I would choose The World, which for me represents fulfillment, connection, and harmony among diverse elements. It is a card that speaks of crossing boundaries, of dialogue between languages and cultures, and of the possibility of finding a broader meaning in our experiences.

Read together, this spread tells a story: having the courage to begin, preserving one’s vision, and arriving at a form of fulfillment that is never closure but openness to new possibilities.

This is the wish I would offer Orlando’s readers: to continue exploring, imagining, and building bridges between worlds that may appear distant from one another.