The Oscar-winning film director’s artwork is on display at the National Museum of Cinema in Turin through a chimerical exhibition called The Art of James Cameron, that was previously displayed by the Cinémathèque Française in Paris in spring of 2024. The exhibit in Torino runs from February 26th to June 15th 2025 at the Mole Antonelliana, showcasing a compelling journey through the creative path of one of the most imaginative innovators in the history of cinema.
This occasion marks a great debut for the new Director of the Museum, Carlo Chatrian who said: “I’m grateful for the way this exhibit came about in only three months, thanks to the teamwork between the Cinémathèque Française, Director Frédéric Bonnaud and President Costa Gavras, as well as Matthieu Orléan and Agathe Moroval; and the Avatar Alliance Foundation, especially Kim Butts, Maria Wilhelm and of course all the people working here at the Museum of Cinema in Torino.”
The Art of James Cameron, in Turin represents the second stop of a journey that began last April in Paris, that will continue worldwide. This marks the third exhibition for which the Cinémathèque Française collaborates with the Museum of Cinema in Torino, after the 2010 Lanterna Magica (Magic Lantern) and the 2016 dedicated to Gus Van Sant. As Agathe Moroval reminded, “This partnership, that also encompasses film restoration and screenings, marks the friendship between our two founders Henri Langlois and Maria Adriana Prolo.”
James Cameron’s six decades of artistic work shine through an artistic autobiography that begins with his childhood experimental drawings and goes all the way to the development of his Avatar movies. The cineaste describes his creative side as that of a born illustrator: “I grew up in a small town in Canada and drew constantly. I was inspired by comic books, science fiction books and movies that I devoured avidly. More of an illustrator at heart than an artist, I used my drawings and paintings to tell stories. This was a perfect preparation for moving into the art of cinema in my twenties,” explained James Cameron.
This extraordinary installation, designed by Kim Butts, creative director of the Avatar Alliance Foundation, and Giorgio Ferrero, director and creative director of MYBOSSWAS, brings James Cameron’s drawings to life. One person’s body of work is displayed inside the mesmerising setting of the Mole Antonelliana, capturing the artistic evolution of a visionary child, who as an adult became a creator of cinematic worlds. As Kim Butts highlighted: “This exhibit is the trajectory of an idea, and the beginning of his stories and those who influenced him, and those who he brought to work into his team.”
From 1200 original images, that were scanned and photographed, 300 were selected. The Art of James Cameron exhibition unfolds along the helical ramp and is divided into five thematic areas: Daydreaming, The Human Machine, Exploring the Unknown, Untamed Worlds and Creatures. The tour opens with a video by James Cameron welcoming visitors.
From the use of pen, pencils, sketchbooks and paints, James Cameron has gone on to create and use top-level cinematic technologies. It is utterly beguiling to admire the way as a child he was capable of designing distant worlds populated by fantastical creatures. Through the course of time these fictional realms have become the parable of the issues that concern our modern life: nuclear catastrophes, environmental crises and dangers associated with the development of artificial intelligence.
300 original objects on display The exhibition features over 300 original objects including drawings, paintings, sketches, costumes, props, photographs and 3D technologies developed or adapted by the director himself, known for his technological innovation. In addition, the exhibition hosts 60 additional works, including the Future Boards, the storyboards of the “flashback in the future” of Terminator, and unpublished creations collected in the section The Human Machine. During the visit, six immersive sound stations allow you to live an engaging experience, combining images, sounds and exhibited works. Through QR Codes, visitors can listen to Cameron’s voice commenting on 16 of the works on display, while a dedicated path accompanies children to discover the exhibition.
The highlights of the show include the famous necklace with the blue diamond, from Titanic and the drawing of Kate Winslet as Rose, that Jack Dawson took of her in the film, but was actually made by James Cameron himself. The fun fact is that Cameron is left-handed whereas Leonardo DiCaprio playing Jack is not. Therefore to achieve the shot, Cameron placed the finished portrait face down on a light table and filmed himself tracing it. He then flipped the film to make it look like the artist was right-handed. The film garnered 14 Academy Award nominations in 1998, winning 11 statuettes, three of which went to Cameron for Best Film, Direction and Editing.
Another star of the show The Art of James Cameron is Terminator, with a variety of depictions of Arnold Schwarzenegger and a sketch by James Cameron of Neytiri. The artistry of Cameron as he investigates on future worlds, technology and the conflict between man and machine as well as man and nature, can be admired in his prep work. This concerns not only his fictional work, like the masterpiece Avatar, but also his documentaries such as Ghosts of the Abyss (2003), hunting the wreck of the Titanic, or Aliens of the Deep (2005), documenting the ecosystem of the sea, the ocean ridges, the hydrothermal currents.
More than a director, he is an explorer and we become one with him, while entering the Museum’s Aula del Tempio, wandering through the rooms on the ground floor and then walking up the ramp, admiring the dangling installation that reflects images of his motion pictures. As Maria Wilhelm from the Avatar Alliance Foundation said: Our lives are a trajectory, and this exhibit is really about where the story started. For Jim it began with his mother, who was an artist and a nurse, pulling him out of school as a child and taking him to the Royal Albert Museum in Toronto, from the small town where he was raised. And he would inspired and dream, and we support public institutions for this very reason. This is a philanthropic commitment on our part and it’s really about sending certain messages to support children in dreaming, to fly creatively, places like the Museo, and see what happens.”
Screenings at the Cinema Massimo in Torino have further enhanced the tribute to James Cameron. The complete retrospective included the films James Cameron collaborated on when he worked in Roger Corman’s Factory, as a screenwriter and producer, together with Kathryn Bigelow. Thus, the films shown were: Piranha (1982, 1994), Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Titanic (1997), True Lies (1994), Avatar (2009), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), The Magnificent Seven Ride!” (1980), Planet of the Apes (1981), Escape from New York (1981), Rambo 2: First Blood Part II (1985), Strange Days (1995), Point Break (1991).
The Art of James Cameron will allow viewers to be immersed in a wondrous experience, as the President of the Museum, Enzo Ghigo, expressed: “My feeling is that this exhibition conveys many sensations and stimulates creativity.”
Check out more of Chiara’s articles.
(Cover image credits: andrea g.)