The collaboration between Melismelis and the MAO Museum of Oriental Art in Turin continues. Following the project dedicated to Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles and the institutional campaign MAO visto prima, the agency is once again working with the museum on Song Dong. Soul Out, on view from 23 October 2026 to 27 June 2027.
At the heart of the new project is a simple idea: to subtract rather than add. To convey Song Dong’s universe, Melismelis drew on some of the key themes of the Chinese artist’s poetics – absence, memory, impermanence and transience – translating them into an immediate visual language. This gave rise to “Subtraction”, the creative concept selected for the campaign. In a self-portrait of Song Dong, his face is removed and replaced by the title Soul Out: a minimal graphic intervention that makes absence the defining element of the image and brings to the foreground what remains – the inner imprint, silence and the emotional trace.
For the project, Melismelis developed the concept and visual identity of the campaign, adapting them across the different channels included in the media plan scheduled by Fondazione Torino Musei. The activities, which began in spring 2026, include a national print campaign in La Stampa, large-format outdoor advertising in Turin and Milan, social and digital campaigns on Meta and through programmatic advertising, as well as collaborations with local organisations and venues including Feltrinelli, La Rinascente, GTT – Gruppo Torinese Trasporti, Circuito Edicole Torino, Combo, Pastis and OGR.