Panorama 2024 Brings Over 60 Artists to Four Depopulated Monferrato Villages

The fourth edition of Panorama, an itinerant exhibition organized by the Italics consortium of over 70 Italian galleries, opened in September 2024 in four depopulated villages of Monferrato (Camagna, Vignale, Montemagno, Castagnole). For the first time, the show moved to northern Italy after previous editions in Procida, Monopoli, and L'Aquila. Curated by Carlo Falciani, an expert in ancient art rather than contemporary, the exhibition drew inspiration from Stefano Guazzo's 1574 book 'La Civil Conversazione', copies of which are displayed in each village. The show features 62 galleries and 63 artists, divided into four thematic sections: 'Lavoro e Radici' (Camagna), 'Ritratto e Identità' (Vignale), 'Caducità e Morte' (Montemagno), and 'Sacralità dell’arte, anche laica' (Castagnole). Notable works include Arcangelo Sassolino's installation in Camagna's ex-Cottolengo, a dialogue between Susana Pilar's lightboxes and a 16th-century Mirabello Cavalori mirror in Vignale's Palazzo Callori, and site-specific pieces by Maria Elisabetta Novello and Pieter Vermeersch in Castagnole. The exhibition runs only five days, with free shuttles connecting the villages. The 2025 edition will be curated by Chiara Parisi, possibly in Tuscia. The article also critiques Panorama's limited press hospitality and questions whether it can evolve from a brief art show into a tool for integrated territorial promotion.