The Exhibition
Sguardi sull’Africa
Exhibition organized in collaboration with the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Piacenza
Curated by Paolo Giglio and Samuele Menin
The African continent was the cradle of humanity and civilization, from there Lucy and our ancestors took their first steps, first spreading to Europe and then throughout the world, making us the intercultural and global universe we have become today.
A place rich not only in nature and raw materials, but also in history, traditions, and a culture as diverse as the populations that inhabit the fifty-four nations that comprise it: from northern countries such as Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt, through Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, Nigeria, South Africa, and Madagascar.
Great artists such as Picasso, Modigliani, Giacometti, and others have looked to African artistic and artisanal production to renew and advance their research into a timeless modernity, creating works that enrich contemporary art museums around the world.
For about ten years, the art world has discovered African artists, with a particular focus on their innovative figurative work that blends tradition and contemporaneity, resulting in group exhibitions such as “When We See Us. A Century of Black Figuration in Painting” at the Kunstmuseum Basel in 2024, various participations in the pavilions of the Venice Biennale in both the 2022 and 2024 editions, and solo exhibitions in museums around the world by African artists with ties to the diaspora, such as Kara Walker, Simone Leigh, Sam Gilllian, Kehinde Wiley, and William Kentridge.
The auction world has underscored the same interest with record results for many of these artists, further highlighting their cultural importance.
“Views of Africa” is the first major exhibition in Italy to represent the complexity and variety of African artistic production over the last century. This is possible thanks to the dialogue between two important private collections: Collezione Giglio di Piacenza and Collezione 54 di Rosario Bifulco.
Various events will be organized throughout the exhibition, including a series of meetings and roundtables with distinguished guests, curated by Mauro Molinaroli, such as journalist Domenico Quirico, who will introduce and discuss topics related to Africa and its contemporary world.
These meetings will be accompanied by insights into general African culture, with dance, music, and theater performances, completing the representation of a continent in constant turmoil, waiting to be discovered and rediscovered.
OVER 200 WORKS AND ARTIFACTS WILL BE EXHIBITED
DISPOSED INTO FOUR MAIN SECTIONS:
RITUAL OBJECTS AND STATUES (Giglio Collection)
For the first time, a unique collection of objects collected over the last seventy years by an emeritus professor of the Sorbonne University in Paris during his travels to countries such as Congo, Mali, Gabon, Ghana, and Nigeria is being exhibited in Piacenza.
A passion born almost by chance and lasting a lifetime, it led him to collect over 150 masks, statues, and furnishings. Their diverse forms testify to the multiculturalism of a country inhabited by a plurality of populations, each with its own cultural identity and symbolism, whose similarities and differences can be best understood by seeing them displayed side by side.
Mboko ritual vessel,
mid-20th century.
Seated male and female couple,
mid-20th century. Dogon people, Mali.
PAINTING FROM MOROCCO (Giglio Collection)
Morocco is now a recognized hub for craftsmanship and design, a hub for the production of several European brands. In recent years, however, its art scene has also been experiencing a resurgence, thanks both to exhibitions in major museums and to the market, with excellent results at auction houses in New York, France, and elsewhere.
Particular attention is given to artists active from the 1950s to the present in Rabat, Marrakech, and Casablanca, who have developed their own artistic languages, in some cases self-taught. These include painters Fatima Hassan El Farouj and Chaibia Talal, with their naive figures reflecting local customs and traditions. Or Jilali Gharbaoui, who in her abstract works has incorporated the teachings she received at the Academy of Art in Paris, transcending them by giving form to the light, materiality, and strength of her homeland.
Hassan El Glaoui has also lived abroad, particularly between Paris and New York, but in his paintings he has always depicted moments of traditional Moroccan life, fantasies filled with men on horseback as a symbol of freedom.
The artistic production of Farid Belkahia is also somehow linked to tradition. Drawing on traditional Moroccan leather and metalwork, he creates abstract bas-reliefs in which natural forms blend and interpenetrate.
One artist who uniquely combined tradition and modernism was Mohamed Melehi, one of the founders of the Casablanca School movement. In his works, he often depicted waves that transform as they unfold across the canvas. These depictions were inspired by the artist’s observation of tribal products such as the Glaoui rugs of the Amazigh tradition.
Over the past ten years, the Giglio Collection has collected works by these and other Moroccan artists, and this will be the first opportunity to see them and appreciate their pictorial and material qualities.
Fatima Hassan El Farouj, Senza titolo, 2002.
Olio su tela cm 100 x 150.
Farid Belkahia, Senza titolo.
Tintura su pelle, montata su legno, 128 x 104 cm.
AFRICAN CONTEMPORARY ART (Collection 54)
For over thirty years, Collezione 54 in Milan has been collecting works by African artists or those linked to the diaspora, becoming a unique testimony to the variety of artists and types of works present: painting, sculpture, installations, photography, video art.
In Piacenza, he has chosen to present a selection of the highest quality works by internationally renowned artists who have participated in numerous art biennials and museum exhibitions.
Among the artists presented are Cameroonian Barthelemy Toguo, Congolese Cheri Samba, Angolan Edson Chagas, and South Africans Pieter Hugo and Zanele Muholi.
Cheri Samba, Cooperation Nord Sud. Acrilico su tela 55 x 62 cm.
Barthelemy Toguo, Take my breath away, 2012. Acquarello, 28 x 38 cm.
YOUNG VOICES OF AFRICA
The exhibition aims to give voice to young artists who are emerging nationally and internationally. Among them are Ako Atikossie of Togo, Victor Fotso-Nye of Cameroon, Ibrahim Ballo of Mali, and Sthenjwa Luthuli of South Africa.
Some of them will develop site-specific projects to better interact with the spaces of Palazzo Gotico.
The works will be presented in an exclusive installation developed by the Milan-based architectural firm Fosbury Architecture.
Ako Atikossie, Europe or absence, 65x40x40 cm. Courtesy Nashira Gallery, Milan.
Ibrahim Ballo, Le porteur de masque. Mixed media on canvas, 45 x 85. Courtesy Trium Gallery, Monza.
EDUCATIONAL PROJECT BY ARTI E PENSIERI
Particular attention was given to teaching through a collaboration with the Arti e Pensieri social cooperative, which has developed specific creative workshops for schools of all levels, families, and adults. Registration is available via email. didattica@sguardisullafrica.it
The sections of the exhibition
The exhibition was born from the encounter between Samuele Manin’s curatorial vision and the research and collecting work carried out by Paolo Giglio, together with his father Bruno Giglio.
The Sguardi sull’Africa project was also born as a gesture of gratitude towards the city of Piacenza.
Paolo and Bruno Giglio have chosen to share this heritage through a major public exhibition, recognizing Piacenza as a place capable of hosting and promoting a cultural project of international scope. In this sense, the exhibition is a gift to the city and its visitors, designed to foster knowledge, dialogue, and openness.
FROM MARCH 1
TO MAY 17, 2026
Palazzo Gotico
Piazza Cavalli, Piacenza
OPENING:
Mon-Fri: 10:00-13:00 / 15:00-18:00
Sat-Sun: 10.00am-7.00pm
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