Sillabari d’Appennino: Images, Memories, and Resistance in the High Lands

From 18 December 2025 to 22 February 2026, XNL Piacenza hosts Sillabari d’Appennino, an exhibition that places the highlands at the centre as a physical, symbolic, and human space, seen through the lenses of Alessandra Calò and Sergio Ferri.

Passo_Fregarolo__©SergioFerri

Curated by Enrica Carini, the project unfolds as a journey of discovery and remembrance, intertwining photography, poetic language, sound, and installation in a layered narrative of the contemporary Apennines.

XNL – the Centre for Contemporary Art of the Fondazione di Piacenza e Vigevano – continues a long-standing reflection on territory, expanding its focus beyond the urban sphere to explore mountainous landscapes shaped by biodiversity, tradition, and deep-rooted identities. As Fondazione President Roberto Reggi notes, the exhibition is an homage not only to these places but also to the people who inhabit and care for them on a daily basis.

Ortica_alessandracalo

The exhibition brings together two distinct yet complementary artistic investigations. Rogazioni Silvestri – Erbario Mistico d’Appennino by Alessandra Calò originates from an artist residency in the mountains of Reggio Emilia and explores the ancestral bond between humans and their natural habitat. Created using ancient photographic printing techniques, the images enter into dialogue with poems by Mara Redeghieri, evoking pagan rituals, archaic litanies, and a sacred dimension of the landscape. The result is an intimate narrative in which territory becomes an archive of myths, legends, and collective memories that still resonate in the present.

AltaValNure_©SergioFerri

Sergio Ferri’s Terre Alte shifts the focus to the upper Piacenza Apennines, presenting a gallery of faces, gestures, and fragments of landscape. His approach avoids nostalgia or idealisation, instead offering a careful reflection on the conscious choice to live in the mountains, marked by effort, isolation, and everyday resilience. Ferri’s photographs portray a humanity that continues to exist—before it resists—raising questions about the tension between urban modernity and alternative ways of life.

Sillabari d’Appennino is conceived as an immersive and multidisciplinary experience. Visitors encounter a miniature forest alongside spaces dedicated to pause, listening, and reflection. An original soundscape, created by the Department of New Languages of XNL Musica, runs throughout the exhibition, enhancing its sensory dimension.

XNL Piacenza

Via Santa Franca 36, Piacenza

18 dicembre 2025 - 22 febbraio 2026