The landscape of Emilia-Romagna, with its diverse identities and layers, takes center stage in *Sguardi sul paesaggio*(Views of the Landscape), an exhibition curated by Ilaria Di Cocco, Graziella Guadagno, and Laura Punzo and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Emilia-Romagna Region. The exhibition comes to Parma, in the Voltoni del Guazzatoio of the Pilotta Monumental Complex, where it will be open to the public from September 12 to 27, 2026.
The project features a selection of sixty photographs dedicated to some of the region’s most significant protected landscapes and unfolds across nine stops distributed throughout the Emilia-Romagna region. The images are displayed in venues of particular artistic and cultural significance, creating a direct dialogue between contemporary photography, historical heritage, and the landscapes depicted.
The Parma stop takes on special significance precisely because of the choice of venue. The Pilotta Monumental Complex, closely linked to the city’s history and the presence of the Farnese court, is in fact one of Parma’s principal cultural sites. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Pilotta Monumental Complex, the Superintendences of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape of Parma and Bologna, and the Emilia-Romagna Region. The photographic journey thus offers an opportunity to take a virtual tour of the entire region, from the Apennines to the plains, from the valleys to the salt flats that characterize the coastal strip along the Adriatic.
What emerges from the images is the diversity of a landscape heritage in which the presence of water is one of the recurring elements. At the same time, numerous photographs illustrate the relationship between human activities and settlements and the natural environment. Castles, villages, sanctuaries, trails, and roads, in fact, tell the story of the territory’s transformation over the centuries and bear witness to the continuous interplay between nature and human intervention.
The photographs do more than simply document places of particular beauty; they invite us to reflect on the significance of landscape conservation. Protecting the territory, in fact, requires an understanding of its characteristics, the preservation of the elements that make it up, and the ability to highlight its unique features.
The exhibition is based onbroad public participation. The initiative, promoted by the Technical-Scientific Committee for the Revision of the Landscape Plan, began with a photography contest organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Emilia-Romagna Region. The public response was significant: over two thousand photographs were submitted by citizens and photography enthusiasts, from which the images featured in the exhibition were selected. The project also benefited from the collaboration of various associations active throughout the region, including the Italian Federation of Photographic Associations, the Italian Touring Club, and the CAI. The exhibition thus also takes on a participatory dimension: the regional landscapes are depicted not only by professional photographers or institutions, but also by people who live in and visit these places daily and who, through their own eyes, have captured their characteristics, atmospheres, and transformations.
The exhibition is also accompanied by content from Tourer.it, a portal dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the cultural heritage of Emilia-Romagna. The platform brings together all the photographs submitted as part of the initiative and offers useful information for exploring the places depicted. In this way, the images can serve as a starting point for a firsthand experience of the region: after observing a landscape through the camera lens, the public can get to know it more intimately and visit it in person.
“Sguardi sul paesaggio” thus creates a journey that combines photography with the preservation and promotion of Emilia-Romagna’s heritage, transforming the exhibition into an invitation to observe the region more closely and to recognize the cultural value of its landscapes.
“Hosting the ‘Sguardi sul paesaggio’ exhibition at the Pilotta,” says Denis Ton, Director of the Pilotta Monumental Complex, “means welcoming a collective narrative of Emilia-Romagna, one capable of bringing the richness of its cultural heritage into dialogue with the extraordinary variety of its landscapes. The photographs invite us to look with fresh eyes at places that are part of our identity—such as the one taken at Torrechiara Castle—and, at the same time, remind us that understanding, protecting, and promoting the landscape is a shared responsibility. For the Pilotta, this is a precious opportunity to reaffirm its role as a space open to the city and the surrounding region, in the spirit of knowledge and participation.”
“The opening event of the ‘Sguardi sul Paesaggio’ exhibition,” states Maria Luisa Laddago, ABAP Superintendent for the provinces of Parma and Piacenza, “is not only an important moment for learning and discussion on the topic of landscape heritage—whose exceptional qualities are well represented in the photographs featured in the exhibition— but also an opportunity to showcase the results of the fruitful collaboration between the Ministry of Culture and the Emilia-Romagna Region regarding the work to bring the Regional Landscape Plan into compliance with the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape.”
““The exhibition,” emphasized Daniele Capitani, Head of the Territorial Governance Sector of the Emilia-Romagna Region, “ideally accompanies the process of adapting and updating the Regional Landscape Plan, helping to make the issues of landscape protection and enhancement increasingly accessible to citizens. The photographs on display capture the extraordinary richness and variety of Emilia-Romagna’s landscapes and, through diverse and original perspectives, highlight their cultural, identity-defining, and environmental value. The exhibition invites visitors to discover, explore, and experience the region’s landscape heritage, fostering a deeper awareness of its importance and strengthening the bond between communities, the territory, and our shared heritage.”
“The landscape,” concluded Alessandro Tassi Carboni, President of the Order of Architects PPC of Parma, “is a collective heritage that requires knowledge, care, and the ability to view the territory as a whole. For an architect, engaging with the landscape means taking on a responsibility that goes beyond design—namely, contributing to the creation of a conscious balance between the quality of places, conservation, and transformation. The exhibition *Sguardi sul paesaggio* represents an important opportunity to rediscover the richness and variety of the landscapes of Emilia-Romagna and to strengthen that sensitivity toward the territory that must accompany every decision regarding transformation.”
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| Views of the Landscape: At the Pilotta in Parma, 60 Photographs Depict the Protected Landscapes of Emilia-Romagna |
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