The halls of Palazzo Frisacco in Tolmezzo (Udine), Friuli Venezia Giulia, are hosting from June 11 to October 26, 2025, an exhibition titled Many Faces, which is a visual itinerary through the female universe. Curated by Giovanna Durì, the exhibition is promoted by the Municipality of Tolmezzo, in collaboration with PromoTurismoFVG, Museo Carnico delle Arti Popolari “Michele Gortani,” Viva Comix Association, and with the contribution of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the support of Comunità di Montagna della Carnia, the Chamber of Commerce of Pordenone-Udine, the Pordenonelegge Foundation and the Academy of Fine Arts “G.B.Tiepolo” of Udine.
More than forty of the most significant names incontemporary illustration-from Lorenzo Mattotti to Gabriella Giandelli, from Franco Matticchio to Olimpia Zagnoli, from Pierre Bourrigault to Manuele Fior-have created a choral exhibition. Alongside these prominent signatures, the exhibition gives space to emerging young illustrators, selected with the contribution of Adriana Stroili and the Štěpán Zavřel Foundation of Sàrmede with its International School of Illustration, the first in the field to be established in Italy.
The inspiring core of the project is a collection of eighteenth-century female portraits kept at the Carnic Museum of Folk Arts. The faces of Carnic women, young and old, have aroused the curiosity of contemporary artists, thus becoming the starting point of a visual reflection on female portraits that spans the centuries. The results are embodied in three hundred works-mostly original or created by digital natives-that transform Palazzo Frisacco into a gallery of gazes.
The exhibition path is not rigidly defined, but built by juxtapositions of gazes that seek each other out, challenge each other, ignore each other, or sometimes look at each other or turn their backs on us. Sad looks, looks of encouragement, cheerful looks, lost looks, looks without form or depth, angry looks, but also sweet looks. In this dialogue, women portrayed yesterday and today observe each other across the centuries, letting similarities, differences, and questions emerge. If the figures of the past wore contemporary clothes, we could perhaps imagine them in the places of our everyday life: on the street, in a bus, inside a supermarket. And we would continue to wonder who they are, how they live, what they think, what they feel.
Among the artists present, Lorenzo Mattotti stands out, with a selection of more than 30 works belonging to the Anonymes series: portraits of women who emerge from memory, from fleeting encounters in the subway or from faces crossed in the street. Gabriella Giandelli presents her portraits some of which have been published in the newspaper La Repubblica (Giandelli worked for Louis Vuitton’s Travel Books). Pia Valentinis brings figures from her illustrated biographies dedicated to female scientists and writers to the exhibition. Also appearing are Manuela Bertoli’s Creative Creatures, Guido Scarabottolo ’s graphic work for the covers of the Guanda publishing house, Ivan Canu’s portraits, Beppe Giacobbe’s images, Olimpia Zagnoli ’s plates for The New Yorker, as well as works by Riccardo Guasco, Pierre Bourrigault, Manuele Fior and many other prominent names in the international illustration scene. Also of note is an original panel from The Flowers of Evil (Nuages, 2010) by New Yorker illustrator Milton Glaser.
Further enriching the exhibition is the section devoted to the review of auteur short films, in collaboration with the Small Animation Festival of the Viva Comix Association, curated by Paola Bristot, which presents internationally recognized authors with some of their debut films: Michele Bernardi, Virginia Mori, Stefano Ricci, Magda Guidi and Mara Cerri (showing some original plates from the comic book adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel L’amica geniale, first volume), Lucia Catalini, Gianluigi Toccafondo (assistant director of Matteo Garrone in Gomorra), Carlo Fusani.
In opposition to the repetitiveness of the digital snapshot, “of many faces” aims to propose a reflection on the uniqueness of the drawn gaze, the slowness of observation and the ability of drawing to shape the deepest look.
The exhibition is part of the GO!2025 & Friends program. For the occasion, for the first time, a single ticket has been activated that allows access to both the exhibition and the Museo Carnico delle Arti Popolari “Michele Gortani.” Special attention has been paid to schoolchildren who will be able to take advantage of a discounted rate to visit the exhibition. Students from the network of AFAM institutes - Alta Formazione Artistica, Musicale e Coreutica - from all over Italy will also be able to access the exhibition for only 2 euros; in the region, for example, students from the Accademia di Belle Arti GB Tiepolo in Udine, a partner in the project, will be able to take advantage of it. Thanks to collaboration with PromoTurismoFVG, with a view to promoting cultural tourism in the area, FVGcard and the Family Pass have been activated.
A rich 240-page catalog accompanies the exhibition. Edited by Giovanna Durì with Marco Belpoliti, the volume features color plates, critical and literary texts (including contributions by Claudio Piersanti, Paola Bristot), a section devoted to contemporary artists and one dedicated to the Ciceri Collection and other paintings in the Carnico Museum, with historical essays by Gilberto Ganzer and a text by Raffaella Cargnelutti.
“Of the many faces seen over time, few are those that will never change and belong to the world of drawing, made by important authors, but also by ourselves, when we were still children,” said Giovanna Durì, curator of the exhibition. “From the painted portrait, to the spontaneous sketch, to any other stroke that reminds us of a face, in the drawing of a face, just a few signs are enough to find the character of a subject or even have the suggestion of capturing what can be called its soul.”
Hours: Daily, except Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Tickets:
Single ticket (with the possibility of visiting the exhibition and the Michele Gortani Carnic Museum of Folk Arts): Full 9 euros, reduced 7 euros (FAI members - Fondo Ambiente Italiano), school groups 2 euros (one accompanying person free), AFAM students 2 euros.
Free entrance to the exhibition for children under 12 and people over 65, for disabled people and one accompanying person, for FVGcard holders (in Carnia, the FVG Card can also be used to visit the Museo Carnico delle Arti Popolari Michele Gortani, the exhibition in Illegio, the Casa delle Farfalle in Bordano; with it you can also use the ski lifts and downhill).
Reduction 50% for the whole family for Family Pass holders.
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| In Tolmezzo (Udine) an exhibition of women's faces created by more than forty contemporary illustrators |
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