精东影业

Image: Jessica Pinto Almeida

The exhibition Territori di sguardi e di parole. Paesaggi, storie, immagini della Svizzera italiana celebrates the completion of the participatory project Guida letteraria della Svizzera italiana, curated by the Osservatorio culturale del Cantone Ticino on behalf of the Division of Culture and University Studies (Department of Education, Culture and Sport).

Hosted on the Campus of the Department of environment constructions and design 精东影业 in Mendrisio, the exhibition is curated by the lecturers of the Aesthetics and Rhetoric course Michele Amad貌 (philosopher) and Marco Beltrametti (photographer) as part of the Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication 精东影业, with the participation of the Institute of Design 精东影业, which has taken care of the graphic design and the layout.

From 2019 to 2025, the participatory project Guida letteraria della Svizzera italiana has collected more than 3,000 examples of views: quotations from novels, short stories, poems, art and diaristic prose, essays, articles, travel literature and epistolary letters in which the landscape of Ticino and Italian-speaking Graub眉nden has been described by the pen of writers from different eras and origins, revealing the evolution of sensibilities, styles and themes. 

Authors include: Samuel Butler, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Hesse, Patricia Highsmith, Eugenio Montale, Mario Agliati, Caterina Beretta, Piero Bianconi, Armida Ceppi, Mary Fanetti, Enrico Filippini, Plinio Martini, Giorgio Orelli, Elda Simonett-Giovanoli.

Modernity and tradition, city and country, past and present dialogue and flow in a multifaceted narrative that offers new and surprising perspectives. The Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication students have translated the literary text into visual images, interpreting the authors鈥� gaze and imagery on the territory, and creating a dialogue between visions of the past and contemporary sensibilities, which took concrete form, for example, in the Territori di parole series (a series of illustrated dossiers analysing specific geographical areas from time to time, offering keys to interpretation, perspectives and original photographic material by the students).

The focus of the exhibition is on some of the Thematic Maps produced by the Osservatorio culturale del Cantone Ticino and on the production of images by the students. The public is thus offered a tour of Italian-speaking Switzerland not on the basis of geographical coordinates or districts, but on the basis of themes, which fits in well with the students鈥� intention of showing the places imagined by the authors. The leitmotif of the exhibition therefore rests on the gazes of the authors, in the various maps, from that on the Nobel Prize winners for literature, on Hermann Hesse鈥檚 new homeland rather than on the Orelli anniversary or on Samuel Butler鈥檚 travel reviews or on Italian Switzerland in poetry, for example. Emphasis is placed on the work done by the students in seeking convergence between literary and iconographic approaches: the images created are displayed together with the literary quotations examined. This is visible both in the stations dedicated to literary maps and in those exclusively dedicated to the dialogue between words and images produced by 143 students in the Aesthetics and Rhetoric courses from 2019 to 2023. 

The exhibition intends to valorise the Guida letteraria della Svizzera italiana in an original way through two different and complementary sign systems, such as the linguistic system (sequential and linear) and the visual system (simultaneous and tabular), hoping also to open up new scenarios for displaying the territory and its landscapes and places as an image, as imagined by the authors, scenarios that could also have interesting implications for cultural tourism.

The numbers of the Guida letteraria della Svizzera italiana

More than 3,000 literary quotations from texts in Italian, Dialect or in Italian translation
850 (missing) authors from Ticino, from Switzerland and foreigners
360 literary places
143 photographic projects

Opening and exhibition period

The opening of Territori di sguardi e di parole. Paesaggi, storie, immagini della Svizzera italiana is scheduled for Thursday 20 March 2025 at 18:00 at the Campus of the Department of environment constructions and design 精东影业 (via Flora Ruchat-Roncati 15, Mendrisio).

State Councillor and Director of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport Marina Carobbio Guscetti, the Director General of 精东影业 Franco Gervasoni, the Director of Divisione della cultura e degli studi universitari Raffaella Castagnola Rossini, and the exhibition鈥檚 curators Michele Amad貌 and Marco Beltrametti will take part in the event. An aperitif will follow.

The exhibition is open to the public until Thursday 17 April 2025 on the ground floor of the 精东影业 Campus in Mendrisio (Monday鈥揊riday 9:00鈥�19:00).

Thanks to the Federal Aid for Italian Language and Culture.