“CHANGE! Yesterday, today tomorrow. The Po”

Under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic, Palazzo Madama – Civic Museum of Ancient Art of Turin presents an exhibition which, together with a very broad territorial project, intends to delve deeper into the theme of climate crisis, offering a synoptic view of the millennial changes along the path of the Po rivera paradigm of what is happening on a global scale.
The project was born in dialogue with theDepartment of City Care, Public Green and River Banks of the City of Turin and from the collaboration between Palazzo Madama and fundamental national partners, who have always been committed to the issues of environmental conservation and protection, primarily thePo River District Authority (ABDPO) and theInterregional Agency for the Po River (AIPo) together with the Po Biosphere Reserves, now united in the UNESCO Po Grande MaB Reserve. Alongside them, the Turin interpreters, from Polytechnic University of Turin toUniversity of Turinat the European Research Institute who daily carry out research and study of the Po and water in general from different disciplinary perspectives, and with the media partnership of Rai Radio3.

Addressing the essential themes of climate change in an exhibition that weaves a visual story entirely developed in the interaction between great painting and photography, illustration and infographics capable of narrating the Italian landscape in its complexity and articulation, from the Alps to the sea, the exhibition project focuses attention on the theme of water and in particular on ours Great Riverwhich for millennia has determined the landscape and the life of the population, is a means of communication but also an essential support for agricultural and industrial activities, and explore the consequences And analyzes potential solutions implemented in the territory by the various research and protection bodies of the Po.
652 kilometers in length, 141 tributaries, almost 87,000 square kilometers of hydrographic basin, 19,850,000 inhabitants, 37% of Italian agricultural production, 55% of the national livestock industry: the Bit and the Po basin, where 40% of the national GDP is produced, constitute one of the areas with the highest concentration of population, industries and commercial activities in Europe.

This incredible development was made possible thanks to the historical stability and abundance of the flow of the waters of the largest river in Italy, which come from countless sources and diversified natural processes – mountain springs, snow melting, glaciers, large lakes and plain springs – but That in recent decades they have seen a significant changeleading to a crisis phenomenon that is occurring everywhere globally.
Precisely because of its peculiarities and its carrying of memory, historical stratification and landscapes, the Bit – Roman and pagan, Byzantine and Lombard, feudal and lordships, countryside and cities, romantic, agricultural, industrial, tourist and cinematographic – is capable of portray the climate crisis and its effects in an emblematic and clearly perceptible way: the physiognomy of the planet is changing more rapidly than it has done in the last millennia and the role that human beings have played in this process is now demonstrated.
The exhibition Change! aims to describe these changesoffering opportunities for reflection on the crisis and possible scenarios for adapting to itbut also of urge to action and to awareness: it’s time to act.

From the strong scenographic and emotional impactthanks to the exhibition project by Emilio Alberti and Mauro Zocchetta, the exhibition opens with a formidable installation capable of projecting the landscape of ten million years ago, then narrated through the world of fossils, astonishing historical maps, infographics and original illustrations created by Jacopo Rosati, starting a story on the birth, history and evolution of the Padano Basin first and of the Po afterwards, with a focus on the changes characterized by a secular trend and a sudden acceleration during the Anthropocene, our era.

There second section illustrates natural life and human work in the Po basin area through photographs and paintings by great artists partly coming from the collections of the Civic Museums of Turinso as to underline the exceptionality not only of the GAM’s heritage and Palazzo Madama, but also the historical funds ofPhotographic archive: oils, watercolours, etchings and temperas Giovanni Michele Graneri, Jean Louis Daudet, Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti, Antonio Fontanesi, Carlo Pittara, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo and other great artists will be combined with photographs of masters such as Vittorio Sella, Mario Gabinio, Riccardo Moncalvo, Franco Fontana, Mimmo Jodice And Bruna Biaminoto restore fragments of daily life, traditions, activities and relationships of the people who live along the banks of the Po river, as well as outlining the Po Valley landscapes through the centuries.

AtAnthropocene instead the third section. Around 1950 the emission of large quantities of greenhouse gases reversed the process of neo-glaciation, generating a phase of anthropogenic climate warming, which is what the current drought on the Po tells us: the decrease in its flow, caused by the thinning of the alpine glaciers, causes a decrease in water reaching the Delta.
The story in images created by Mondoserie.it it is a crystalline example of the way in which man originally looked at the Earth and how this gaze has become progressively less far-sighted, to the point of losing sight of the overall horizon which, however, is now revealed with disruptive events.

The shallows of the Po are the local symptom of a global problemthat of the reduction of glaciers and polar ice caps, told in the exhibition through satellite images which show the map of the Po river basin, with the hundreds of blue veins that descend from the Alpine and Apennine valleys to then come together and give shape, in the Po Valley, to the great blue trace of the Po that flows into the Adriatic. A hydrographic network that appears like a set of “blood vessels” that provide the territory with the lifeblood of the aqueous element, necessary for the very survival of the plant and animal world, and which, in recent years, has undergone radical changes: in some periods of the year the large river bed is reduced to piles of gravel and sandcolonized by bushes and young plants, the tributaries are dry and the delicate ecosystem of the Delta is put at risk by the rising salt wedge.

There However, the Italian drought is a unique casebecause it derives from one of the many paradoxes that characterize our country: although Italy is the fifth in Europe in terms of rainfall after Croatia, Ireland, Austria and Slovenia, we are the one that stores the least water overall, since we are unable to store it .
Faced with this scenario it is necessary to imagine new solutions: the mitigation and theadaptation must include not only actions that contribute to reducing the vulnerability of human beings to the current (or expected) impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather phenomena and sea level rise, but also new agricultural protocols that guarantee food security and compensate for the loss of biodiversity, as well as the production and supply of energy from sources alternative to existing ones, laying new foundations for a more balanced relationship between man and nature.
The images of Adaptation.it they invite us to rediscover the ability to correct our own mistakes, to mitigate them, and the possibility for man to explore new solutions, giving space to his incredible ability to adapt to new, unexpected and often unfavorable situations, exploiting inventiveness, tradition and simple common sense.

The exhibition Change! fits into a plus large project that Palazzo Madama dedicates for the whole of 2024 to the themes of people’s rights and self-determination, the climate and Europe and represents the culmination of a reflection started in April with the Planet Week together with the World Bank on the occasion of G7 Climate, Energy and Environment and developed through the exhibition Max Pinckers. State of Emergency and which will see a collateral exposure activated Memories of water. Words and images by theItalian Linguistic Atlas; cycles of international conferences and conventions organized byPo River District Basin Authorityfrom theDepartment of City Care, Public Green and River Banks of the City of Turin, with a thick one program of activities, workshops, laboratories and days at reduced rates which will involve the entire citizenry in the rediscovery and protection of the great water artery.

The exhibition, curated by Tiziana Caserta, Anna La Ferla And John CF Villawill be accompanied by a catalogue, published by Silvana Editorialwith contributions – among others – from scholars ofUniversity of Turinof theUniversity of Bergamoof the Polytechnic of Turinof the Politecnico di Milanoof theAENEASOf Slow FoodOf Adaptation.it and of Mondoserie.it.

USEFUL INFORMATION:

Press release Change!

Program Activities exhibition Change!