Art Exhibitions 2026
The art exhibitions at Villa Magnani Park are part of the cultural itinerary offered on weekends and the guided tour during the week. They are not accessible independently: they can only be enjoyed as part of the guided tour of the park, which integrates activities, exhibitions, and experiences. Reservations are required and there is a fee.
Once Upon a Time – Incarnation of a Place Linda Zambolin and Francesco Tori Villa Magnani, Valle Cervo Opening:
July 19, 2026 Special Presentation:
July 25, 2026
This year, Villa Magnani presents its most significant exhibition, Once Upon a Time – Incarnation of a Place by Linda Zambolin and Francesco Tori, a project that returns to the very landscape in which it was created. The exhibition unfolds across two special dates—July 19 and July 25—each designed as a complete Villa Magnani experience combining a guided tour of the park, curated exhibitions, and a dedicated artistic event. To view the exhibition and take part in its program, visitors must reserve a place in one of the two scheduled activities.
On both dates, guests begin with a guided walk through the historic park, discovering the nineteenth‑century avenues, the carriage collection, and the cultural heritage of the villa. The tour then leads into the day’s special activity—on July 19, the AMSAP historic vehicle exhibition; on July 25, the musical performance by Anthony Cardella—before arriving at the heart of the experience: the photographic exhibition Once Upon a Time – Incarnation of a Place.
Created within the landscape of the Cervo Valley, the series is a meditation on place, memory, and our enduring relationship with the natural world. Through photographs taken amidst the valley’s woods, stone dwellings, and pastoral paths, the artists invite the audience to enter a quieter rhythm of observation, rooted in presence, reflection, and return.
The works emerge from a landscape shaped by generations of care, where traces of human presence remain imprinted in the earth. More than functioning as documents, these photographs become vessels of atmosphere and memory. Hand-colored and finished with layers of wax, they possess a tactile and luminous quality that evokes both the fragility and persistence of memory.
At the heart of the project is an invitation to reconnect: with the earth beneath our feet, with the elements of water, earth, air, and fire, and with those parts of ourselves that often remain unheard in the fast pace of contemporary life. The series speaks to a desire to belong—not as nostalgia, but as a renewed awareness of our participation in a living world.
Earlier this year, Once Upon a Time – Incarnation of a Place premiered at El Nido in Los Angeles, where it resonated deeply with visitors despite its distance from its hometown. Audiences were drawn to the stillness and mystery held within the images, responding to the universal themes of memory, habitation, and the human search for connection.
Now, returning to Valle Cervo, the photographs reconnect with the landscape from which they emerged. Presented at Villa Magnani, amidst the hills, woods, and traces of rural life that informed their creation, the exhibition invites visitors to slow down and encounter the works in dialogue with their place of origin. Here, image and landscape meet again, offering a meditation on memory, presence, and the enduring spirit of places.
Text by ©Victoria Chapman, Curator of Once Upon a Time – Incarnation of a Place by Francesco Tori and Linda Zambolin at El Nido, Los Angeles (2026) Exhibition conceived, curated and organized by ©Victoria Chapman and El Nido Project.
Exhibition of 19th-century carriages
June / September 2026
After a stroll through the historic park of Villa Magnani, along tree-lined avenues and amidst views that retain the charm of times gone by, the route leads to the collection of original 19th-century carriages, housed in the villa's most private spaces.
The exhibition presents an authentic selection of vintage means of transport, testimony to refined craftsmanship and a slow, measured way of travelling, deeply connected to the landscape.
The carriages on display represent various types used in the 19th century: from the lighter models intended for urban travel to the more structured and comfortable versions designed for long journeys or ceremonial occasions.
Each carriage tells a story of materials and ingenuity: hand-bent wood, iron reinforcements, leaf spring suspension designed to absorb the roughness of the roads of the time, spoked wheels designed to ensure stability and resistance.
The lighting systems, upholstered seats, and interior finishes testify to the evolution of comfort and mechanics in the pre-industrial period, revealing a technical know-how that is rare today.
Beyond the construction precision, what is striking is the emotional dimension: the rhythm of the hooves, the seasons passed through, the encounters, the departures and returns.
The carriages thus become narrative objects, silent guardians of distant lives, capable even today of evoking a different way of perceiving time.
This exhibition is an integral part of the weekend activities and the midweek guided tour. To learn about related activities and book the full package, please consult the Summer Program.
Bibliographic exhibition of the Roda brothers
June / September 2026
At the heart of the guided tour of Villa Magnani Park, the itinerary opens to a new section dedicated to nineteenth-century gardens and the imagination that generated them. Here, among yellowed papers, meticulous engravings, and rare volumes, the world of brothers Marcellino and Giuseppe Roda comes to life, landscape architects capable of transforming the landscape into a tale of perspective, chiaroscuro, and botanical harmonies.
The exhibition takes visitors through the birth of the Romantic garden: a place designed to excite, surprise, and guide the gaze.
The original pages, the illustrated plates and the period materials convey the Rodas' vision, their method, their ability to read nature as a continually evolving work of art.
This exhibition is not an external addition, but a natural progression: it is part of all private guided tours by reservation, both weekdays and weekends, and does not incur additional costs.
It is a moment of reflection that enriches the experience, intertwining history, landscape, and memory.