MUSEC, Lugano, Spazio Cielo, 19 March–5 July 2026
The exhibition at the Museum of Cultures in Lugano (MUSEC) features a selection of papercuts (jiǎnzhǐ, 剪紙 in Chinese) from the Ceschin Pilone Collection.
These exquisite cut-outs are a clear example of folk art – once passed down from mother to daughter within the home – from which the artist Zhang Hong Mei draws inspiration for her use of cut-out fabrics in the composition of her works. Inscribed by UNESCO in 2009 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the art of papercutting has ancient roots. The papercuts from the Ceschin Pilone Collection are contained in a folder from 1956, produced in Beijing by the Art Services Department of the Chinese Artists’ Union, and exported by Guozi Shudian, a state-run body responsible for the publication and distribution of books and cultural materials aimed at overseas audiences with the aim of promoting Chinese culture to the rest of the world. The works demonstrate how the folk art of papercutting became, in those years, the preserve of professional artisans – predominantly male – tasked with reconstructing an imagery serving political ends, where animals and plants were replaced by human figures: national heroes, legendary figures from literature and theatre, but also men, women and children happily working in the fields under the bright sunshine (a symbol of the new China).
Even today, particularly during New Year celebrations, weddings and birthdays, paper cut-outs hung in windows are said to bring good luck, health and prosperity.

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WOPART, Lugano, Centro Esposizioni, 18th-21st of November 2021

A fine selection of Japanese albumen photographs from the Ada Ceschin and Rosanna Pilone Foundation in Zurich, deposited at MUSEC in Lugano, are exhibited for the first time at WOPART.

Produced in Japan by European and local photographers between the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, these photographs, skilfully hand-painted, were the subject of a market aimed at foreigners visiting the Archipelago, a market created essentially to satisfy the exotic taste of travellers. The pictures, in fact, illustrate a world artfully recreated in the photographic studios of the time. Geisha, kendoka, sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors and samurai, to name but a few, presented Westerners with an ideal and aesthetic vision of Japan: a world with an ancient flavour that in reality was fast disappearing under the influence of modernisation and westernisation. The images on display propose a reality for the use and consumption of a Western audience and, at the same time, recreate the ‘little old world’ of traditional Japan, already gone at the time.…

Mia Photo Fair, Milan, Superstudio, 7th-10^th of October 2021

A fine selection of Japanese albumen photographs from the Ada Ceschin and Rosanna Pilone Foundation in Zurich, deposited at MUSEC in Lugano, are exhibited for the first time at MIA Photo Fair.

Produced in Japan by European and local photographers between the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, these photographs, skilfully hand-painted, were the subject of a market aimed at foreigners visiting the Archipelago, a market created essentially to satisfy the exotic taste of travellers. The pictures, in fact, illustrate a world artfully recreated in the photographic studios of the time. Geisha, kendoka, sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors and samurai, to name but a few, presented Westerners with an ideal and aesthetic vision of Japan: a world with an ancient flavour that in reality was fast disappearing under the influence of modernisation and westernisation. The images on display propose a reality for the use and consumption of a Western audience and, at the same time, recreate the ‘little old world’ of traditional Japan, already gone at the time.…

Milan, 29 Arts in Progress gallery, 9th of April – 22nd of May 2021

29 Arts in Progress gallery and the Museo delle Culture di Lugano (MUSEC) present a fine selection of photographies from the Ceschin Pilone Collection about Japanese flowers and gardens. The Western point of view about Japan was greatly influenced by these images, figuring out Japan as an always-blooming idillic country.

The exhibition also shows the Japanese perspective about flowers. In the local artistic tradition flowers become significant time-markers indicating the time flowing in a ciclic view of life linked to the concept of impermanence in Buddhism.…