Curated by Michele Colombo, Edoardo Barbieri, Simone Pregnolato

In collaboration with Riccardo Belvisi, Martino Borghi, Micaela Brembilla, Marco Franchini, Eva Munck Wikland, Anna Viktoria Terzi, Anna Vigliani

Believing without illusions, loving without losing oneself, finding a way out of the evil that envelops and resides within us, and questioning whether an encounter can truly change life: these are the questions that emerge powerfully from the works of Pär Lagerkvist, the Swedish poet and novelist awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1951.

The exhibition dedicated to this great author offers a journey through the fundamental themes of his art, using his most famous novel, “Barabbas,” as a guiding thread. This exhibition engages in dialogue with Lagerkvist’s readers, both past and present, including Don Luigi Giussani and K.G. Hammar, Archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.

The exhibition is structured into seven thematic sections that trace the events of the novel “Barabbas.” Each section addresses a specific theme: encounter, desire, solitude, evil, love, nature, and the “you.” Each theme is represented by significant excerpts from the novel “Barabbas,” new translations of Lagerkvist’s poems, passages from his other narrative works, and excerpts from the speech Lagerkvist delivered on the occasion of his Nobel Prize award.

Additionally, the exhibition is enriched by two videos. The first features interviews with modern and contemporary readers of Lagerkvist, offering a current perspective on the impact of his work. The second video presents selected scenes from the film “Barabbas” by Alf Sjöberg from 1953, allowing visitors to immerse themselves even more deeply into the narrative and visual universe created by the author.