Under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic, Palazzo Madama - Civic Museum of Ancient Art in Turin presents an exhibition that, along with an extensive territorial project, aims to delve into the theme of the climate crisis, offering a synoptic view of the millennial changes along the course of the Po River, a paradigm of what is happening on a global scale.

Addressing the essential themes of climate change in an exhibition that weaves a visual narrative 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 on the theme of water and in particular on our Great River, which for millennia has shaped the landscape and life of the population, serving as a means of communication but also as an essential support for agricultural and industrial activities, and explores the consequences and analyzes the potential solutions implemented in the territory by various research and protection entities of the Po.

652 kilometers in length, 141 tributaries, almost 87,000 square kilometers of watershed, 19,850,000 inhabitants, 37% of Italian agricultural production, 55% of national livestock industry: the Po River and the Po Valley 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 has been made possible thanks to the historical stability and abundance of the flow of water from Italy's largest river, which comes from countless sources and diversified natural processes - mountain springs, snowmelt, glaciers, large lakes, and plain resurgences - but in recent decades have seen a significant change, leading to a crisis phenomenon that is occurring globally.

Due to its peculiarities and its wealth of memory, historical stratification, and landscapes, the Po River - Roman and pagan, Byzantine and Lombard, feudal and of the lordships, of the countryside and cities, romantic, agricultural, industrial, tourist, and cinematographic - is capable of emblematically and clearly conveying the climate crisis and its effects: the face of the planet is changing more rapidly than it has in the last millennia, and the role that humans have played in this process is now evident.

The exhibition Change! aims to describe these changes, offering opportunities for reflection on the crisis and possible adaptation scenarios, but also urging action and awareness: it is time to act.

With a strong scenic and emotional impact, thanks to the set design 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, initiating a narrative on the birth, history, and evolution of the Po Basin first and the Po River thereafter, focusing on the changes characterized by a secular trend and a sudden acceleration during the Anthropocene, our era.