The En route project (February 15 – December 20, 2025) follows the theme of travel, as conveyed to the world by the Holy Father in his motto, Pilgrims of Hope. It originates from the significant rediscovery, within the Vatican Library, of the archive inherited from Cesare Poma—a diplomat, scholar, tireless and inquisitive traveler, and meticulous collector of all forms of human testimony. His collection spans books, coins, works of art, periodicals, gala dinner menus, postcards, cutting-edge photography of his time, and theatrical posters.
As research into this archive and the Library’s holdings progressed, as often happens when engaging with stories of the past and contemporary artists, an increasing number of female figures emerged—women who, in the height of the Victorian era, defied rigid cultural stereotypes and embarked on their own unique tour du monde. Whether journalistic, political, broadly cultural, archaeological, or promotional, their journeys also deserved to be highlighted within the exhibition.
Engaging in dialogue with this extraordinary collection and the theme of travel are three internationally renowned creatives, each with a dynamic spirit and a dazzling artistic vision, operating in distinct areas of the contemporary scene: singer-songwriter Lorenzo Jovanotti Cherubini, graphic artist Kristjana S Williams, and artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri. This pairing struck us as promising—perfectly aligned with the Vatican Library and the spirit that has animated it since its foundation, best encapsulated by the Latin playwright Terence: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto—“I am human, and nothing human is alien to me” (Heaut., 77).
The exhibition also provides an opportunity to catalog the 1,260 periodicals from the Poma collection, thanks to a research grant sponsored by Maison Dior. This collection is so diverse in language and subject matter that it cannot be studied by a small team alone.
The Vatican Library in Dialogue with Contemporary Art
This marks our sixth exhibition, continuing a journey that began in 2021. Previous exhibitions featured Pietro Ruffo, who reinterpreted ancient and precious travel cartography; Maria Lai, whose woven words conversed with printed and manuscript books; Dutch book designer Irma Boom, engaging with the collection of Futurist books; Sidival Fila, exploring the reuse and recycling of book materials; and Alain Fleischer, whose lens as a photographer and filmmaker captured the spaces and multilingual Babel of the Library’s shelves and archives.
Each exhibition allows the Vatican Library to grow in institutional self-awareness, rediscover lesser-known parts of its heritage, and even acquire new artistic works.