Around forty wooden sculptures, spears, shields and the majestic poles of the Asmat ancestors at the Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography in Parma, from May 22nd 2026 to June 6th 2027
Some forty wooden sculptures, spears, shields, and the majestic poles of the Asmat ancestors: the Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography in Parma opens its doors to one of the most remote and fascinating cultures on the planet. From May 22, 2026, to June 6, 2027, the exhibit "Asmat: Sculpture Guardian of the Soul" will to the museum the extraordinary artistic tradition of the Asmat people, ancient guardians of the island of Papua, with the patronage of the Municipality of Parma and AMEI (Association of Italian Ecclesiastical Museums).
Among the peoples who have most successfully preserved their cultural identity, the Asmat occupy a particularly prominent place. The inaccessibility of their territory has protected a fascinating and remote civilization for centuries, making initial contact with the outside world possible only recently, and maintaining a cultural coherence rare in the contemporary ethnographic landscape.
In the Asmat world, everything is spirit. A belief that permeates every aspect of daily life and finds its most powerful expression in wood carving: precious artifacts that are not simple works of art, but living guardians of the souls of the ancestors. The constant need to seek balance and communication between the world of the living and the dead, between the human community and the pervasive realm of spirits, shapes every gesture, every form, every symbol.
The exhibition will feature approximately forty works, including sculptures, spears, shields, and the large bisj poles, the celebrated ancestor poles that epitomize the deepest meaning of this tradition. The exhibition also offers insights into the transformations that have swept through Asmat culture over the centuries: ritual practices such as cannibalism and headhunting—no longer present today—were part of a cultural horizon that has reinvented itself. In more recent times, the rivalry between villages has found its privileged language in art, through sculpture competitions that produce unique artefacts, capable of communicating the most intimate and profound aspects of this extraordinary civilisation to the present.
"Over the centuries, Asmat society," notes Father Enzo Oliviero Verzeletti, director of the Museum, "developed a complex symbolic system in which art, ritual, and the relationship with ancestors were closely intertwined. Some practices of the past, no longer present today and unacceptable to contemporary sensibilities, belonged to that cultural horizon. In the 20th century, contact with the outside world brought about a profound transformation of the community and its ritual expressions. The wooden sculptures on display testify to this evolution and the vitality of an artistic tradition still capable of speaking to the present."
Maurizio Salvarani, curator of the exhibition and archivist at the Museum, emphasizes: "One of the most interesting aspects of the Asmat is that, in the short span of about fifty years, during which contact has become more frequent, a true local intellectual community has developed, including anthropologists capable of thoroughly investigating their culture from within."
The Collection and Heritage - The exhibition is made possible thanks to the donation of the Fardella-Azzaroli Collection and follows in the footsteps of the great ethnographic collections begun in 1901 by Saint Guido Maria Conforti, founder of the Congregation of the Xaverian Missionaries and the Chinese Museum: a heritage of extraordinary historical and anthropological value, which the Museum has preserved and promoted for over a century.
Information and Inauguration
The free opening of the exhibit will be held on Friday, May 22nd at 6:00 PM. A guided tour with the curator Maurizio Salvarani will follow, followed by a light buffet..
Visit to the exhibit is included in the museum admission price: €5 for adults - €2 for minors. Free admission: disabled visitors, journalists with a valid press card, and teachers accompanying school groups.
For Information and Visits, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The visit to the exhibition is included in the museum entrance ticket: €5 standard, €2 minors. Free: disabled people, journalists with a card, teachers accompanying school groups.
Museum opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm and from 3 pm to 7 pm. Sunday from 3 pm to 7 pm. Closed on Mondays.
Museum entrance: €5 (adults) €2 (under 18) which includes a visit to the permanent collection. Contact us at 0521-257.337.
Info: Museo d’Arte Cinese ed Etnografico, viale San Martino, 8 – 43123 Parma
Tel: 0521-257337 sito www.museocineseparma.org
