From 14 to 18 October 2026, the Stables of the Castello Sforzesco in Vigevano welcome "Oltre l'originale" (Beyond the Original), an exhibition and cultural project promoted by the Maddalena Grassi Foundation under the patronage of the City of Vigevano. Admission is free, every day from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, and the visit fits naturally into a stroll through the heart of the ducal town, just steps away from Piazza Ducale.

What's on display

The works on show were created in the rehabilitation workshops of the Psychiatric Day Centre run by the Foundation in Vigevano. Here, patients spent months reworking famous masterpieces from the history of art, rendering them anew through painting, drawing and sound. Each canvas, each panel and each soundtrack is not a copy but a reinterpretation: the masterpiece becomes a starting point for telling a personal story, a vision, an emotion.

Hence the title. "Beyond the Original" describes a movement: you set out from an image everyone recognises and arrive somewhere else, in a place that belongs only to the person who painted it.

A journey to be framed

The exhibition is designed to be explored with a smartphone in hand. Beside each work, a QR code opens a page that sets the patient's piece in dialogue with the original masterpiece, retracing the story, the path and the creative process that led from one to the other. Visitors thus discover not only the result but the journey taken to reach it. The organisers' chosen tagline says it plainly: every work is waiting to be framed.

When the exhibition is part of the treatment

The value of "Oltre l'originale" reaches beyond the artistic dimension. For those who made the works, showing them in a public space such as the Castello Sforzesco is an integral part of their therapeutic path: an experience that begins with the rediscovery of one's own abilities in the workshops and is fulfilled in sharing them with the community. A bridge is thus built between care and territory, allowing patients to see their commitment recognised and to open themselves to the town.

As Anita Russo, professional educator at the centre, explains, the Day Centre can be imagined as a gym for social life, where expressive workshops, digital literacy, physical activities and outings into the community offer opportunities to test oneself. Visiting public spaces and taking part in town events allows patients to move gradually from a protected setting to active, independent participation in local life.

The conference on 13 October

The exhibition opens as part of a day devoted to care pathways for severe mental illness. On Tuesday 13 October 2026, from 9:30 am, the Sala dell'Affresco of the Castello Sforzesco hosts the scientific conference "Integrated models of care in severe mental illness – from personalised treatment to recovery", coordinated by Dr Mario Gennaro Mazza, consultant psychiatrist in charge of the Villa Rondo Medium-Assistance Psychiatric Community in Vigevano. The initiative is promoted by the Maddalena Grassi Foundation under the patronage of ATS Pavia, ASST Pavia, the City of Vigevano, the Province of Pavia and Vita-Salute San Raffaele University.

About the Maddalena Grassi Foundation

Active for thirty-five years, the Maddalena Grassi Foundation is one of the leading providers of home care and home palliative care in the Milan area, with specific expertise in paediatric care. Every year it assists more than two thousand patients and their families. In Lombardy it also runs services dedicated to severe illness and disability, including psychiatry, with a presence in Vigevano stretching back more than twenty years.

Practical information

"Oltre l'originale" is open from Wednesday 14 to Sunday 18 October 2026, from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, at the Second Stable of the Castello Sforzesco in Vigevano, Piazza Ducale 20. Admission is free. The Castle is about a ten-minute walk from Vigevano railway station; those arriving by car will find parking in the streets around the historic centre.

The visit pairs easily with a discovery of Piazza Ducale, the Bramante Tower and the Footwear Museum: an autumn weekend in Vigevano where art, for once, does not merely ask to be looked at, but to be framed.

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