Introduction

Authors

  • Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Sciences Po Grenoble, Pacte & School of Political Studies, Université Grenoble Alpes, France
  • Anna Chiara Cimoli Università degli studi di Bergamo
  • Leo Lecci Università degli studi di Genova
  • Paola Valenti Università degli studi di Genova

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62336/unibg.eac.36.599

Abstract

The introduction to this issue of Elephant & Castle addresses the concept of landscape from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective, challenging the common assumption that reduces it to a merely visible portion of territory or to a natural given to be observed. Landscape is thus interpreted by a plurality of scholars and researchers as a cultural, perceptual, and medial construction, taking shape through practices of representation, visual regimes, and codes for reading space, as well as a critical device through which to rethink contemporary forms of inhabiting.

Author Biographies

Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Sciences Po Grenoble, Pacte & School of Political Studies, Université Grenoble Alpes, France

Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary, Ph.D., is full Professor at Grenoble-Alpes University and the CNRS Pacte social sciences research center), France. She is an honorary member of the ‘Institut Universitaire de France’ and chairs the Commission on Political Geography of the International Geographical Union. Political geographer dedicated to border studies, her comparative analysis of the border dynamics in Latin America and in Europe, led her to formulate the notion of "mobile border. Her recent research concerns the interrelations between space and art, in and about contested places. 
She is a founding member of the antiAtlas of borders collective, a science-art project. She currently works on organizing exhibitions addressing the issues of borders and migration, examining the biases inherent in this approach to disseminating scientific findings and analyzing the conditions under which such initiatives are received. In 2025, she co-curated, alongside Andrea Masala and the Procuraduría collective, the exhibition Bordear, una idea de frontera at the Palacio de la Autonomía museum (Fundación UNAM, Mexico City). In 2026, she was an active member of the scientific committee that collaborated with the Science Museum in Paris on the Frontière exhibition (Cité des Sciences, la Villette).

Anna Chiara Cimoli, Università degli studi di Bergamo

Anna Chiara Cimoli is an art historian and museologist, and a lecturer in Contemporary Art History at the University of Bergamo. She holds a degree in Art History from the University of Milan, a specialization in Museology from the École du Louvre, and a PhD in History of Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Turin. Her research focuses on the relationship between social museology, migration, and participatory practices, with particular attention to the legacies of colonialism and the interpretation of contested heritage.
Since 2020, she has been curator of MUBIG, a community museum in Milan (in collaboration with ABCittà), and since 2024 she has coordinated “Galassia,” a participatory co-research project promoted by GAMeC in Bergamo. She is also a member of the steering committee of the project Personeper. Accessibility in cultural institutions, coordinated by the Fondazione Scuola del Patrimonio.
Anna is co-editor of the journal Roots§Routes. Research on Visual Culture and scientific director of the book series Museologia presente for Nomos Edizioni.

Leo Lecci, Università degli studi di Genova

Leo Lecci teaches Contemporary Art History and the History of Contemporary Graphic Design at the University of Genoa, where he also serves as director of the Archivio di Arte Contemporanea (AdAC). He was a visiting professor at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology and visiting researcher at the University of Grenoble (UGA). In 2025, he coordinated the project Genoa and the Nineteenth Century for the Municipality of Genoa, which involved the organization of more than 200 cultural events. He is the author of numerous critical essays on Nineteenth- to Twenty-first-century art, published in national and international books and journals. He has also participated in conferences in Italy and abroad and has contributed to the organization of exhibitions in both public and private venues. Furthermore, he is a member of the editorial board of the journal Kaypunku (University of Lima) and of the scientific committee of the series Archaeology, Art and Society published by Mimesis; he also co-directs the editorial series Giano bifronte for Genova University Press and Biblioteca di arte contemporanea for Sagep Editori.

Paola Valenti, Università degli studi di Genova

Paola Valenti is Associate Professor at the University of Genoa, where she teaches courses in the history of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art and architecture. Since 2019, she has been Adjunct Professor at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology; in 2024, she was Visiting Professor at Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), where she is also a member of the Pacte – Laboratoire de sciences sociales.
Her research interests focus on German art of the first half of the twentieth century; the relationships between art, architecture, and urban planning; artistic practices connected to issues of identity and memory; and colonial and postcolonial art, with particular attention to the work of Black British artists. She currently leads the Genoa research unit within the framework of the PRIN 2022 project “Construction and Deconstruction of Colonial Imagery in Twentieth-Century Italy: Cultural Heritage and Forms of Representation (CODEC).”
She is the author of monographs on Lucio Fontana, Ludwig Meidner, and Paul Klee, as well as numerous essays published in peer-reviewed journals, exhibition catalogues, and edited volumes at both national and international levels.

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Published

15-12-2025

How to Cite

Amilhat Szary, A.-L., Cimoli, A. C., Lecci, L., & Valenti, P. (2025). Introduction. Elephant & Castle, (36), 2–4. https://doi.org/10.62336/unibg.eac.36.599

Issue

No. 36 (2026): Raccontare il paesaggio

Section

Editoriale

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