Milo Manara’s plates enter Labirinto della Masone in Fontanellato for the first time, and Sky Arte chooses to cover this milestone in the new episode of Artbox, airing on Tuesday, October 20. The comic artist will be among the protagonists of the episode dedicated to the Italian exhibition landscape: a television feature bringing attention to an autumn exhibition promoted by Fondazione Franco Maria Ricci and to an encounter between two cultural languages often relegated to separate circuits—auteur comics and art institutions.
For Manara, this is not merely an appearance on the broadcasting schedule. Arriving at Labirinto della Masone places his imagery in a venue that builds its identity around publishing, collecting, and the physical experience of the visit. The plates, originally conceived for a reading process made of sequences, pages, pauses, and backtracking, are thus pulled away, at least in part, from the conventional dimension of publication to be observed as artworks displayed in space.
It is a tangible difference, not just a label. In a book or comic album, the reader controls time, moves panel by panel, and reconstructs the narrative rhythm independently. In an exhibition, however, the pathway, the distance from the works, the layout of the walls, and the relationship with other visitors all play a role. The very same plate can reveal the line work, the composition, and the framing with an immediacy distinct from reading in print.
A presence that expands the museum’s perimeter
The decision made by Fondazione Franco Maria Ricci holds significance precisely because it avoids treating comics as a secondary addition to cultural programming. Bringing Manara to Labirinto della Masone means acknowledging that serialized drawing and visual storytelling can support a museum visit without relinquishing their specificity. There is no need to transform comics into painting to legitimize their exhibition: their rules, from page pacing to the interplay between text and image when present, are integral to the value of the work.
For a town like Fontanellato, and more broadly for the cultural landscape of Emilia, events of this nature also have a local territorial impact. An exhibition provides a reason to travel, connecting a potentially broad audience to a specific destination and linking the visit with bookstores, local businesses, hospitality, and other cultural venues. The urban value of an institution therefore does not coincide merely with the building that houses it: it depends on its ability to become a stop along an itinerary and to engage communities that would not normally visit that space.
The case of Manara is particularly suited to this bridging role. His renown spans readers across multiple generations and reaches beyond the core comic book enthusiast base. An exhibition dedicated to his original plates can therefore serve as a bridge between audiences with different habits, introducing fans of drawing and illustration to Labirinto della Masone, while also prompting those already familiar with the venue to look at comics through a less conventional lens.
This does not diminish a crucial issue: displaying plates is not inherently equivalent to explaining the medium of comics. The quality of such a project is also measured by its ability to keep the relationship between individual images and the story, the editorial context, and the work behind them visible. An isolated original artwork can be visually compelling, but comics also rely on continuity, ellipsis, and pacing. The exhibition layout must therefore strike a balance between highlighting the individual plate and conveying the language from which it originates.
Artbox as an orientation tool
The October 20 broadcast is the third episode of the new season of Artbox, Sky Arte's weekly program covering exhibitions, artists, curators, historians, and experts active in Italy. Manara's appearance is part of an episode structured around diverse locations and themes, aiming to provide a necessarily partial map of the current cultural landscape.
Among the other segments announced is Shilpa Gupta's exhibition One Palm Closer to the Sky at GAM Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan, produced as part of the eighth edition of Furla Series. Presenting it are Bruna Roccasalva, the exhibition curator, and Paola Zatti, chief curator of GAM. In the segment Memorie dal presente, Maria Vittoria Baravelli speaks instead with psychotherapist and essayist Matteo Lancini, president of Fondazione Minotauro in Milan, taking Edvard Munch's Il bacio as a starting point to address the relational challenges of teenagers and young adults.
The program will also make a stop in Fabriano, at the former tannery transformed into the home of Polo museale di Zona Conce. Here, Rosa Rita Silva, president of Fondazione Carifac, and art historian Fabio Marcelli introduce Mannucci. Fuoco e genesi, an exhibition curated by Marcelli and dedicated to Marche sculptor Edgardo Mannucci.
The composition of the episode clarifies the editorial role of Artbox: not a ranking of events, but an orientation format that brings together established institutions, converted venues, and exhibition projects diverse in language and audience. In this context, Manara's presence at Labirinto della Masone is not presented as an odd footnote. It becomes one of the reference points in a broader narrative about how exhibitions are distributed across the country and which works are today considered worthy of being placed at the center of cultural programming.
Comics outside their niche, without losing the page
The most interesting takeaway remains the shift in perspective suggested by the exhibition. For a long time, comics were predominantly perceived as an editorial product, tied to the book market, serialization, or private enjoyment. That dimension remains essential and is not replaced by an exhibition hall. However, a museum can provide useful conditions to observe aspects that the page, on its own, tends to make less immediate: the materiality of the stroke, corrections, page design, the interplay between black and white or between colors, and the architecture of the images.
For the audience, the result can be a less intimidating gateway to cultural visits. Comics are a medium familiar to many, yet no less complex for it; they can serve as an entry point toward more attentive viewing practices and toward spaces that might otherwise risk seeming distant. For institutions, conversely, the challenge lies in not using a well-known name merely as promotional leverage, but rather in shaping a project that brings to light the artistic and editorial rationale behind the exhibited work.
The broadcast on Sky Arte comes just as the autumn exhibition from Fondazione Franco Maria Ricci brings Manara to Labirinto della Masone. The show does not replace an in-person visit, but it can amplify its reach and spotlight an initiative that speaks as much to comics as to how museums and foundations choose to redefine their audiences. On Tuesday, October 20, the segment dedicated to the master of comics will offer a first national window into this convergence of comic art, exhibition space, and local territory.
