Nobu at Elba Redux

For the first time in Milan, Giovanni Frangi’s monumental installation, consisting of sculptures and paintings on canvas, is on display, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the bed of a river.

Curated by Giovanni Agosti


Twenty years after its first appearance at the large stable of Villa Panza in Varese, the work of the Milanese artist is presented in a new setting, specially designed to interact with the spaces of the Stirling Room.

From October 30, 2025, to January 18, 2026, the Stirling Room at Palazzo Citterio will host Nobu at Elba Redux, a large installation by Giovanni Frangi, revisited twenty years after its first exhibition at the Scuderia Grande in Villa Panza in Varese.

The work returns to the public today in a new guise, in a space that enhances its visual power and immersive impact. As in the original version, the project is curated by Giovanni Agosti, with a new installation designed by architect Francesco Librizzi, who has successfully engaged with the architectural complexity of the Stirling Room: a large exposed concrete space, marked by a central pillar and a monumental staircase.

The installation consists of four large canvases totaling forty meters of painting, accompanied by twenty sculptures in burnt foam rubber, illuminated every 15 minutes. The effect evoked is that of a nocturnal and primordial nature, like the feeling of standing next to a river in an uninhabited landscape.
The title Redux is not only a reference to a return, but also a reflection on the passing of time and the possibility of reactivating a work in the present, remaining faithful to its original idea but in dialogue with a different space. An integral part of the project are also 135 sheets, exhibited together with the work, which recount the visual diary of its creation.

With Nobu at Elba Redux, Palazzo Citterio inaugurates an exhibition in which painting, sculpture, space, and light merge into a single sensory and meditative experience. An invitation to lose oneself in Giovanni Frangi’s inner landscape, between memory and presence.