CHAGALL A VERCELLI: MARC CHAGALL IS LANDING IN PIEDMONT — and Bringing Fifty Dreams With Him

Here’s a name you don’t usually see paired with Vercelli: Marc Chagall. And yet, from October 13, 2026 to March 29, 2027, this quiet Piedmontese city — better known for its rice paddies than its blockbuster art shows — is about to host one of the most anticipated exhibitions of the season. Fifty original works by one of the most recognizable painters of the 20th century, installed inside a deconsecrated church. If that combination doesn’t already have you intrigued, keep reading.

Why Chagall a Vercelli, of All Places

The exhibition lands at Spazio ARCA, housed in the striking former Church of San Marco — already a stunning venue on its own, and now the second chapter of an ambitious multi-year plan to put Vercelli on Italy’s cultural map. (In 2025, ARCA hosted a major show on Italian Expressionism; Chagall is the natural next step up.) The project is promoted by the City of Vercelli and produced by Arthemisia, in collaboration with the Fondazione Giuseppe Iannaccone in Milan — the same names behind some of Italy’s biggest touring exhibitions in recent years.

What the Show Is Really About

This isn’t a greatest-hits wall of colorful lovers floating over rooftops (although, don’t worry, there’s plenty of that too). The curatorial thread running through the exhibition is loss of homeland — a theme Chagall knew intimately. Born in Vitebsk (Belarus) in 1887, he was forced to leave his native city for good in 1922, and watched it get wiped off the map when German forces destroyed it during World War II in 1941.

Rather than framing him as simply “the painter of nostalgia,” the exhibition presents Chagall as something more urgent: an artist who turned exile into a universal visual language, and whose reflections on memory and uprooting feel unsettlingly relevant today. Expect to move through the recurring obsessions of his career — love, religion, animals, dreams, poetry — while a series of self-portraits scattered throughout the rooms act almost like a personal guide, Chagall walking you through his own life.

A dedicated section, curated by Daniele Fenaroli, adds another layer: works by Italian artists who were contemporaries of Chagall, drawn from the Collezione Giuseppe Iannaccone, placing his visual language in dialogue with 20th-century Italian sensibility.

The Practical Bits of the Exhibition Chagall a Vercelli

• Exhibition: Marc Chagall
• Dates: October 13, 2026 – March 29, 2027
• Venue: Spazio ARCA, former Church of San Marco, Vercelli
• Works on display: around 50 original pieces
• Organized by: City of Vercelli, produced by Arthemisia, in collaboration with Fondazione Giuseppe Iannaccone

Tickets are already on sale — worth booking ahead, since this is the kind of show that tends to fill up fast once word gets around.

Make It a Piedmont Day Trip

Here’s a little insider logistics tip: Vercelli sits less than an hour from Turin by train, right in the middle of Piedmont’s famous rice country. If you’re planning a base in Turin anyway — and if you’ve got my Turin guide (now also available as an audio guide) queued up for your trip — this is an easy, richly rewarding day trip to slot in between city days.

Once you are done with the Marc Chagall exhibition, you can dedicate the rest of the day to the discovery of this beautiful city founded in the fourth century BC. by populations of Celtic-Ligurian origin. At the end of the museum tour of Spazio ARCA, you will find some interesting ideas for your visit to the city, but if you want to organize your itinerary in advance, I have created a post with a small guide to discover Vercelli in an afternoon.

Therefore, stop for lunch (don’t worry, there are no “places-for-tourists” here, so, whatever place you choose, it will be authentic) to taste the traditional dish, panissa. The Vercelli panissa (a little different from the Novara one which is called paniscia) is a risotto made with Sant’Andrea rice (the most suitable) or Arborio, Baldo or Carnaroli and Saluggia or Villata beans. The rice is initially seared in a sautéed onion and lard (no butter or oil) and then cooked accompanying cooking with bean broth and a fatty salami.

Another traditional and unique dish that you can try is risotto with frogs. And, be aware that frogs are a delicacy here: you will find them fried Vercelli-style, in frog omelette or stewed. To finish, without weighing down an already demanding meal, there are bicciolani, delicious spice biscuits, excellent with coffee or a good passito.

In short, rice paddies on the way there and the dreamy world of Chagall on arrival, a city to be discovered and a nice peasant lunch: the best way to spend an alternative day. Have a nice trip!