CSAC Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione
The Valserena Abbey, traditionally identified as the Stendhal’s “The Charterhouse of Parma,” hosts since May 2015 the CSAC – Study Centre and Archives of the University of Parma, an archive-museum, which is also a research center, which collects 12 million works, original materials of visual communication, of artistic research and Italian design since the early decades of the twentieth century.
A treasure trove of wonders divided into five sections: Art, Photography, Media, Project and Entertainment.
A functional space where the museum area is discovered little by little, in a crescendo that culminates with the great Cistercian Church, with its profusion of works and projects.
It is impossible to mention them all. Lucio Fontana, Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferré, Achille e PierGiacomo Castiglioni, Nizzoli e Bellini per Olivetti, Man Ray, Luigi Ghirri, Dorothea Lange, Giò Ponti, Pier Luigi Nervi, Giuseppe Samonà, Armando Testa, Tullio Pericoli, Vincino, Enrico Baj, Mario Ceroli, Luciano Fabro, Emilio Isgrò, Enzo Mari, Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mario Schifano, Ettore Sottsass, Emilio Tadini, Sironi, Pomodoro and many others.
The church also houses a space dedicated to Pop Art, intended to be changed periodically to allow the archive to show all its resources.
Those which once were the monks’ cells now house a bistro and a guesthouse.
Come and discover the largest archive-museum of Communication and the Charterhouse of Parma!