An endless gallery of faces and portraits that cross time and speak to everyone. At Palazzo Blu comes ‘Razza Umana’, the Oliviero Toscani Studio project, which from 17 April to 29 June 2025 will bring a multitude of photographic portraits collected over the years by the great master of photography and brilliant communicator and his team to the museum.
The first exhibition dedicated to one of Oliviero Toscani's most famous projects opens in Italy, just a few months after his death.
Razza Umana (Human Race) is a socio-political, cultural and anthropological study that portrays the morphology of people to observe their peculiarities and characteristics, capturing differences and similarities. Oliviero Toscani, together with his students and collaborators, has travelled the world portraying human beings in squares and streets, setting up an itinerant photographic studio each time and collecting, to date, an archive of about 100,000 images. Toscani had also brought one of these sets to Pisa, in the months when Palazzo Blu was born, between 2007 and 2008, meeting dozens of people in the very halls of the palace, who lent themselves to be portrayed by his author's lens.
More than 500 images, in various sizes, are now exhibited at Palazzo Blu for the first time and are part of the exhibition's itinerary, which, alongside the ‘local’ faces, includes the many faces collected from around the world. The project is completed by the narration of some of the iconic images of which Toscani has been the author and which have marked his extraordinary career.
The ‘Razza Umana’ project continues to this day, thanks to a dedicated team, always remembering the motto of its creator who liked to say: ‘I am moved by the uniqueness of each individual and that is why I photograph human beings in their multiple expressions’. In the spirit of a project that continues, on the opening day of the exhibition, 17 April, the photographic set of ‘Razza Umana’ returns to Palazzo Blu, ready to welcome new faces to be portrayed.
The photo exhibition will be open from 2 p.m. on 17 April until 29 June:
- Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m;
- Saturday, Sunday and public holidays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m;
Tickets can be purchased online: https://www.vivaticket.com/it/ticket/razza-umana/263512
- Full price: 12.00 €
- Reduced price: 10,00 € (Groups, conventions, visitors over 70 years of age; Young people from 18 to 25 years of age, disabled people, FAI members, Unicoop Firenze members, Mura di Pisa, FIAB Pisa members, Amico BLU)
- Reduced price for young people: 5,00 € (Children from 6 to 17 years old)
- University concessions: 6,00 € (Valid for all university students and employees of the University of Pisa, Sant'Anna and Scuola Normale Superiore)
- Family adult: 10,00 € (Valid for families composed of 1 or 2 adults + Children from 6 to 17 years old - can be used together with Family Giovani)
- Family Young: 5,00 € (Valid for families composed of 1 or 2 adults + Children from 6 to 17 years - can be used together with Family Adult)
- Reduced school groups: 3 €
- Reduced school groups in combination with educational services: 2 €
- Free: (Children from 0 to 5 years old, conventions, 1 accompanying person per group; 2 accompanying persons per school group, accompanying person for the disabled, tour guides, registered journalists, ICOM members)
