From an event that changed the history of Italian medicine, an exhibition arises that unites art, memory, and visual storytelling: OPEN HEART presents for the first time the original boards of the comic created by Valentina Gigante, an artist and neuropsychologist, dedicated to the first heart transplant performed in Padua by cardiac surgeon Vincenzo Gallucci. The exhibition narrates, through the language of graphic storytelling, one of the most significant pages in the history of Italian medicine: the first heart transplant performed in Padua by cardiac surgeon Vincenzo Gallucci.
From this historical event, four visual stories take shape that intertwine science, human destiny, and the profound meaning of donation. The exhibited boards allow the public to enter the heart of the creative process of the comic: the mark, the rhythm of the narration, the visual pauses, and the construction of the scenes become part of an exhibition path that restores the narrative power of the work. The exhibition invites close observation of the comic as an artistic language capable of addressing complex themes such as the fragility of the body, the responsibility of care, and the human value of transplantation. The project is part of the dialogue between art and medicine that characterizes the artist’s research. Two of her works dedicated to the themes of the heart and courage are indeed exhibited at the Museum of the History of Medicine in Padua (MUSME), strengthening the bond between artistic narration and the scientific memory of the city.
With an open heart, the comic thus becomes a meeting space between history, medicine, and the human dimension, offering the public an intense visual story that arises from a real event and transforms it into a narrative and artistic experience. The exhibition represents an opportunity to rediscover the comic as a form of art capable of telling reality, questioning the present, and returning, through drawing, the complexity of great human stories. The project takes inspiration from the history of Italian cardiac surgery and the path that led to the development of heart transplantation, one of the most significant areas of contemporary medicine. In particular, the narration starts from the figure of cardiac surgeon Vincenzo Gallucci, author of the first heart transplant performed in Italy in 1985 at the University of Padua.
Free entry – opening on April 11 at 11:30 AM.