Kristjana S Williams, The Facade Stamps, 2025

 

'En Route' at the Vatican Apostolic Library

Vatican City

Open Saturdays 9AM - 6PM, until 20th December 2025

Book your visit HERE

 

Earlier this year, Kristjana S Williams was invited to be part of the exhibition 'En Route' at the Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome, celebrating the 2025 Jubilee 'Pilgrims of Hope', curated by Don Giacomo Cardinali, Simona De Crescenzo, Francesca Giannetto, and Delio Vania Proverbio.  'En Route' is an exhibition that focuses on travel throughout history, as a tool of learning and cultural exchange, and a method of emancipation and exploring identity.

With the theme of travel inspiring the exhibition, Kristjana has created 8 new artworks, which are exhibited around the library alongside installations by Maria Grazia Chiuri, former Creative Director at Dior, and musician Lorenzo Jovanotti Cherubini.

Kristjana spent 18 months creating the works with her team, beginning with research trips to Rome to visit the archives of the Vatican Library, and culminating in 10 days of carefully pinning each element, before hand-delivering the works to the exhibition. Kristjana was able to explore the library's vast archive of never-before-seen materials, including original engravings, manuscripts, and the 'Poma Periodici', a collection of 1,200 documents amassed by Italian diplomat Cesare Poma on his travels around the world. Chosen materials from the archives were scanned, cleaned up, coloured, and redesigned in Kristjana's characteristic fantastical style, to be included throughout her map designs.

 

Kristjana S Williams, Poma's Journey: Continental Drift (triptych), 2025

A major work created for 'En Route' is the triptych 'Poma's Journey: A Continental Drift'. Detailing the story of 19th Century Italian diplomat Cesare Poma, this 3D cartographic marvel depicts the journey Poma took around the globe between 1885 - 1907, imagining what he may have seen on his travels, and weaving Poma's own achievements and personal history throughout.

Each section of the triptych is linked by bridges that begin in one third and cross over into the next. As well as a visual symbol of the physical act of moving between continents, these bridges signify the 'bridging of the gap' between cultures, celebrating the cultural exchange and broadening of knowledge that Cesare Poma was passionate about throughout his career, as evident in his vast periodical collection.

Between 1901 - 1904, Poma had the position as the first Italian Consul to China. Kristjana has acknowledged this in the work by bordering each panel with the Chinese coastline, and including elements like a fantastically transformed Chinese lantern, now a bright orange dangling crab. Many other fantastical creatures, such as a bird with a stag's head and an antelope with reptilian features, can be found throughout the piece, celebrating the awe and sense of wonder that comes with travel.

 

Kristjana S Williams, Leroy and Papillaud World Map, 2025

The 'Leroy and Papillaud World Map' tells the story of French journalists Lucien Leroy and Henri Papillaud, the creators of the 'En Route' journal, which the exhibition is named after, and which financed their travels as they published issues on the go. The pair travelled from 1895, spanning Central Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas, then returning to Europe in 1897. Two 'Cloud Skimmers' accompany this map, smaller pieces focusing on whimsically redesigned hot air balloons, further exploring the different modes travel, and signifying the sense of freedom in adventure.

 

Kristjana S Williams, Mexico Map (top left), Vietnam Map (top right), Tree of Life: Roots to Routes (bottom left), Cambodia Map (bottom right), 2025

Kristjana created four other map works inspired by Leroy and Papillaud, focusing in on Mexico, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The 'Mexico Map' contains references to the 1,500 year old Mayan Chichén Itzá, with a diorama inspired by the Biblioteca Palafoxiana in Puebla, the first and oldest public library in the Americas. The 'Vietnam Map' is accompanied by a diorama depicting a never-ending staircase, representing the mysteries and surprises often encountered when travelling. Finally the 'Cambodia Maps' consist of two circular collages, depicting the natural world merging with the man-made, featuring ancient stone buildings inspired by the Angkor Wat complex of temples, which Leroy and Papillaud likely came across in their travels. Each of these map works are filled with fantastical versions of local flora and fauna, and references to the duo's travels.

The final work within the library is the 'Tree of Life: Roots to Routes', a reimagined version of the tree of life, a motif that was the focus of Kristjana's first ever collage work! The Tree of Life's significance for this exhibition lies in it's universality; the Tree of Life is a motif that is cross-cultural, reaching far back in history, signifying unity across the world as a symbol which is familiar to all.

 

 

In addition to the works inside the exhibition, Kristjana was honoured to have the opportunity to display a series of flags on the face of the Vatican Library, the first time artwork has been hung on the Vatican's facade. The individual flags spell out the exhibition title, each one signifying an inspiration or artist involved in the exhibition.

To read more about each of the artworks Kristjana created for 'En Route', including a deep dive into the details of each piece, check out her blog post HERE

 

Also included in the exhibition are installations by Maria Grazia Chiuri, and Lorenzo Jovanotti Cherubini.

Maria Grazia Chiuri's installation focuses on six pioneering Victorian women, all of whom defied social constraints and used travel as a means of emancipation; Annie Londonderry (the first woman to cycle around the world), Elizabeth Bisland and Nellie Bly (raced each other around the world in 1889-90; Bly achieved a record breaking 72 days), Gertrude Bell (travelled throughout the Middle East learning both Farsi and Arabic, and helped establish the Museum of Iraq in Baghdad), and twins Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson (scholars who learned 12 languages between them, cataloguing over 1,700 manuscripts from their travels). In collaboration with Karishma Swali and artisans from the Chanakya School of Craft in India, this installation explores how textiles, embroidery, and fashion can celebrate cultural heritage and act as symbols for transformation, independence and identity.

Lorenzo Jovanotti Chreubini's eclectic installation celebrates journey in both the physical and symbolic sense; the journey from past to present, the journey through memories, the journey through artistic expression. Jovanotti showcases his innate love of travel through storytelling, music-making, and drawing, alongside a soundtrack created specially for the exhibition, all greeting visitors at the entryway of the library. Jovanotti also collaborated with the Chanakya School of Craft on a series of textile torans hung above the doorways in the space, a traditional Indian decorative doorhanging denoting a sacred gateway, hung as a sign of welcoming. Here, the torans welcome you into the 'En Route' exhibition, and are invitations for visitors to begin their own journeys.

 

'En Route' continues at the Vatican Apostolic Library every Saturday until the 20th December 2025 - book your visit HERE.

'En Route' at the Vatican Apostolic Library

Vatican City

Open Saturdays 9AM - 6PM