From 10 April to 8 February 2026, Bologna hosts the exhibition “Georges Simenon. Eight Journeys of a Novelist”, curated by Gian Luca Farinelli and John Simenon, with scenography by Gianfranco Basili. The exhibition is organized by the Cineteca di Bologna in the spaces of the Modernissimo gallery, in the beating heart of the city, in Piazza Maggiore.
This exhibition is the result of a decade-long effort on the archive held by John Simenon, the writer's son, and is institutionally supported by the Municipality of Bologna, the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Ministry of Culture and in collaboration with Adelphi Edizioni.
"Few authors have succeeded in creating a universe made not only of stories - explain John Simenon and Gian Luca Farinelli - but above all of characters and atmospheres so evocative, capable of feeding the imagination of directors, screenwriters and producers. As Serge Toubiana notes, Simenon wrote with a filmmaker's method: he entered into his characters like a director, imagining the scenes, playing each role, reciting each line in his mind, before translating them into pages".
The exhibition traces the birth of Georges Sim, the pseudonym with which the writer made his debut, and tells the story of Georges Simenon, the brilliant creator of Inspector Maigret, capable of conveying, through his works, the anxieties and atmospheres of the twentieth century while he was searching for himself.
The journey develops in eight sections, starting from Liège, Simenon's hometown, up to Paris, where his prolific production began with the so-called food literature, signed as Georges Sim. It is in Paris that, still twenty years old, he meets Josephine Baker. In 1928, he undertakes a boat trip that he documents with a series of photographic reports. The following year he gives life to the character of Maigret, definitively assuming the signature of Georges Simenon.
The 1928 trip is documented by photographs and a rediscovered album that belonged to Tigy, his first wife. Another fundamental stage is his stay in the United States, where he met his second wife. Particular attention is paid to Italy, the country with the largest number of Simenon readers. His relationship with Italian publishing began in 1932 with Mondadori, and continued in 1984 with the move to Adelphi, after a long courtship by Roberto Calasso, culminating in the publication of works such as Letter to my mother, which also revealed his most intimate and literary side, beyond that of crime novelist.
The exhibition presents numerous unpublished materials, coming from ten public and private archives: manuscripts, typescripts, objects of his creative ritual – calendars, yellow envelopes with plot diagrams, the iconic pipes, pencils, photo albums curated by Tigy – together with notes, private photographs and correspondence with some of the greatest writers, intellectuals, editors and directors of the twentieth century.
The inauguration of the exhibition, which highlights the most creative and fascinating side of Simenon's life - the years between 1903 and 1936 - coincides with the fortieth anniversary of the release, in April 1985, of the first volume published by Adelphi in Italy: Letter to my mother.
