Baring It All – EXPOSED Torino Photo Festival, Turin
The EXPOSED Torino Photo Festival returns from April 9 to June 2 for its third edition, under the artistic direction of Walter Guadagnini and curated by CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia. Titled “Baring It All” (Mettersi a nudo), it invites reflection on identity, representation, and the relationship between body and image. The program features 18 indoor and outdoor exhibitions, including works by Bernard Plossu at the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences, Yorgos Lanthimos in the Crypt of San Michele, Paola Agosti at the National Museum of the Risorgimento, and at the State Archives, works by Belloc with 19th-century studies of the female body, von Gloeden with sensual Sicilian images, and Mollino with his famous Polaroids exploring the nude as artifice and obsession. The festival connects established artists with emerging practices, interpreting the theme through various languages and contexts.
Toni Thorimbert. Women in Plain Sight, CAMERA, Turin
From April 9 to June 2, CAMERA hosts “Toni Thorimbert. Women in Plain Sight” (Donne in vista), an exhibition dedicated to the late art critic Luca Beatrice. Featuring portraits of the photographer’s mother and daughter, the show presents around sixty photographs spanning over thirty years of Thorimbert’s career, all centered on the female figure. The images, which include both celebrated women and anonymous figures, highlight Thorimbert’s versatility across fashion, formal portraiture, and intimate shots.
Cecilia Vicuña – The Gone Glacier, Castello di Rivoli, Turin
Castello di Rivoli opens its doors from April 29 to September 20 to Cecilia Vicuña’s first solo exhibition in an Italian museum, “The Gone Glacier” (El glaciar ido), curated by Marcella Beccaria. The exhibition features a new commission for the Manica Lunga, a “quipu acostado” (lying quipu), a suspended horizontal installation inspired by ancient Andean knot-based writing systems used for recording information. The show also includes video works, bringing images, sounds, and chants that have been integral to the artist’s practice since her beginnings, along with newly written poems.
GAZA, the Future Has an Ancient Heart. Materials and Memories of the Mediterranean, Fondazione Merz, Turin
Fondazione Merz, the Egyptian Museum of Turin, and MAH – Musée d’art et d’histoire of Geneva present “GAZA, the future has an ancient heart. Materials and memories of the Mediterranean” (GAZA, il futuro ha un cuore antico. Materie e memorie del Mediterraneo), running from April 22 to September 27. This major international exhibition restores Gaza’s deep historical and cultural significance as a millennial crossroads, prompting reflection on the universal value of heritage as a site of memory, identity, and future. The project displays approximately eighty archaeological artifacts from MAH and the Egyptian Museum, alongside works by contemporary Palestinian and international artists such as Samaa Emad, Mirna Bamieh, Khalil Rabah, Vivien Sansour, Wael Shawky, Dima Srouji, and Akram Zaatari. Enriched by photographs of Gaza from the UNRWA archive, the exhibition engages with the debate on the destruction of cultural heritage.
Diego Marcon, Xin Liu, June Crespo and Lenz Geerk, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo opens four new exhibitions on April 15. Diego Marcon’s “Krapfen” (until August 2) features a video work exploring terror and annihilation within a childlike setting. Xin Liu’s “EXHAUST” (until October 11), her first solo show in Italy, investigates the residues of technological aspirations. Lenz Geerk’s “Theatre of the mind” (until October 11) is his first Italian institutional solo exhibition, presenting silent and introspective paintings. Finally, June Crespo’s “Danzante” (until October 11), her first Italian institutional show, displays sculptures and installations that engage with the body and visitor perception.
Walter Pfeiffer, Amedeo Modigliani, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Peter Fischli, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin
From April 30, Pinacoteca Agnelli presents a monographic exhibition on Walter Pfeiffer, “In Good Company” (until September 13), his first institutional show in Italy, featuring over one hundred works that intertwine art, photography, and fashion. The “Beyond the Collection” series continues with “Modigliani Under the Skin” (Modigliani Sottopelle), which places Modigliani’s “Nu couché” in dialogue with three other masterpieces on loan. The Pista 500 is enhanced with new site-specific installations: “FLAGS FOR ZEPHYR” (BANDIERE PER ZEFIRO) by Nathalie Du Pasquier, featuring fifteen colorful flags along the building’s facade, and “ADDITION, SUBTRACTION, MULTIPLICATION” by Peter Fischli, connecting architectural space with the repetitive mechanisms of human experience, travel, perception, discovery, and wonder.
Summer 69, Giorgio Griffa Foundation, Turin
To celebrate Giorgio Griffa’s ninetieth birthday, the Giorgio Griffa Foundation presents “Summer 69” from April 9 to June 2. The exhibition recalls the summer of 1969, a foundational period for the artist in Turin, where Griffa, Paolo Mussat Sartor, and Gian Enzo Sperone first met. It showcases several canvases from that era alongside Sartor’s original photographs, reconstructing the dialogue between artwork and image and between the time of creation and memory. The exhibition is completed by a selection of crucial works from the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The Drake’s Enemies. Enzo Ferrari and the British Teams, MAUTO – National Automobile Museum, Turin
Until October 11, MAUTO – Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile hosts “The Drake’s Enemies. Enzo Ferrari and the British Teams” (I Nemici del Drake. Enzo Ferrari e le scuderie inglesi), curated by Carlo Cavicchi, Mario Donnini, and Maurizio Cilli. The exhibition features 23 iconic vehicles – 22 Formula 1 single-seaters and a legendary Mini Morris – to recount three decades (1960s-1980s) of technical innovation and rivalry between Ferrari and the British racing teams, whom Enzo Ferrari disdainfully called “the garagisti” (garage owners). The exhibition is enriched with 28 helmets, 4 racing suits worn by Jim Clark (1965), Jackie Stewart and Vittorio Brambilla (1972), and Riccardo Patrese (1978), race programs, and a Ford Cosworth DFV engine, illustrating an industrial and cultural revolution that redefined the world of racing.
Queens on Stage, Reggia di Venaria, La Venaria Reale
From April 17 to September 6, the Reggia di Venaria presents “Queens on Stage” (Regine in scena), an exhibition exploring how cinematography has portrayed the figure of the queen as a symbol of royalty, power, authority, and charm. The exhibition offers a careful selection of costumes that have shaped the image of queens in film and theater, often beyond historical accuracy, as universal archetypes. On display are iconic outfits worn by historical figures like Marie Antoinette (played by Kirsten Dunst for Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film, costumes by Milena Canonero), mythological ones like Medea (played by Maria Callas in Pasolini’s 1969 film, costumes by Piero Tosi), and fantasy queens such as the Queen of Selvascura from Garrone’s Tale of Tales (played by Salma Hayek in 2015, costumes by Massimo Cantini Parrini).
Mimmo Rotella 1945 – 2005, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa
Palazzo Ducale in Genoa dedicates a major retrospective to Mimmo Rotella, one of the absolute protagonists of 20th-century Italian and international art. The exhibition, curated by Alberto Fiz and realized in collaboration with the Mimmo Rotella Foundation, opens twenty years after the artist’s passing and surveys over sixty years of his career, highlighting the complexity and contemporary relevance of his research into the relationship between art, image, and contemporary society. The décollage, Rotella’s most radical symbolic gesture, is the focal point of the exhibition, featuring emblematic works such as “Naturalistico” (1953), “La tigre” (1962), “Il punto e mezzo” (1963) – among the first interventions on the advertising world – and “Tenera è la notte” (1962), alongside several pieces dedicated to his most famous icon, Marilyn Monroe. Later works include a large “Senza titolo” from the 1990s and “Attenti,” the artist’s last major décollage. The exhibition is also enriched with archival materials and audiovisual documents, creating an immersive journey through contemporary art history.
Josef Albers, Meditations, Villa Panza, Varese
From April 9 to January 10, 2027, Villa Panza hosts “Meditations” by Josef Albers, curated by Nicholas Fox Weber. Thirty masterpieces from the “Variant/Adobe” and “Homage to the Square” series demonstrate Albers’ extraordinary ability to explore the impact of color and create the illusion of depth and movement on two-dimensional surfaces through carefully considered combinations of tones and geometric forms. His modern and seemingly simple compositions engage in dialogue with the villa’s architecture, Renaissance furnishings, and collections of African and pre-Columbian art, resonating with exceptional clarity in the intimate rooms.
Performa Cavalese, Contemporary Art Museum Cavalese
From April 15 to May 3, the Museo Arte Contemporanea Cavalese presents “Performa Cavalese,” curated by Elsa Barbieri. Inspired by the New York biennial dedicated to performing arts, the exhibition transforms the museum into a dynamic space for encounter and experimentation. Over three weeks, three artists from Trentino will present three works or installations each, which will remain on display for a week. Saturdays will be a central moment for the project: each artist will engage with visitors in participatory events such as workshops, talks, or performances. The protagonists of this first edition are: Leonardo Panizza (b. 1998), active in digital arts, video, and cinema (April 15-19); followed by Johannes Bosisio (b. 1994), known for research blending painting, sculpture, and technology (April 22-26); and finally, Angelo Demitri Morandini (b. 1975), a conceptual artist and multidisciplinary researcher (April 29-May 3).
Pignotti 100. Pop-Visual Poems, MART, Rovereto
From April 24, the Mart in Rovereto dedicates an in-depth exploration to Lamberto Pignotti (Florence, b. 1926), one of the founding fathers of Italian Visual Poetry, in occasion of his centenary and in collaboration with Collegio Cairoli di Pavia. The exhibition “Pignotti 100. Pop-Visual Poems” (Pop-esie visive), running until October 18, primarily focuses on the 1960s and 1970s – the most revolutionary and fertile period of Pignotti’s research – when he theorized and practiced technological and visual poetry, intertwining words, images, news photographs, advertisements, and mass communication languages. On display is a selection of artworks, artist books, sound poems, cine-poems, correspondence, vintage photographs, flyers, posters, and documentary materials that illustrate the ferment of the verbovisual neo-avant-gardes, alongside works from the Pignotti donation and the Archivio di Nuova Scrittura and Tullia Denza collections.
Anachronisms and Dyschronies. Italian Art from the 1980s to Today, Palazzo delle Albere, Trento
From April 24 to September 6, Palazzo delle Albere hosts “Anachronisms and Dyschronies. Italian Art from the 1980s to Today” (Anacronismi e discronie. Arte italiana dagli anni Ottanta ad oggi), curated by Margherita de Pilati and Ivan Quaroni. The exhibition investigates how, over the past forty years, a significant part of Italian art has chosen to work seemingly “against its own time,” establishing an irregular, intermittent, or deliberately anachronistic relationship with history. The exhibition offers an in-depth look at over four decades of contemporary Italian art, exploring the return to painting, anachronism, and dyschronic currents.
Evelyn Taocheng Wang. Sweet Landscape, MUSEION, Bolzano
From April 25 to November 8, MUSEION in Bolzano presents “Sweet Landscape,” the first Italian institutional solo exhibition by Evelyn Taocheng Wang, curated by Leonie Radine. The artist, known for her unique visual language spanning painting, writing, installation, performance, and fashion, invites reflection on the relationship between foreground and background, visible and invisible, and between external landscapes and internal states. For the exhibition, Wang conceived a scenography with numerous new paintings on various media, inspired by her previous works and her impressions of Bolzano gathered during visits to the city. One source of inspiration was Piazza delle Erbe, with its colorful displays of fresh organic fruit and vegetables, evoking miniature landscapes. These compositions of different colors, textures, and forms echo her personal artistic narrative. By incorporating references to Bolzano’s visual specificities and her perception of Italian culture, Wang inserts herself into the panorama with humor, sensitivity, and poetic nuances.
A Sphinx Attracts Him. Maximilian of Habsburg and the Egyptian Collections between Trieste and Vienna, Miramare Castle, Trieste
Until November 1, the Stables of Miramare Castle host “A Sphinx Attracts Him. Maximilian of Habsburg and the Egyptian Collections between Trieste and Vienna” (Una Sfinge l’attrae. Massimiliano d’Asburgo e le collezioni egizie tra Trieste e Vienna), curated by Massimo Osanna, Christian Greco, Cäcilia Bischoff, and Michaela Hüttner, and resulting from a collaboration with the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Produced by MondoMostre and CoopCulture, the exhibition displays over one hundred artifacts that reveal Maximilian of Habsburg’s dream and his far-sighted vision: the creation of an ideal museum to showcase his eclectic collections. In addition to loans from Vienna and some works from the Miramare collection, artifacts from the Civico Museo d’Antichità J. J. Winckelmann in Trieste are also present, demonstrating how Maximilian’s passion for Egyptology reflected a widespread taste in 19th-century Trieste collecting.
Peggy Guggenheim in London. Birth of a Collector, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents “Peggy Guggenheim in London. Birth of a Collector” (Peggy Guggenheim a Londra. Nascita di una collezionista) until October 19. This is the first and largest museum exhibition ever dedicated to Peggy Guggenheim’s London adventure and her first gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, active between 1938 and 1939. The exhibition illuminates a crucial period that defined Peggy Guggenheim as a collector and patron, highlighting the network of influences and friendships – from Marcel Duchamp to Mary Reynolds to Samuel Beckett – that shaped her vision. The show brings together key works exhibited in those pioneering shows, as well as similar pieces from the same period, by artists such as Eileen Agar, Barbara Hepworth, Rita Kernn-Larsen, Henry Moore, Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Cedric Morris, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Archival materials are also included, testifying to an era of intense experimentation and cultural ferment just before the outbreak of World War II.
Giulio Malinverni, Still Life, Living Nature, Ca’ Pesaro, Venice
From April 21 to June 14, Ca’ Pesaro’s Project Room hosts “Still Life, Living Nature” (Natura morta, Natura viva), a project by Giulio Malinverni that explores the dialogue between natural material and artistic intervention through a series of works created on stone (marbles, alabasters, and onyx). This revives an ancient practice: painting on stone supports, a tradition that flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries. With this return to painted stone technique, Malinverni seeks continuity with a practice born from in-depth research into the relationship between painting and matter. The pictorial intervention, reduced to the essential, can transform mineral substance into a flower, a plant, feathers, or an animal’s coat, as if it were possible to lighten the matter itself, modifying its perception rather than its substance. The works on display thus testify to a constant tension between nature and artifice, between mineral immobility and biological vitality: the “dead” nature comes alive thanks to painting that acts as a gesture revealing and following the intrinsic qualities of the material.
1948-1958 Murano Glass and the Venice Biennale, Le Stanze del Vetro, Venice
The third chapter of the exhibition project dedicated to the presence of Murano glass at the Venice Biennale, “1948-1958 Murano Glass and the Venice Biennale” (1948-1958 Il vetro di Murano e la Biennale di Venezia), is scheduled from April 19 to November 22. Curated by Marino Barovier, the exhibition examines the decade from 1948 to 1958, covering the resumption of the Biennale’s activities after World War II and throughout the 1950s. Featured are “historic” furnaces like Venini, with works by Fulvio Bianconi and Paolo Venini; Barovier & Toso, with glass by Ercole Barovier; Seguso Vetri d’arte, with Flavio Poli; Aureliano Toso with Dino Martens; Fratelli Toso with Ermanno Toso; or AVEM with the research of Giulio Radi, Giorgio Ferro, and Anzolo Fuga; and the S.A.L.I.R. engraving company.
Patrick Saytour. The Fold and Time, Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro, Venice
From April 18 to November 22, Palazzo Vendramin Grimani opens its spaces to “The Fold and Time” (Le pli et le temps / La piega e il tempo) by Patrick Saytour, the French artist’s first exhibition in Italy, curated by Daniela Ferretti. The exhibition, part of the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro’s research and exhibition program, presents Saytour’s work for the first time to the Italian public. It is characterized by folds, cuts, burns, tears, solarizations, seams, and surfaces that refuse a stable form, defining a true existential vocabulary. The palace’s decorated rooms, views of the Grand Canal, stuccoes, floors, and the very architecture of the building become a frame and counterpoint for folded, burned, or sun-exposed fabrics. The fragility of the artist’s material meets the solidity of stone and history, creating a dialogue of echoes and contrasts, vulnerability and permanence, silence and memory. Each room becomes a threshold, an experience where the work must be perceived even before it is observed.
MUVEC – House of Contemporaneity, Mestre
Mestre is preparing to welcome a new space dedicated to contemporary art: MUVEC – House of Contemporaneity (Casa delle Contemporaneità), the new museum of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The project, realized in collaboration with the municipal administration, takes shape thanks to a significant transformation of the spaces of the Candiani Cultural Center. Developed over two floors, the new museum will house a permanent collection of art from 1948 to today and an area for temporary exhibitions, alongside spaces for educational activities and workshops, with the aim of becoming a benchmark for contemporaneity in the metropolitan area. The opening is scheduled for April 25.
Beyond the Clouds, XNL, Piacenza
Until July 5, XNL in Piacenza hosts “Beyond the Clouds” (Oltre le nuvole / Beyond the Clouds), a project curated by Chiara Gatti, Paola Pedrazzini, and Gianmarco Romiti, with the participation of the Storyville collective. The project investigates the theme of the sky and its metamorphoses through an art exhibition, a theater review, and a sound installation. The exhibition interweaves paintings, sculptures, site-specific installations, and film sequences, exploring the theme of clouds in their visual and symbolic dimensions. The journey is entrusted to the gaze of eighteen contemporary artists – Olivo Barbieri, Leandro Erlich, Laura Grisi, Jeppe Hein, Dominic Kiessling, Laetitia Ky, Piero Manzoni, David Medalla, Filippo Minelli, Marie-Luce Nadal, Mauro Pace, Gabriele Picco, Marco Ricci, Martin Romeo, Denis Santachiara, Mario Schifano, Fausta Squatriti, Alfred Stieglitz, and Storyville – placed in an ideal dialogue with key figures from ancient and modern times, serving as iconographic references for a timeless visual tradition.
LUX. Visions on Light – PARMA 360 Festival of Contemporary Creativity, Parma
From April 18 to June 2, 2026, the PARMA 360 Festival of Contemporary Creativity celebrates its tenth anniversary, reaffirming its identity as a privileged observatory on Italian art and creativity. For its tenth anniversary, the festival chooses “LUX” as its theme. In a world saturated with images, “LUX. Visions on Light” (LUX. Visioni sulla Luce) becomes an invitation to rediscover light as a universal language, living matter, and expressive medium. Light inhabits urban and museum spaces with installations, performances, and works that question the boundary between real and perceived, between energy and form, constructing a collective narrative on the use of light in contemporary art.
Virtue and Grace. Figures of Women in Baroque Painting, La Galleria BPER, Modena
Until June 28, 2026, La Galleria BPER in Modena presents “Virtue and Grace. Figures of Women in Baroque Painting” (La virtù e la grazia. Figure di donne nella pittura barocca), an exhibition curated by Lucia Peruzzi. The exhibition brings together a significant selection of 17th-century paintings from the BPER Group collection and important institutional loans. It offers a thematic journey through Baroque painting, focusing on the centrality of women – saint, virgin, martyr, biblical heroine, pagan goddess, seductress, allegory – within a path articulated in five thematic sections that intertwine devotion, myth, power, and sentiment. It places works by masters such as Lucio Massari, Guido Cagnacci, Ludovico Carracci, Rutilio Manetti, Domenico Piola, Sisto Badalocchio, Giovanni Battista Castiglione, Giacomo Cavedoni, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Alessandro Tiarini, and Valerio Castello in dialogue with works from the Civic Museum, the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, and private collections.
Ghosts of the Everyday – XXI European Photography, Reggio Emilia
From April 30 to June 14, 2026, Reggio Emilia once again observes contemporary changes through the eyes of great photographers and emerging talents with the 21st edition of FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA. “Ghosts of the Everyday” (Fantasmi del quotidiano) is the chosen theme and guiding thread for the exhibitions curated by Arianna Catania, Tim Clark, and Luce Lebart, complemented by a historical overview curated by Walter Guadagnini dedicated to 200 years of photography. Among the protagonists of this new edition at the Chiostri di San Pietro, the festival’s pulsating heart, are Felipe Romero Beltrán, Mohamed Hassan, Salvatore Vitale, Marine Lanier, Ola Rindal, Tania Franco Klein, Giulia Vanelli, Frédéric D. Oberland, and Simona Ghizzoni. Collective exhibitions include “Keep the Fire Burning” at Chiostri di San Pietro, “Ghostland” at Palazzo da Mosto, and “200×200. Two Centuries of Photography and Society” at Palazzo Scaruffi. The program also features “Ghostwriter” by Elena Bellantoni in the Church of Santi Carlo e Agata and “Luigi Ghirri. A Series of Dreams” at Palazzo dei Musei.
Michele Cotelli. Traffic Divider Tongue, Former Church of San Francesco, San Giovanni in Persiceto (BO)
Fondazione Zucchelli announces “Traffic Divider Tongue” (Lingua Spartitraffico), a solo exhibition by Michele Cotelli, accompanied by an introductory text by Davide Ferri. The exhibition, realized in collaboration with the Municipality of San Giovanni in Persiceto and Museo Fisica Experience for the Lucio Saffaro Foundation Prize for the relationship between Art and Science (as part of Art Up 2025), runs from April 11 to May 17. It is the result of a site-specific intervention following an artist residency. Conceived for the nave of the 18th-century church, “Lingua Spartitraffico” is an environmental installation articulated in six interconnected stations that, referencing each other, create a single organism where artworks and exhibition space establish a continuous dialogue. Like verses of a single poetic composition, the works address themes such as being in space, the flow of time, timeless landscapes, linguistic dimensions, archaeological discovery, and the page as a place of possibility.
Gian Paolo Barbieri. A Journey Through the Gaze, CIFA – Italian Center for Author Photography, Bibbiena (AR)
“Gian Paolo Barbieri. A Journey Through the Gaze” (Un viaggio nello sguardo) traverses over fifty years of the author’s career, revealing the richness of a gaze that successfully united aesthetics, visual culture, and narrative construction of the image. Scheduled from April 11 to June 2, and curated by Giovanna Calvenzi and Claudio Pastrone, the exhibition proposes a journey that highlights the breadth and solidity of Gian Paolo Barbieri’s vision through an itinerary following the four main areas Barbieri himself chose to reinterpret his work – fashion, ethnic, erotic, and still life. What emerges is a versatile practice that, while spanning different genres, maintains a strong expressive identity: precisely in this tension between variety and unity, Barbieri’s authorial stature is measured.
SUPERFLEX. There Are Other Fish In The Sea, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
From April 14 to August 2, Palazzo Strozzi presents “There Are Other Fish In The Sea,” a new site-specific installation for the Palazzo Strozzi Courtyard created by SUPERFLEX, a Danish collective internationally recognized for works and projects that rethink the role of art in relation to social, economic, and environmental dynamics of our time. Curated by Arturo Galansino, it establishes a striking and unexpected dialogue with the Renaissance architecture of the Courtyard. Envisioning a future where rising sea levels will irreversibly alter human life, “There Are Other Fish In The Sea” proposes an “interspecies architecture” project that invites visitors to imagine new modes of coexistence between humans and non-humans.
Hans Op de Beeck. Danse Macabre, Tenuta dello Scompiglio, Capannori (LU)
From April 11 to October 25, the Associazione Culturale Dello Scompiglio hosts “Danse Macabre,” an exhibition by Hans Op de Beeck, curated by Angel Moya Garcia. The exhibition is structured around a site-specific installation and an animated film. The first, titled “Danse Macabre,” emerges as a black-and-white image of a nocturnal park, made of bare trees and reflecting pools, traversed by a path leading to a monochrome, life-sized carousel. A soundscape, composed by Sam Vloemans and performed by the Hermes Ensemble (B), resonates distantly throughout the environment and draws us towards the second part where the animated film “Vanishing Point” is projected, completing the exhibition. The title refers to the vanishing point in a perspective view where parallel lines appear to converge. At the distance of the vanishing point, we are no longer able to perceive three-dimensional depth.
Luca Bertolo, Observatory M1 – VIII Hypermaremma, Ansedonia
The eighth edition of Hypermaremma has launched with the project “Observatory M1” (Osservatorio M1) by Luca Bertolo. The intervention, sponsored by the Municipality of Orbetello, marks the beginning of an exhibition journey that will unfold until August 31 through three different stages: Playa La Torba in Ansedonia from April 4 to May 31, the Etruscan Cut (Tagliata Etrusca), also in Ansedonia, in June and July, and finally the Spiaggia della Puntata in Talamone in August. “Osservatorio M1” presents itself as an essential yet evocative structure: a small wooden construction that recalls the shape of beach cabins, reinterpreted imaginatively, as if drawn by a child or an early 20th-century artist. Beside the construction stands a flagpole with a white flag, while a small telescope, similar to a viewfinder, emerges from the south-facing wall. The device is accessible by ascending two steps and allows the visitor to observe a single point: the horizon. The fixed viewfinder offers no possibility of deviation, imposing a concentrated and continuous gaze towards that thin line separating sky and sea.
SAINT FRANCIS – Our Contemporary. Art and Spirituality from Burri to Pistoletto, Palazzo Baldeschi, Perugia
From April 18 to November 1, Palazzo Baldeschi hosts “SAINT FRANCIS – Our Contemporary. Art and Spirituality from Burri to Pistoletto” (SAN FRANCESCO – Nostro contemporaneo. Arte e Spiritualità da Burri a Pistoletto), the new exhibition by Fondazione Perugia. It presents an original exhibition proposal that brings contemporary art, spirituality, and territorial identity into dialogue, to explore and pay homage to the figure of Saint Francis, whose 800th anniversary of death occurs in 2026. The exhibition, featuring loans from important institutions including MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts, the General Custody of the Sacred Convent of Assisi, the National Art Gallery of Bologna, the National Archaeological Museum of Umbria, Fondazione Pistoletto, and Pro Civitate Christiana, aims to investigate the strong spiritual and cultural legacy beyond traditional hagiographic narratives, reinterpreting all the themes carried by the Saint through the lens of art and, especially, some of the most significant artists of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The exhibition brings together works by artists who, with different languages and sensitivities, have intercepted and reinterpreted these themes. Thus, one encounters the humble materials of Alberto Burri, the spiritual tension of William Congdon’s works, the evocative sculptures of Mimmo Paladino, and the installations of Jannis Kounellis.
Massimo Baldini. Ancona Revisited, Mole Vanvitelliana, Ancona
From April 18 to June 14, the Mole Vanvitelliana hosts “Ancona Revisited,” an exhibition by Massimo Baldini – accompanied by verses from the poet Franco Scataglini and unpublished texts by Franco Brevini and Marta Paraventi – which interweaves photography and poetry, combining rigor and sensibility. “Ancona Revisited” stems from the idea of Ancona as a threshold-city, which slowly reveals itself and demands an attentive and conscious gaze. The project is not documentary but a visual and poetic investigation that reinterprets the city through the theme of return. Massimo Baldini captures details, passages, and silences, avoiding spectacular effects in favor of a progressive revelation. Stairs, piers, and urban glimpses become boundary images between high and low, city and sea, lived and imagined time.
Silvia Mariotti. Crystal Souls, Rivafiorita, Porto San Giorgio
Supported by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture as part of the Italian Council program, Silvia Mariotti developed “Crystal Souls” (Almas de Cristal – Anime di Cristallo) from an in-depth investigation into the geological, botanical, and cultural peculiarities of the Azores archipelago. During an artist residency at Re-Act Contemporary Art Laboratory on Terceira Island, Silvia Mariotti created an installation that explores the relationships between organic and inorganic matter and nature’s adaptation to human interference. Scheduled until May 15, the exhibition is inspired by the theories of biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel, who attributed a form of intelligence to inorganic matter. Mariotti’s works question humanity’s role in transforming nature and explore hypothetical life forms generated by the union of natural and artificial, human and non-human elements: observing their transformations and contaminations is at the heart of the project.
Tragicomic. Perspectives on Italian Art from the Second Half of the Twentieth Century to Today, MAXXI, Rome
“Tragicomic. Perspectives on Italian Art from the Second Half of the Twentieth Century to Today” (Tragicomica. Prospettive sull’arte italiana dal secondo Novecento a oggi) is the largest exhibition ever dedicated by the National Museum of 21st Century Arts to the history of contemporary Italian art. Produced by MAXXI in collaboration with the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, the exhibition – curated by Andrea Bellini and Francesco Stocchi – brings together over 130 artists and 300 works to investigate the ironic component that runs through Italian culture, what philosopher Giorgio Agamben defined as a “stubborn anti-tragic intention” (Categorie italiane, 1996). More than a simple attitude, it is a true national sensibility that finds its first and highest reference in Dante’s Comedy: in the revolution of addressing the most complex themes through an everyday register, intertwining “high” culture and popular culture in a continuous and fertile exchange.
Andrea Pazienza. One Does Not Always Die, MAXXI, Rome
Following its success at MAXXI L’Aquila, MAXXI Rome hosts “One Does Not Always Die” (Non sempre si muore) from April 24 to September 27, the second chapter of the project dedicated to the relationship between word and image in the work of the legendary Andrea Pazienza. Curated by Giulia Ferracci and Oscar Glioti, the exhibition explores the artist’s oeuvre through notebooks, drawings, comics, and graphic works. Central to the exhibition are hundreds of panels featuring the faces of Pentothal, Pertini, and Zanardi – which narrate reality with irony, lucidity, and power, showing why Pazienza’s work continues to speak to the present. The title is taken from an interview given to Clive Griffiths in 1988 and is a sign of vitality: Andrea Pazienza continues to live on in his enduring masterpieces, unreleased materials, and the gaze with which he recounted his time, anticipating our own.
Piero di Cosimo’s Mary Magdalene: Art, History, and Women’s Lives in Renaissance Florence, Palazzo Venezia, Rome
From April 17 to July 5, VIVE-Vittoriano opens “Piero di Cosimo’s Mary Magdalene: Art, History, and Women’s Lives in Renaissance Florence” (La Maddalena di Piero di Cosimo: arte, storia e vite di donne nel Rinascimento fiorentino) at Palazzo Venezia, curated by Edith Gabrielli. The exhibition revolves around a precious panel by Piero di Cosimo (1462-1522), “The Magdalene” (La Maddalena), held in the collection of the Gallerie Nazionali d’Arte Antica at Palazzo Barberini and loaned to VIVE as part of a strategic agreement between the two museum institutions. The Magdalene becomes a key to exploring the lives of women in Renaissance Florence and the reality surrounding them, in a journey divided into eleven sections following three interconnected and interdependent lines: the first investigates the work iconographically and stylistically, the second traces the lives of Florentine women of the time step by step, and the third focuses on the extraordinary aesthetic and technical quality of the so-called decorative arts in Renaissance Italy.
Nicola Pucci. Italian School. Contemporary Painting and its Circular Spirit in Historical Time, Palazzo Merulana, Rome
Until July 5, Palazzo Merulana hosts “Italian School. Contemporary Painting and its Circular Spirit in Historical Time” (Scuola Italiana. La pittura contemporanea e il suo spirito circolare nel tempo storico), a project conceived and curated by Gianluca Marziani. It begins with an investigation into the state of contemporary figurative painting in Italy. The first chapter is an exhibition dedicated to Nicola Pucci, an internationally renowned Italian painter known for his visionary and surreal realism. In his works, figurative technique combines with dreamlike contexts, decontextualizations, and animal presences, creating a strong emotional and narrative impact. The curator highlights Pucci’s Palermo origin for a reason akin to the project’s philosophy, namely to identify the unique energy of highly culturally connoted areas, such as the Sicilian capital, where many painters of the generation represented here grew up, along visions that have transfigured reality with irony, expressiveness, apparent lightness, and a gentle sense of the tragic.
Ai Weiwei: Aftershock, MAXXI, L’Aquila
From April 29 to September 6, 2026, MAXXI L’Aquila hosts “Aftershock,” a major exhibition dedicated to Ai Weiwei’s fifty-year career. Curated by Tim Marlow, the exhibition brings together an important selection, from works created in New York in the 1980s to new sculptures made in Ukraine in 2025. Central to the exhibition is a group of works inspired by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, displayed in the Baroque spaces of Palazzo Ardinghelli, a building that symbolizes rebirth after the earthquake that struck L’Aquila in 2009. In this context, the exhibition explores the lasting impact of natural disasters, conflicts, corruption, and collective tragedies, emphasizing human resilience and the power of creative acts as a form of testimony and transformation.
