The first phase of the analysis of the 46 applications submitted in response to the public notice for the Italian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale 2026, as part of the 61ᵃ International Art Exhibition, scheduled from May 9 to November 22, 2026, has been concluded. The Evaluation Committee has selected ten candidates admitted to the second phase of the procedure for the designation of the curator and the scientific project, who, within the next 45 days, will have to send an in-depth dossier of the project proposal, as stipulated in Article 7 of the notice.
The ten names admitted to the next stage, in alphabetical order, are: Ilaria Bernardi; Cecilia Canziani; Valentino Catricalà; Alfredo Cramerotti (in tandem with Auronda Scalera and Clelia Patella); Antonio Grulli; Justin Randolph Thompson (with Janine Gäelle Dieudji); Marta Papini; Samuele Piazza; Diego Sileo; Francesco Stocchi.
Ilaria Bernardi, born 1985, is an art historian and independent curator with a special focus on the relationship between artistic research and historical memory: she has curated exhibitions devoted to the historical avant-garde and postwar Italian art. In the past she was a collaborator of Germano Celant, worked at Castello di Rivoli, and today teaches at IULM in Milan and is curator of the Genesi Association in Milan.
Cecilia Canziani (Rome, 1976), curator and art historian, teaches at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the Academy of Fine Arts of L’Aquila, coordinating the curatorial program at IED Rome; she is co-founder of IUNO, an independent research center, and of the Les Cerises publishing project.
Valentino Catricalà (Rome, 1984), curator and researcher, works on the relationship between art, film and media; he currently works at the Museum Commission of the Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia, and is a curator at the SODA Gallery in Manchester as well as a member of the board of the ZKM museum in Germany. He teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Alfredo Cramerotti, together with Auronda Scalera and Clelia Patella, forms a curatorial group active in contemporary art research. Cramerotti (Trento, 1967) describes himself as a “cultural entrepreneur who moves between contemporary art, media and technology.” He is a board member of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) and until 2023 directed MOSTYN, a contemporary art center based in Llandudno, Wales.
Antonio Grulli (La Spezia, 1979) is an art critic and independent curator. A resident of Bologna, he is on the board of the Viafarini space in Milan and recently became director of CAMeC - Centro d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea della Spezia; in 2024 he curated the Albanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He also directs the Luci d’Artista project in Turin.
Justin Randolph Thompson (New York, 1979), is a multimedia artist, cultural facilitator and lecturer; he has lived between the United States and Italy since 1999. He is co-founder and director of Black History Month Florence and The Recovery Plan research center. Janine Gaëlle Dieudji, who works alongside him, is a multi-local curator and cultural activist, co-founder of projects such as The Recovery Plan and experienced in curating contemporary African art in addition to being vice president of the association that promotes Black History Month Florence
Marta Papini (Reggio Emilia, 1985) is an independent curator: she curates the Radis project for the Fondazione CRT, has participated as associate curator in projects such as The Marmot Parliament (Biennale Gherdëina 2024) and Thinking Like a Mountain (2024-2026), and was part of the selection committee for the Future Generation Art Prize and the artistic organization of the Venice Biennale 2022 The Milk of Dreams.
Samuele Piazza, curator, is chief curator at OGR Turin, where he coordinates the visual arts program and has curated both solo and collective projects.
Diego Sileo (Milan, 1977) works at the City of Milan as curator of the PAC - Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea. He is a historian of contemporary art.
Francesco Stocchi (Rome, 1975), directed MAXXI until 2023, was curator at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam from 2012 to 2023, curated the exhibition program of the Fondazione Carriero in Milan, and is a member of the Comité consultatif du Fonds de dotation de la Fondation La Fayette in Paris and head of the artistic program of the Fondazione Memmo in Rome. He also directs the art insert of the newspaper Il Foglio and is among the four curators of the 2025 Rome Quadriennale. He curated the Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022 and co-curated the São Paulo Biennale in 2021.
The shortlisted applications represent a diverse panorama of figures with experience in the Italian and international curatorial field, many of them already with relevant positions in museums, exhibition projects, publications or education.
Successful candidates now have the burden and opportunity to submit their detailed project dossier by the deadline set in the notice, so that the final stage of selecting the curator and project for the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale 2026 can proceed. The Commission that evaluated the 46 applications is composed of the Director General Contemporary Creativity and Commissioner of the Italian Pavilion Angelo Piero Cappello (acting as Chairman), the Chairman of the Technical-Scientific Committee for Contemporary Art and Architecture Claudio Varagnoli, and three high-profile scientific personalities pertaining to the field of contemporary art: Ester Coen, Luca Aurelio Aldo Cerizza and Valerio Terraroli.
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