Pietrasanta ’s challenge to become the Italian Capital of Contemporary Art in 2027 officially started from theformer Camp, the historic consumer cooperative in Via Marconi now at the center of a major urban regeneration project. In a space still charged with memory and transformed into an auditorium for the occasion, the city unveiled its candidacy dossier with a dedicated event.
The evening was hosted by journalist and columnist Claudia Conte. Welcoming the audience were the notes of master violinist and conductor Michael Guttman, which resounded in the Camp’s central gallery, lit blue for the occasion. South Korean artist Park Eun-Sun, by now an honorary citizen of Pietrasanta, then presented the city with a calligraphy he had created to accompany the bid..
In the same context, the Scientific Committee that will support the candidacy was also unveiled. It includes Franco Broccardi, economist of culture; Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón; Michael Guttman, already the star of the evening; Chiara Parisi, director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz; Eike Schmidt, director of the Museo Real Bosco di Capodimonte; artist Gian Maria Tosatti; and Angela Vettese, curator and art historian.
Entitled Being Art. Or the humanity of art, the dossier is the result of a choral work, drafted and addressed by the Municipality of Pietrasanta in collaboration with Promo PA Foundation, under the scientific supervision of Frank Boehm, director of the Igor Mitoraj Museum. Detailing the genesis of the document was Monica Torti, manager of the City’s Citizen Services area, who traced the long project process.
The process began in September 2024 with an articulated activity of analysis, mapping and interviews with representatives of the economic, tourist and cultural fabric of the area. From February to the end of March 2025, thematic tables were held that represented key moments of listening and discussion, involving a wide network of public and private stakeholders. Finally, from April, we entered the phase of writing the strategic plan for culture, which was followed by the public call for development proposals. The result is a dossier that brings together 42 promoters and 99 project partners.
Outlining the backbone of the bid program are two basic pillars: on the one hand, cultural infrastructure, understood as the physical and symbolic backbone of the city’s creative system; on the other hand, project-laboratories, which embody the vital energy of the community.
Theinfrastructural sphere is organized into five poles: piazza Duomo and the public space for culture; the regeneration of former private production complexes; the Marina area, as a meeting point between nature and culture; the sector dedicated to research and innovation; and finally, the contemporary pole, where artistic production, valorization and new expressive languages converge.
Instead, the projects-workshops are divided into four thematic sections. “Discover in order to be” is dedicated to the exhibition dimension and cultural narrative; “Participate in order to be” provides residencies and workshops open to artists, artisans, researchers, citizens, students and tourists; “Transform in order to be” focuses on training, research and innovation; and finally “Meet in order to be” hosts debates, festivals and reviews. A participatory planning model that returns a collective and inclusive vision of contemporary art.
Structural objectives include the creation of a permanent training platform, the development of a replicable cultural model and the development of good practices of sustainability in the field of artistic promotion and fruition. The project aims to align with the goals of the2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, reaffirming the centrality of culture as an engine of development and social cohesion
“Presenting the dossier of Pietrasanta’s candidacy as Capital of Contemporary Art 2027 is not only a due act toward the community and all those who, for months, have been working on its composition,” says Alberto Stefano Giovannetti, mayor of Pietrasanta. “Above all, it is a strong and clear declaration of intent: Pietrasanta is ready to welcome the future of art. That’s why we chose this place, the site of the former consumer cooperative, which today is like a bridge between what it was and what it will be, a great a hub of artistic and cultural inclusion. Pietrasanta has always been recognized as a crossroads of art and culture, a place where the skilled hands of artisans, custodians of ancient techniques, know how to dialogue with the most daring artists.”
“The candidacy of Pietrasanta as the Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2027,” says Eugenio Giani, president of the Region of Tuscany, “represents an extraordinary opportunity to enhance the cultural and creative heritage of one of the symbolic cities of art in Tuscany. Known as the ’Little Athens,’ Pietrasanta combines tradition and innovation, and in its candidacy it has decided to do so in a choral project that comes from below, thanks to the active participation of citizens, artists and institutions, testifying to a shared and inclusive vision, in which sculpture, public art and urban regeneration come together in an identity narrative that is accessible and deeply contemporary. The Region of Tuscany wholeheartedly supports this candidacy, which authentically interprets the spirit of our territory: a place where art is not only memory, but above all future.”
“I wish Pietrasanta, the heart of Versilia, the best of luck in its candidacy as Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2027,” says Eike Schmidt. “We remember its attraction to artists such as Botero, Jeff Koons and Igor Mitoraj and, of course, the glorious past of our ’Little Athens’ that is also the only city in Tuscany in the race. With Mayor Giovannetti, a great team effort has been made, bringing together public, private, civil society, universities, artisans and galleries for a program aimed at the future to the future of Pietrasanta. Good work to all the promoters of the candidacy.”
“In a world fractured by conflict, loneliness and disorder, art can be a language of peace, a space where people of different cultures and perspectives meet without fear,” Alfonso Cuarón emphasizes. “Pietrasanta, a city I know, love, and live in, has chosen to renew this pact with the future: supporting artists means building a better world, and Pietrasanta is doing that, with courage and generosity. I am proud to be part of the Scientific Committee of this beautiful adventure because, from here, not only a cultural project but a message can be born: that another kind of development is possible, one based on beauty, dialogue and shared humanity. Thank you for what you are doing, long live Pietrasanta, long live art.”
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| Schmidt, Cuarón and Tosatti to make Pietrasanta the capital of contemporary art 2027 |
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