From January 31 to April 26, 2026, the Spazio Extra of MAXXI - National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome hosts Franco Battiato. Un’altra vita, an exhibition that, five years after his death, aims to pay tribute to the human and artistic figure of Franco Battiato, among the most famous songwriters of Italian music. An exhibition itinerary conceived as a profound and original journey, with the aim of restoring the complexity and uniqueness of the unforgettable artist. Co-produced by the Ministry of Culture and MAXXI, the exhibition is curated by Giorgio Calcara with Grazia Cristina Battiato and is organized by Alessandro Nicosia’s C.O.R. Creare Organizzare Realizzare, in collaboration with the Franco Battiato ETS Foundation.
Through personal recollections, unpublished materials and archival documents, the audience will be accompanied along the milestones of Battiato’s life and career. Singer-songwriter, musician, poet, philosopher and intellectual: every aspect of his talent finds space in the exhibition narrative. From avant-garde research to popular language, from electronics to spirituality, Battiato revolutionized Italian song, creating ìvisionary texts, refined harmonic structures and immortal melodies.
The itinerary is divided into seven thematic sections that trace his artistic and human story: The Beginning (from Sicily to Milan), Experimenting (from acoustic to electronic), Success (from avant-garde to pop), Mysticism (between East and West), The Man (a return to his origins), The Master, From Sound to Image (Battiato’s cinema).
At the center of the installation is an octagonal space, a symbolic reminder of the musical octave, the true focus of the exhibition, where a sophisticated listening system envelops the audience in an immersive sound experience. Among record covers, historical posters, photographs and rare memorabilia, the exhibition returns the image of a multifaceted and visionary artist, capable of anticipating languages and styles. Alongside the musical dimension also emerges the pictorial one, characterized by golden backgrounds and images dense with symbols and archetypes, inspired by an allegorical imagery of Middle Eastern matrix particularly dear to the Sicilian Maestro.
In the last two decades of his production, film research also took shape, with narrative and documentary films reflecting his artistic and spiritual journey, in continuity with his musical poetics and in dialogue with the present.
Accompanied by moments of in-depth study and the publication of a dedicated catalog, the exhibition aims to pay tribute to the sensibility of one of the greatest geniuses of contemporary Italian music, inviting the public to rediscover, through his works, that “permanent center of gravity” that everyone, after all, keeps searching for.
Image: Photo by Alessio Pizzicannella © Franco Battiato Foundation
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| At MAXXI in Rome, an exhibition pays tribute to Franco Battiato, five years after his death |
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