The General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity (DGCC) of the Ministry of Culture, as part of the Department of Cultural Activities, presents its program of initiatives for fall 2026. From October through December, the calendar will span various regions of Italy and will connect artistic production, research, cultural heritage, education, and urban transformation through events tailored to different audiences and professional fields. From Contemporary Art Day to the Venice Biennale, from participation in Artissima to activities dedicated to photography, from fashion and design to international cooperation, the program brings together various tools and approaches within the framework of public policies for contemporary creativity.
“This Fall,” states Costantino D’Orazio, Director General of Contemporary Creativity at the Ministry of Culture, “effectively illustrates the diversity of contemporary creativity and, at the same time, the role our Directorate is called upon to fulfill: supporting artists and cultural production, promoting Italian art beyond national borders, studying and preserving the heritage of the present, accompanying the processes of transformation in local communities, and creating opportunities for dialogue between disciplines, institutions, and communities. From art to photography, from architecture to fashion and design, all the way to urban regeneration, we aim to build connections and share experiences and expertise. The numerous events scheduled for the coming months are different facets of a single commitment: to provide a platform for Italian creativity and the tools through which it can help interpret and transform our times.”
The first event will take place on October 10 with the 22nd Contemporary Art Day, an annual event promoted by AMACI—the Association of Italian Museums of Contemporary Art—with the support of the DGCC and in collaboration with the MAECI. The day will feature a program spanning the entire country and will involve the 28 museums affiliated with AMACI, along with museums, foundations, galleries, independent spaces, associations, academies, private collections, and other organizations. Participating venues will open their doors to the public free of charge, offering exhibitions, talks, workshops, guided tours, performances, and special events. The program will also extend beyond Italy’s borders thanks to a collaboration with the Farnesina’s diplomatic and consular network, which will bring exhibitions, talks, and initiatives dedicated to Italian contemporary art to various locations abroad.
From October 29 to 31, the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale will host the third and final event of the Public Program for the 2026 Art Biennale, titled “Vocal Practices and Collective Narratives.” The program is curated by Cecilia Canziani and takes place within the framework of Chiara Camoni’s exhibition project *Con te con tutto*, promoted by the DGCC. The initiative will accompany the Italian Pavilion as it nears the conclusion of its programming, scheduled for November 22 with the closing of the 2026 Art Biennale. At the same time, attention will turn to upcoming international events: the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2027 Architecture Biennale is set to be announced, while an open call for the selection of the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2028 Art Biennale will also be launched shortly.
During the same period, from October 30 to November 1, the DGCC will be present at the 33rd edition of Artissima, the International Contemporary Art Fair in Turin, with two exhibition spaces. The first will be dedicated to the General Directorate’s activities promoting Italian art internationally and will serve as a venue for meetings and discussions with industry professionals. The second space, however, will be dedicated to MIRA—the Mediterranean Institute for Research and the Arts—presented through an installation by the Polisonum collective that will offer a preview of the upcoming artistic program at the new cultural hub in Messina.
MIRA is supported by the Ministry of Culture, through the DGCC and the Mission Unit for Cultural Cooperation with Africa and the Broader Mediterranean, by the City of Messina, and by the University of Messina, with support from the MAXXI Foundation for the project’s launch.
Also on October 30, the second part of the 2026 edition of the Lectures on Contemporary Creativity will begin—a series of events promoted by the DGCC and the Musica per Roma Foundation at the Teatro Studio Borgna in Rome’s Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone. Following the first two events held in the spring, the program will continue on October 30, November 14, and November 20—all at 7:30 p.m.—with three sessions dedicated to the creative processes of fashion and design. The featured speakers will be, respectively, Alessandro Sartori, artistic director of ZEGNA; Antonio and Patrizia Marras; and Lucia Silvestri, Jewelry Creative and Gems Buying Director at Bulgari. The sessions will explore the journey from conception to the creation of a creative product, focusing on the relationship between identity, culture, the market, and contemporary transformations.
The event on November 10 at the National Central Library in Rome will be dedicated to photography, featuring a study day and the presentation of the book *Toward Guidelines for the Conservation of Photography*. The initiative is part of the project “Guidelines for the Restoration of Photography: Tools for Dialogue on Conservation,” promoted by the DGCC and the La Venaria Reale Foundation for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage for the 2025–2026 period. The event will mark a new phase in the process of study and discussion launched to develop a shared document on the conservation and restoration of photography in Italy, aimed at the scientific community and professionals in the field. The project is part of the Strategic Plan for the Development of Photography in Italy and Abroad 2024–2026 and aims to contribute to the understanding, conservation, and promotion of the national photographic heritage.
Another area of focus will be urban regeneration. From November 23 to 27, theformer Rome Slaughterhouse—home to the Department of Architecture at Roma Tre University—will host the workshop series “Ri-generare con creatività” (Regenerating with Creativity). These workshops on urban regeneration are promoted by the DGCC in collaboration with the Department and with the support of ALES – Arte Lavoro e Servizi S.p.A. The five-day event will be dedicated to a national dialogue on the policies and practices of culture-based urban regeneration. The initiative will bring together experiences and expertise gained, in part, through the DGCC’s work over the past decade and will launch the process toward a White Paper on culture-based urban regeneration. The program will include three days of conferences and two days of thematic roundtables, involving institutions, universities, museums, research centers, professionals, cultural practitioners, and third-sector organizations.
From December 4 to 8, the DGCC will also be present at “Più Libri più Liberi” with a booth for the Creative Europe Italy Desk, coordinated by the Directorate General. Creative Europe is the European Commission’s program designed to support the cultural and creative sectors through funding opportunities, cooperation, and development at the European level. The booth will provide information on the program’s opportunities, with a particular focus on calls for proposals targeting publishing, journalism, and the media, and will allow visitors to schedule technical assistance sessions regarding the calls for proposals and the program.
In December, the program will also feature a photography exhibition dedicated to Nino Migliori at Palazzo Altemps, organized in collaboration with MUNAF—the National Museum of Photography—and the National Roman Museum, together with the Nino Migliori Archive. This initiative is also part of the Strategic Plan for the Development of Photography in Italy and Abroad 2024–2026. To mark the centennial of the artist’s birth, the exhibition will trace his career, characterized by his exploration of different artistic languages and experiments, as well as his engagement with various generations. Migliori is highlighted in the program as one of the leading figures in 20th-century Italian photography and as an artist who contributed to the establishment of photography as a form of expression in contemporary culture.
Rounding out the calendar will be the concluding chapter of Gibellina 2026, the first Italian Capital of Contemporary Art. The program, scheduled from October 3 to December 20, is conceived not merely as a series of exhibitions and events, but as a laboratory where artistic production, public space, memory, landscape, and community participation are interconnected. In the final quarter of the year, Gibellina will host projects by Igor Grubić, Liu Bolin, Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Lucia Veronesi, Stalker, and Hermann Nitsch, in addition to the exhibitions*Terra* *Matta*, and the tribute to Peppe Morra, leading up to the new edition of BAM—the Mediterranean Archipelago Biennial.
The program includes Igor Grubić’s participatory walk between Old Gibellina and New Gibellina and Liu Bolin’s photographs brought together in the exhibition *Macerie*. The site-specific exhibition *Dialogues of a Life* will, in turn, trace Peppe Morra’s experience as a collector and cultural promoter through works and testimonies by Allan Kaprow, John Cage, Joseph Beuys, and Marina Abramović, among others.“ Terra Matta” will be dedicated to Sicilian artistic creation that has developed outside official circuits. The program will also include a performance of Hermann Nitsch’s *Sinfonia Traubenfleisch*, the world premiere of Giorgio Barberio Corsetti’s *Pajè*, and projects by Stalker and Lucia Veronesi, dedicated respectively to the care of a spontaneous ecosystem, the creation of a Mediterranean garden, and community participation.
Taken as a whole, the DGCC’s fall program thus brings together diverse fields, ranging from contemporary art to photography, from architecture to fashion and design, from research to education, and from urban regeneration to international promotion. According to the vision outlined by the Directorate, these sectors are not separate fields but components of an ecosystem to be addressed through different and complementary tools: supporting production and research, promoting the presence of Italian art in international contexts, contributing to the understanding and preservation of contemporary heritage, creating opportunities for education and dialogue, and supporting regions and communities in their transformation processes.
The program therefore identifies the building of connections as one of the central elements of the Directorate’s work: connections between the center and local areas, institutions and communities, heritage and new productions, Italian culture and international networks. From this perspective, various events are brought together under a common framework, ranging from Contemporary Art Day to the Italian Capital of Contemporary Art in Gibellina, from the new MIRA to the activities of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, from participation in Artissima to the Lectures on Contemporary Creativity, all the way to projects dedicated to the preservation of photography and urban regeneration. The stated goal is to view contemporary creativity as a tool through which to interpret and engage with the transformations of the present.
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| Contemporary Art in Motion: From the Biennale to Gibellina, the DGCC’s Program for Fall 2026 |
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