Foligno and Spoleto are presenting themselves together in the race for the title of Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2027. The two Umbrian cities have officially illustrated the guidelines of the Foligno-Spoleto in Contemporanea dossier, a project with which they decided last June to jointly apply to the call for proposals promoted by the Department for Cultural Activities of the Ministry of Culture. Having passed the first selection, they are now among the finalists who will present their proposal before the jury gathered in Palazzo Poli, Rome, on October 16. The decision to join forces stems from a common history that has linked Foligno and Spoleto to the world of contemporary art for more than 70 years. A path rooted in the twentieth century and that, between continuity and renewal, has marked the cultural life of both communities, leading them to the joint candidacy. The two cities present themselves today with a project that intends to enhance tradition and innovation, presenting itself as a widespread laboratory capable of connecting past, present and future.
“Spoleto and Foligno,” says Spoleto Mayor Andrea Sisti, "are two important cities in Umbria that have decided to connect a cultural heritage of great value, linked to contemporary art, setting themselves the goal of enhancing it. We have united from the beginning along a historical route that is the Flaminia. The setting of the dossier, which is already a very operational project, aims to make our territories research centers on the economy related to contemporary art."
“We immediately believed in the union of the two municipalities that have great artistic potential in the field of contemporary art. We look, however, beyond the candidacy, thanks to the promotion and participation of projects by associations and banking foundations,” says Foligno’s councillor for culture, Alessandra Leoni.
“We want,” says the director of the Civic Museums of Spoleto, Saverio Verini, “not only to give life to an inclusive and virtuous project, capable of involving the two cities and potentially extending to neighboring territories and the entire region, but we intend to enhance the energies already present and build a wide and participatory network, capable of involving museums, foundations, artists, schools, universities, research and training centers, associations, cultural enterprises and the entrepreneurial fabric, but above all citizens, together of course with visitors and tourists.”
The link with contemporary art was already consolidated in the 1950s, when artists such asLeoncillo Leonardi and the Spoleto Group established themselves in Spoleto, protagonists of an intense creative season that also animated the Spoleto Prize. On that occasion, authors destined for a prominent role on the Italian scene were awarded prizes, including Pino Pascali and Mario Ceroli. In 1962 art historian Giovanni Carandente organized the exhibition Sculptures in the City, an initiative that transformed Spoleto into an open-air museum. Internationally renowned figures such as Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana, Henry Moore, Beverly Pepper, David Smith and Pietro Consagra participated in an experience that left permanent works still visible today. The 1970s saw the arrival of Sol LeWitt, an American artist who established a personal bond with the Umbrian city, which was considered almost a second home, so much so that he scattered several interventions there.
At the same time, Foligno developed an autonomous but connected path. The area welcomed the research of Dino Gavina, a protagonist of Italian design, and hosted initiatives destined to leave a mark, such as the exhibition Lo spazio dell’immagine. Organized in 1967 at Palazzo Trinci, it brought together some of the most significant names in 20th-century art: Lucio Fontana, Getulio Alviani, Agostino Bonalumi, Enrico Castellani, Mario Ceroli, Luciano Fabro, Tano Festa, Piero Gilardi, Pino Pascali, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Paolo Scheggi. In the 2000s, that legacy spilled over into the two cities’ museum institutions: the CIAC - Centro Italiano Arte Contemporanea in Foligno and Palazzo Collicola in Spoleto. Both preserve nationally leading collections and now offer spaces for exhibitions, performances, meetings and educational activities. Two monumental works testify to the value of past experiences: Alexander Calder’s Teodelapio, located in front of the Spoleto train station, and Gino De Dominicis’s Cosmic Magnet, preserved in Foligno in the former church of Santissima Annunziata.
“The activity of the contemporary, beyond the current project, is already grafted into the territory. The ministry’s call is a stimulus to continue in this direction and becomes an opportunity for institutions to promote them, regardless of the final result,” says Emanuele De Donno, for the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno.
“Our role is expressed in three precise commitments: to make a system, that is, to create synergy between the best energies of the two cities,” argues Monica Sassi, president of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno. “Second, we want to invest in the future, in human capital, trying to attract young talent so that they can live and create in our cities. Third, to build a legacy to trigger an innovative and lasting process. We are aware that investing in culture is an important vehicle for development because it generates a double return, both economic and social.”
“In our programs,” says Paolo Feliziani, president of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto, “it is traditional that art and culture have the largest space, that is, that a significant share of our disbursements distributed among the various sectors of intervention is reserved for them. Not only because of the Festival dei Due Mondi, the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale, the authoritative and prestigious Institutions and Associations, such as the Centro Studi sull’Alto Medioevo or the Accademia degli Ottusi, but also because we have in Palazzo Collicola an important Gallery of contemporary art brilliantly directed by Saverio Verini. If in our territories today we have an artistic heritage of great value, it is because over time there has always been great attention to contemporary art.”
The candidacy for Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2027 starts from this legacy. Foligno and Spoleto aim to develop an integrated cultural system, oriented to accessibility, participation, enhancement of talents and growth of widespread skills. The project aims to take art beyond institutional venues, bring new audiences together, strengthen the link between culture and the productive fabric, and foster opportunities for communities and contemporary languages to meet. The guidelines revolve around three key words. The first is time, understood as a dialogue between past, present and future, which represent interconnected dimensions. The second is space, to be read as an extension from historic centers to suburbs and everyday landscapes, places where culture becomes a tool for regeneration. The third is relationships, a term that recalls the connections between the two cities, but also those between institutions, artists, businesses and communities, with a view to social and cultural innovation.
The project will be divided into three main areas. The most impactful initiatives, called FARO, will include major exhibitions, awards, public art interventions and reinterpretations of historical experiences from a contemporary perspective. Alongside these, a second axis will be dedicated to education and participation, with workshops, meetings and programs that aim to strengthen accessibility and stimulate new forms of dialogue between citizens and artists. Finally, the creation of a contemporary network will constitute the third pivotal element: a widespread platform that maps and connects realities related to the sector, fosters public-private collaboration and develops digital tools and shared archives. The stated goal is to build a diffuse capital model that can gradually extend and involve the entire Umbria region, so as to strengthen its attractiveness beyond 2027.
The concept of collaboration also finds expression in the visual identity of the project. The Foligno-Spoleto in Contemporanea logo, created by Umbria-based Due Studio, weaves the initials of the two cities into a symmetrical and dynamic geometric structure. The black-and-white design is inspired by Sol LeWitt’s perceptual and modular research and plays on optical illusion: the lines seem to advance or retreat, but coexist on the same visual plane. A metaphor for the relationship between Foligno and Spoleto, autonomous and complementary cities, able to coexist in balance without hierarchies, in a reciprocity that becomes creative tension.
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| Foligno and Spoleto finalists for Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2027 |
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