My image is what I choose to be represented by—a self-portrait.
Food, cats, gyms, myself, travels, and various trinkets

curated by Luca Massimo Barbero

The self-portrait here is both a pretext and an enigma. The  (author) reveals themselves through their actions, yet remains outside of themselves. Thirteen artists spanning three generations chart a course that moves between front and back, much like the double-sided panels that open the exhibition, inspired by a rare private work by Lucio Fontana. ‘Io sono un santo’ (I am a saint), says the front; ‘Io sono una carogna’ (I am a skank), says the back.

The first room begins the path with a direct confrontation between gesture and identity, frontstage and backdrop, initiating a reflection on the artwork as a space where the artist takes a stand—or withdraws. From here unfolds a sequence of largely unseen works, presenting contemporary Italian painting in all its diversity and contrast. It traverses the loquaciousness of pictorial language and its ambiguities, even stepping—without declaring it—over the threshold of the work through which the artist allows themselves to be represented. 

The intermediate room exposes you to the mystery of musical concept and composition. Before the close, an unexpected passage opens a ‘fissure,’ preparing you for a final vision where time suspends and the gaze becomes long, silent, and continuous. This is a subtle dialogue between sometimes polymorphous, opposing, or contradictory subjectivities, who share with the public a vision of their work as it defines itself over time, amidst differences in gesture, material, and thought. It is an artistic practice that crosses the shifting terrain of representation and identity. Ultimately, in these rooms, one isn’t seeking a reflection, but a gentler breath—the possibility of truly seeing, even beyond oneself.

Memory full.
A room of one’s own

curated by Francesco Bonami

I didn’t want to think of a theme that would unite the artists I selected, other than their independence and autonomy. It is up to audiences to enjoy and take on the task—not the obligation—of finding real or imaginary connections among the various artists, or perhaps finding none at all, confirming the autonomy or perhaps the insularity of each of them. I chose artists I had never worked with before, artists who had never participated in the Quadriennale, artists under the age of fifty, and artists who are still alive. There is no common thread or apparent elective affinity between these artists, yet in all of them there is a need to define what Virginia Woolf was looking for: an invisible room of one’s own. A world within countless other worlds. A story intertwined with countless other stories. Everyone is somehow trying to disconnect from a perpetually connected, eternally informed reality that is constantly drained of the intimacy necessary to construct or deconstruct one’s present identity. In their own way, each of them says or tries to say, “I am here.” Here, the word ‘I’ does not represent a form of domination, but rather a synthesis of everything, beyond gender, ethnicity, nationality and social class. “I, like you, am I.” Thus, by recognising ourselves as simple and autonomous ‘I’s, we can respect all other ‘I’s. Ubuntu! Which in the Bantu language means ‘I am because you are.’

The Age of Images

curated by Emanuela Mazzonis di Pralafera

How does art respond to the deluge of photos, selfies, memes, screenshots, GIFs, Reels, and Stories that overwhelm our gaze? This section explores the role of images and the evolution of photography in Italy from 2000 to 2025. Eleven artists from different generations demonstrate the versatility of the photographic medium and investigate the value and responsibility of images. How far can we trust what we see? Why are we so dependent on images that are increasingly less about passive observation and more about experiencing and sharing as a ‘social’ act? The exhibition offers a pause from this uncontrollable flow; here, the works seek to reveal rather than merely reproduce. Photography moves away from its liturgy of representation and begins a dialogue with other art forms, breaking out of the frame to unveil its truest, hidden meaning to our gaze. The exhibition analyses the power photography still holds to make the invisible visible and prompt reflection on what lies behind images, rather than simply observing them.

Senza titolo

a cura di Francesco Stocchi

The Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, which began in Paris a century ago, in 1925, reached its peak in 1938 with a spectacular exhibition led by André Breton and Paul Éluard. Marcel Duchamp served as creator and mediator, supported by Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí as technical consultants, Man Ray for the lighting, and Wolfgang Paalen for the set-up. Challenging the traditional notion of artwork and bringing art into the tangible world, the Surrealists transformed the exhibition space into an immersive experience that anticipated contemporary installations, marking a decisive milestone in the history of exhibition-making.
At a time of widespread reflection on the form and responsibilities cultural institutions are expected to assume, there arises a need to revisit the paradigms consolidated over recent decades through a tautological exhibition that constitutes itself in the act of its own making—an exhibition without a title, deliberately lacking the thematic anchor typical of collective shows, where the aim is not so much to illustrate or develop a concept, but to configure itself as a collective creative act.
Having convened on several occasions, the artists and curator embarked on an unprecedented process: to imagine, develop, and oversee every phase of the exhibition.
Just as the 1938 Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme represented the possibility of radically rethinking the relationship between art, space, and the public, Untitled presents itself as an experimental laboratory for new modes of artistic production, exchange, and engagement. It seeks to reclaim the agency of artists and reaffirm their role as a world-builder, placing emphasis on imagination, autonomy, and creative responsibility. 

The Unfinished Body

curated by Alessandra Troncone

This exhibition features artists who explore the possible narratives of the contemporary body, understood broadly to encompass both human and non-human forms. Torn between an ‘embodied,’ material, and tangible dimension and its existence as ‘code,’ the body is presented as a subject in continuous transformation. Therefore, the title refers to the concept of incompleteness as a state of perpetual transition rather than imperfection, emphasising openness and permeability—qualities that suggest new ways of relating to others and to otherness.

Taking as its ideal starting point the steady progression of genetic research over recent decades, with attention to phenomena of mutation and hybridisation, The Unfinished Body asks how much biological heritage truly defines who we are. It intertwines myths of the past with futuristic visions, opening the imaginative power of art to dream about what we might become through the eyes of artists exhibiting at the Art Quadriennale for the first time.