What’s happening in Gibellina, Italy’s Capital of Contemporary Art this year

In November 2024, Gibellina was unanimously elected Italian Capital of Contemporary Art for 2026, winning outright the first edition of this new recognition created to support contemporary art projects across the Italian peninsula. On Thursday, 15 January, symbolically coinciding with the anniversary of the 1968 Belice earthquake, the city officially inaugurated its annual program Portami il future, conceived to weave together historical memory, artistic production, and long-term cultural policies.

The title chosen for the entire calendar encapsulates the curatorial framework entrusted to artistic director Andrea Cusumano, who was called to lead a collective and multifaceted project capable of offering a reflection on the crucial role of contemporary art in the re-foundation of public and community space—of which Gibellina is an emblematic case. “Thinking about Portami il futuro meant questioning how this city, with its anomalous and radical history, could once again become a stimulus for the country”, Cusumano explained. “Gibellina is a city that rebuilt itself together with artists, entrusting art with an active role in the civic process. […] The project stems from this legacy and relaunches it in the present, conceiving contemporary art not only as the art of our time, but as the art of presence—capable of activating dialogue, proximity, and participation”.

The underlying idea is to move beyond the model of the isolated cultural event and instead build a continuous system of activities and relationships centered on research, education, civic participation, and territorial development, with constant attention to the involvement of the local community and the Mediterranean dimension.

Exhibitions will punctuate the year without being concentrated in a single season. Alongside the major inaugural projects developed between the Pietro Consagra Theatre, the Church of Jesus and Mary designed by Nanda Vigo and the MAC - Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Ludovico Corrao, 2026 will see the arrival in Gibellina of exhibitions that bring the international and Sicilian scenes into dialogue. These include Mediterranea: visions of an ancient and complex sea from MAXXI; Domestic Displacement, featuring artists such as Mona Hatoum, William Kentridge, and Shirin Neshat; and Terra matta, dedicated to Art Brut.

The program will alternate original productions - focused on the symbolic places of the reconstructed city - with critical reactivations and reinterpretations of its artistic heritage, accompanying them with site-specific installations, thematic festivals, reviews, diffuse exhibitions and performances of theatre, music and sound arts. The beating heart of the entire production is represented by the residencies, conceived as a true cultural infrastructure aimed at different professional practices.

Italian and international artists — from Flavio Favelli to Sislej Xhafa, from Giorgio Andreotta Calò to Virgilio Sieni — will work in close contact with the territory, also involving students, artisans, residents, and associations in participatory practices and urban interventions that foster the development of skills and new tools of mediation. At the same time, Gibellina will host symposia and study days on the relationship between art, care, and public space, alongside the establishment of a National Advisory Committee on Contemporary Art intended to continue beyond 2026.

The stated goal is to build a continuous program capable of leaving behind a meaningful model of cultural development, ensuring that its benefits do not end with the year 2026. An ambitious challenge for a city once again called to reckon with its own history, where art has never been a marginal element, but a concrete instrument of civic and social construction.