Salone Selection
The European design sector is growing, driven by the digital and green transitions. Italy confirms its lead
10 events between art and fashion, design and architecture
Text by
Magnetica Pantelleria, curated by La Collina di Loredana and Le Cannibale, Pantelleria – Ph. Mathias Blitzer
A selection of unmissable exhibitions to add to your calendar: projects that tackle the key issues of contemporary debate
In the Mediterranean, contemporary art returns to question the Earth as a living, fragile and shared matter, where landscape and memory are seamlessly interwoven. From Sicily to the Dolomites, Venice, Pantelleria and London, a constellation of practices is being built connecting bodies, ecosystems and communities, shifting the focus from representation to relationships.
At the Barbican in London, Delcy Morelos transforms space into an organism of earth, clay and darkness, where the visitor is physically immersed in a setting that recalls a primordial terrestrial body, reaffirming a vision of the human-nature relationship that is not extractive but symbiotic. In Sicily, Monira Al Qadiri works on the geological and historical stratification of the island, reading the landscape as an archive of time and its wounds, including ruins, volcanoes and mineral memories.
This same tension between land and community comprises the participatory practices of Marinella Senatore, whose parades transform art into collective action, often including marginalized subjects, and the work of Barbara Franchin with ITS Arcademy, where fashion becomes an educational device that accompanies young designers from around the world in a system of exchanges and training.
It is an extended field in which even the garden becomes political expression — as in the Biennale Gherdëina — and Venice is transformed into a platform for climatic negotiation, while our sea confirms itself as a permeable space of crossings, relationships and shared possibilities between the environment, the body and the future. Our story in ten stages. Enjoy the journey!
Geologie del Tempo, Tenuta Planeta Ulmo, by Monira Al Qadiri - Courtesy Planeta Cultura
Geologie del Tempo by Monira Al Qadiri, curated by Valentina Bruschi and Vito Planeta, c/o Tenuta Planeta Ulmo, Contrada Ulmo
As part of the tenth edition of Viaggio in Sicilia and the program Gibellina 2026 OFF, Monira Al Qadiri is presenting a site-specific project that arose from a trip to the island that also took in Selinunte, Etna, Gibellina and Palermo. The permanent work, installed at the Tenuta Planeta dell’Ulmo, engages landscape, ruins and scientific memory in dialogue, interpreting Sicily as a space for reflection on the matter of time. The project is part of the “Bring me the Future” program for Gibellina Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2026. Just 60 years after the Belìce earthquake, it interweaves historical memory, cultural regeneration and collective participation.
Where: Tenuta Planeta Ulmo, Sambuca di Sicilia
When: until 31 December 2026
Origo by Delcy Morelos, Barbican Centre, London - Ph. Barbican Art Gallery Thomas Adank
Origo by Delcy Morelos, Barbican Centre
The Colombian artist’s great immersive installation transforms the Barbican’s Sculpture Court into an organic environment made of earth, clay, seeds, spices and darkness. Through tunnels and textured volumes over three meters high, the public are invited to engage in a sensory experience that recalls the interior of a living organism. In contrast to the brutalist architecture of the Barbican, the project reflects on the relations between human beings, ecosystems and the urban environment, placing the body at the center of the perceptual experience.
Where: Barbican Centre, London
When: until 31 July 2026
Biennale Gherdëina 10 (Future) Paradise Gardens, curated by Samuel Leuenberger
Biennale Gherdëina 10 (Future) Paradise Gardens, curated by Samuel Leuenberger
Set in the landscape of the Dolomites, the Biennale Gherdëina imagines the garden as a metaphor for survival, care and the possibility for a more equitable future. The exhibition layout entwines biodiversity, collective memory and social aspirations through three chapters: “Commoning”, devoted to shared cultivation and the protection of life; “Divine Love and Growth”, which interprets the garden as a space for spiritual growth; and “Violent Garden”, a critical reflection on the relation between humanity and nature in a decolonial key. The theme of Queer Ecology is central.
Where: Dolomites / Val Gardena
When: until 13 September 2026
Rise and Shine, ITS Arcademy Museum of Art in Fashion -Ph. Ferry van der Nat, Tidjane Tall
Rise and Shine, ITS Arcademy Museum of Art in Fashion
In the first Italian museum devoted to contemporary fashion, a showcase tells the work of the talents supported by Barbara Franchin through ITS Contest. It is a passionate and patient work that, together with a team of partners – among whom the names of Sara Maino and Carlo Capasa, Emanuele Coccia and Matteo Ward stand out – selects the best of young projects from hundreds of applications from around the world. The collections by the ten designers under 35 are exhibited next to “Exposure. When the world looks at you, from Harry Styles to Lady Gaga”, the exhibition curated by stylist Tom Eerebout. A foray into the process of contemporary image-making that restores centrality to styling and staging, from backstage to the moment when a look enters the collective imagination. Outstanding among the most interesting projects is the collection by Tidjane Tall, a French designer: a profound reflection on identity, elegance and individuality that interweaves culture and story-telling, and redefines the code of elegance with a new perspective. A significant intersection for design.
Where: ITS Arcademy Museum of Art in Fashion, Trieste
When: until 3 January 2027
