News

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ | Dudamel/Abramović | Teatro San Carlo, Naples

The Teatro di San Carlo presents a major new production born from a collaboration between conductor Gustavo Dudamel, performance artist Marina Abramović, and filmmaker Nabil Elderkin, who also directs the video component. The visual design includes lighting by Pasquale Mari. At the center of the program are two works that merge music, theatre, and performance. The first is Histoire du soldat (Story of a Soldier), a story to be read, performed, and danced in two parts, with text by C. F. Ramuz and music by Igor Stravinsky. The role of the narrator is performed by Valentino Mannias. The piece is presented in Italian with Italian and English surtitles. The second is El amor brujo, a one-act “gitaneria” in two tableaux, with music by Manuel de Falla. The performance features mezzo-soprano Pasión Vega and performer Sara Maurizi, and is presented in Spanish with Italian and English surtitles. The Orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo performs in a production by the Teatro di San Carlo in coproduction with the New York Philharmonic. This interdisciplinary project marks a collaboration between Dudamel, Abramović, and Elderkin, bringing together orchestral music, performance art, and visual media.

• Teatro San Carlo, Naples
• Via San Carlo, 98
• 18 – 19 aprile 2026

VANESSA BEECTOFT | GINO DE DOMINICIS | MOCELLIN-PELLEGRINI | GILBERTO ZORIO | Tragicomica | Group Show | MAXXI, Rome

“Io sono un santo” is written in cursive on a canvas that has been torn and cut across its surface—one of the earliest examples of Lucio Fontana’s unmistakable artistic gesture. On the reverse, however, appears the phrase “I am a scoundrel,” forming an ironic self-portrait that subverts the idea of the artist as a figure who elevates both themselves and the viewer through art. The work opens *Tragicomic. Perspectives on Italian Art from the Second Postwar Period to the Present*, the largest exhibition ever dedicated by the MAXXI to contemporary Italian art, produced in collaboration with the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and curated by Andrea Bellini and Francesco Stocchi. The exhibition brings together over 130 artists and 300 works, exploring irony as a defining feature of Italian culture and the tension between the tragic and the comic. Spanning more than eighty years, the show proposes a non-chronological, dialogic reading of artworks, offering an alternative and layered perspective on the Italian art canon. The project also extends into film, literature, philosophy, theatre, design, and architecture, accompanied by a catalogue published by Marsilio and a programme of public events.

• MAXXI, Rome
• Via Guido Reni, 4a
• 1 aprile – 20 settembre 2026

ANSELM KIEFER | I wish to die in autumn moonlight even in darkness not to be lost | Solo Show | Lia Rumma Gallery, Milan

Running parallel to The Women Alchemists, which Kiefer conceived for the Sala delle Cariatidi at Palazzo Reale (open through September 2026), the exhibition at Lia Rumma further expands his continued research of the “alchemists,” delving deeper into the role of other female heroines who, over the centuries, made fundamental contributions to modern science through alchemy. Joining this female pantheon, painted by Kiefer, are mythological figures such as the muses Calliope and Melpomene, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. The exhibition title evokes a poem by 19 th century Japanese poet, Buddhist nun, and ceramist Ōtagaki Rengetsu—to whom Kiefer also dedicates a painting which is presented at the overture of the exhibition.

• Lia Rumma Gallery, Milan
• Via Stilicone, 19
• 17 aprile – 24 luglio 2026

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE | Wool. Silk. Resistance | Group Show | Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany

With Wool. Silk. Resistance., the Museum Angewandte Kunst focuses exclusively on rugs, carpets, and tapestries for the first time in 45 years, at a moment of renewed global interest in handmade textiles. Rather than a traditional art-historical approach, the exhibition explores these works through the lens of resistance: how rugs, carpets, and tapestries can express an “aesthetics of textile resistance.” It highlights contemporary international artists who engage with social, political, and environmental issues, using textile art as a flexible and evolving medium. Resistance here is seen as an experience of difference, generating diverse aesthetic and artistic expressions. The exhibition addresses political opposition, resilience, and endurance, confronting power structures, discrimination, trauma, and environmental destruction.

• Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
• Schaumainkai 17, 60594 Frankfurt am Main, Germania
• 7 febbraio – 24 maggio 2026

UGO MULAS | Dalle origini ai maestri | Solo Show | Sala Civica, Pozzolengo, Italy

Pozzolengo honors Ugo Mulas with the exhibition Ugo Mulas: Pozzolengo. Dalle origini ai maestri at the Palazzetto della sala civica. The exhibition, promoted by the Municipality in collaboration with the Ugo Mulas Archive and Fondazione Il Vittoriale, features his series dedicated to masters such as Lucio Fontana, Marcel Duchamp, and Fausto Melotti. The show connects with an exhibition at the Vittoriale degli Italiani on Ossi di seppia by Eugenio Montale, creating a cultural bridge between the two shores of Lake Garda. Opening hours: Tuesday–Thursday 16:00–19:00, Friday–Sunday 10:00–12:00 and 16:00–19:00. The inauguration on 15 March at 16:30 includes the unveiling of a commemorative marker at Mulas’s birthplace and a short itinerary through the town.

• Sala Civica, Pozzolengo, Italy
• 15 marzo – 15 settembre 2026

UGO MULAS | Ossi di seppia. Per Eugenio Montale | Solo Show | Fondazione il Vittoriale degli Italiani, Gardone Riviera, Italy

An intense and evocative encounter between two artistic languages — photography and poetry — and two major figures of Italian culture, Ugo Mulas and Eugenio Montale, who engage with the same subject: the impression and concept of the Ligurian landscape. Through the photographer’s precise and lyrical gaze, the images convey the essence, light, and silence of a territory that transforms into an inner space and poetic vision. In this context, the exhibition Ugo Mulas. Ossi di Seppia. Per Eugenio Montale, hosted in the home of Gabriele d’Annunzio, creates an ideal convergence of three major figures of Italian culture, weaving together photography, poetry, and the memory of place into a single cultural horizon. The exhibition is curated by Guido Risicato and the Ugo Mulas Archive.

• Fondazione il Vittoriale degli Italiani, Gardone Riviera, Italy
• Via al Vittoriale, 12, 25083 Gardone Riviera BS
• 14 marzo – 26 settembre 2026

JOSEPH KOSUTH | The-exchange-value-of-language-has-fallen-to-zero | Solo Show | Casa dei Tre Oci, Venice

Lia Rumma Gallery presents The-exchange-value-of-language-has-fallen-to-zero, an exhibition by Joseph Kosuth at Casa dei Tre Oci, opening 28 March 2026. Kosuth, renowned for exploring language as both subject and content, debuts a new large-scale neon commission, A Chain of Resemblance (2026), based on a text by Michel Foucault, highlighting how meaning is shaped by text and context. The first-floor gallery showcases Kosuth’s early works from the 1960s, including One and Three Mirrors (1965), where image, object, and text interact, reflecting the viewer and exploring Ludwig Wittgenstein’s idea that meaning is use. Three adjacent rooms feature works questioning authorship and audience, including The Fifth Investigation (1969), Text/Context(1978–79), and Where Are You Standing? (1976), with The Seventh Investigation (1970) re-created for a public installation. Kosuth has deep ties to Venice, participating in eight Biennales, representing the Hungarian Pavilion (1993), and creating permanent and commissioned works, including The Material of Ornament (Querini Stampalia, 1997) and To Invent Relations (For Carlo Scarpa) (2016, Università Ca’ Foscari).

• Casa dei Tre Oci, Venice
• Fondamenta Zitelle, 43, 30133 Venezia VE
• 28 marzo – 22 novembre 2026

AGNIESZKA KURANT | Data Dreams: Art and AI | Group Show | MCA, Sydney, Australia

Data Dreams explores artificial intelligence and its impact on contemporary life through the work of ten visionary artists. Presented as part of the Sydney International Art Series 2025–26, the exhibition marks a major Australian premiere, bringing together international artists who push the boundaries of art and technology. Their works examine how AI is reshaping the way we live, think, and create. Focusing on urgent contemporary issues, Data Dreams addresses the relationship between technology and power, the influence of algorithms on our perception of reality, and the environmental cost of the data economy.

• MCA, Sydney, Australia
• 140 George St, The Rocks NSW 2000
• 21 novembre 2025 – 27 aprile 2026

MARZIA MIGLIORA | Paradossi dell'abbondanza | Temporary Installation | Loggia, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy

There is a new landscape within the three arches of the Loggiato Maggiore — and it’s not what you expect. At Palazzo Ducale in Genoa comes Paradossi dell’Abbondanza (2017–2026), a site-specific installation by Marzia Migliora. Ten arches become a single scenario: storm, infestation, hybrid flowers that endure. A landscape suspended between the natural and the artificial, prompting reflection on our responsibilities. A new chapter in the contemporary “re-cladding” of the palace.

• Loggia, Palazzo Ducale, Genova
• Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, 9
• 12 febbraio 2026