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On the occasion of Arte Fiera 2025, the thirteenth edition of Art City Bologna will take place from Thursday, February 6 to Sunday, February 16, 2025, continuing to attract the interest of citizens and tourists passionate about contemporary art with an increasingly rich and engaging program of events. Promoted by the Municipality of Bologna and BolognaFiere, the initiative is led for the eighth consecutive year by Lorenzo Balbi, director of MAMbo – Museum of Modern Art of Bologna.
While the 48th edition of Arte Fiera will be held at BolognaFiere from Saturday, February 7 to Monday, February 9, Art City will animate the streets of Bologna until the following weekend. The Bologna Art Week circuit offers a vast calendar of artistic projects across the city, featuring over 270 events, including exhibitions, performances, talks, and installations, hosted in institutional venues, galleries, and independent spaces.
Once again this year, the Art City White Night will take place on Saturday, February 8, allowing visitors to enjoy the widespread artistic offerings in the city even in the evening hours, up until midnight, thanks to the collaboration of cultural and commercial operators extending their opening hours.
Here are the must-see events during the week that the city of Bologna dedicates to contemporary art.
Opening on February 6, the collective exhibition OCCHIO! Sguardi sul territorio, promoted by Bonifica Renana in collaboration with the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna and curated by LAB.BRAINdesign, will feature floating posters by young designers in the Courtyard of Honor of Palazzo Zani, exploring themes of the environment, biodiversity, technology, and water management architecture.
Re-Use With Love Odv opens its doors to the public at its headquarters in the Centrale dei Giardini Margherita with RE(un)dressed, a photography exhibition by Luca Maria Castelli, dedicated to exploring the beauty of the human form. Curated by Simona Pinelli, the exhibition inaugurates the contemporary art series Giardini Margherita in Arte.
With this initiative, Re-Use With Love opens the renewed Centrale dei Giardini to the public for the first time, transforming it into a cultural hub focused on reuse and solidarity. Proceeds from the exhibitions will support Re-Use With Love Odv’s 2025 charitable projects.
At Teatro San Leonardo, in Via San Vitale, Ceramiche Marca Corona invites visitors to reflect on participatory and civic art with three initiatives: the exhibition MCm – Minimo Comune Multiplo by Andrea Mastrovito, the conference Cantiere Futuro | R(I)ESISTERE, featuring keynote speaker Maurizio Cilli, architect and artist, the Marca Corona Prize for creatives under 35.
The Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna (ABABO) presents a rich schedule of exhibitions and conferences involving faculty and students, highlighting the institution’s role as an incubator of creative experimentation and formative experiences.
Proposals of ABABO Art Week 2025 include the fourth edition of the ARTalk CITY series of meetings, the annual appointment with the Study Day on the Restoration of the Contemporary, an event dedicated to the memory of Alberto Garutti, and the return of ABABO Open Show, which sees the works of students, some of whom are the protagonists of a booth at Arte Fiera, set up within the spaces of the Bologna Academy.
ARTalk CITY presents a series of talks exploring the themes addressed by some of the key figures of Art City 2025. Coordinated by Marinella Paderni, the program will take place from February 5 to 8 in the Aula Magna of Santa Lucia in Via Castiglione.
Additional discussions will feature Urs Lüthi, Jorge Macchi, and the duo dmstfctn.
MAMbo – Museum of Modern Art of Bologna marks the 50th anniversary of the Gallery of Modern Art with the group exhibition Facile ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo, curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Caterina Molteni.
Held in the Sala delle Ciminiere, the exhibition features over 100 works by more than 70 artists, exploring irony in 20th and 21st-century Italian art as a tool to expose contradictions and anomalies, including political and social themes.
Additionally, MAMbo’s educational department presents Looking for Questions!, a project inviting artists to share thought-provoking questions about art and contemporary issues, on display until September 2025.
The Project Room also hosts the exhibition MORBID, curated by Caterina Molteni, celebrating the work of choreographer Valeria Magli, exploring the redefinition of femininity from the 1970s to the early 2000s.
The MAST Photography Grant on Industry and Work, promoted by MAST and curated by Urs Stahel, supports contemporary visual research on themes of industry and labor, giving voice to emerging photographers under 35 from around the world.
Now in its eighth edition, this year's exhibition features works by the five finalists: Felicity Hammond, Gosette Lubondo, Silvia Rosi, Sheida Soleimani, and Kai Wasikowski. The 2025 winner is Sheida Soleimani with Flyways, a project that presents symbolic escape routes, establishing a connection between the devastation of life and the aspiration for a more just and welcoming future for all species.
The 2025 Special Program pays tribute to The City Gates, celebrating Bologna’s historic gates with a circular route featuring works by Italian and international artists.
For more than ten days, these medieval-era city gates, symbolic of Bologna's history, will host interventions by eleven contemporary artists, both emerging and well-established figures on the international art scene. Their works will be expressed through different media, including drawing, sculpture, installation, video, and sound.
In the Chapel of Santa Maria dei Bulgari, inside the Archiginnasio Municipal Library, the first and most significant section of the multi-venue retrospective exhibition dedicated to Oscar Piattella (Pesaro, 1932 – Urbino, 2023) will be inaugurated. The exhibition, entitled Oscar Piattella. I muri and curated by Aldo Iori and Alberto Mazzacchera, is promoted by the Oscar Piattella Archive with the patronage of do ut do and in collaboration with the Archiginnasio Library.
This exhibition presents to the public eight large-format works from Piattella's "Muri" (Walls) cycle (1958–1986), which is particularly connected to the Special Program of Art City 2025, titled The City Gates.
Cineteca di Bologna continues its exploration of the intersection between cinema and art, presenting Art City Cinema at Cinema Modernissimo. The program includes numerous artist portraits, featuring the legendary Mark Rothko, known for his abstract and vibrant color compositions, as well as two great 20th-century photography masters, Ernest Cole and Martin Parr.
The series also delves into visual arts and music, telling the story of Bologna-based band Gaznevada, and poetry, with touching tributes by Céline Sciamma and Lorenzo Spinelli to Patrizia Cavalli. Additionally, the program explores major international art exhibitions as platforms for political and cultural statements (Taking Venice) or as bold provocations (Il complotto di Tirana).
Other highlights include two artist films that reinterpret fragments of cinema history: the self-reflective How about Art? and the dystopian The Truth on Sendai City and tributes to two illustrious art critics and enthusiasts: Mario Verdone and Eugenio Riccòmini, celebrated narrators of Bologna’s artistic wonders.
Luca Vitone presents Identificazione del luogo (Identification of Place), a performative exhibition curated by Leonardo Regano, at LabOratorio degli Angeli (the former Oratory of Santa Maria degli Angeli). This project invites the audience to reflect on the identity of a place and its deep connection between past and present, reactivating one of the artist’s most iconic research themes through a site-specific installation.
The exhibition features large sheets printed on photocopies, reproducing cartographic representations of the space that houses them. These serve as a metaphor for the relationship between humans and their environment, as well as the multiple ways in which space can be perceived and remembered. During the exhibition, Vitone’s works from 1989 onward will undergo a live restoration process, allowing visitors to experience an ongoing artistic evolution, intertwining the artist's creative journey with the historical layers of the exhibition site.
The project Aldo Mondino - Lorenzo Puglisi. La Resistenza, exhibited at the Istituto Storico Parri in Via Sant'Isaia, pays tribute to the Liberation of Italy at the end of World War II. This visual and symbolic tribute celebrates the courage of those who followed difficult paths while staying true to their principles, through the works of Aldo Mondino and Lorenzo Puglisi.
For the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, two monumental canvases over 6 m long are on display Festa Araba by Mondino and Il Grande Sacrificio by Puglisi. These colossal paintings, among the largest ever created by the two Piedmontese artists, embody the values and significance of the Resistance.
The Aquae Utiles project, conceived by Milena Naldi and Monica Manfrini, features works by Lidia Bagnoli, a Bologna-based artist who reflects on the relationship between art, industrial archaeology, and society. Through Bagnoli's paintings, the deep connection between water and Bologna’s urban and industrial life is transformed and amplified; the strength of the industrial landscape merges with a more intimate and personal dimension.
The exhibition, held in the suggestive spaces of the Opificio delle Acque in Via Monaldo Calari, includes large-scale paintings, image projections, and video installations, creating a conceptual and sensory journey that enhances the location. For the occasion, a rare water-based instrument, the Cristal Baschet, will be presented and played by luthier Roberto Regazzi.
Siamo con voi nella notte (We are with you in the night) is a luminous artwork by the feminist collective Claire Fontaine, created as part of the Piano della Notte project promoted by the Municipality of Bologna. This large blue LED inscription illuminates Piazza Verdi, projecting onto the facade of the Teatro Comunale, currently undergoing restoration. The installation was conceived for Lotta, a project by Claire Fontaine curated by Fabiola Naldi at the Galleria De Foscherari.
Mainly visible after sunset, the artwork becomes a symbol of a city that embraces and supports the diverse identities of its people, emanating a light of solidarity against isolation and reaffirming the importance of collective belonging as an antidote to contemporary social fragmentation.
Once again this year, Arte Fiera renews its collaboration with Fondazione Furla within the live performance program of the event. Artist Adelaide Cioni presents Five Geometric Songs, an ambitious performance piece in which abstract geometric patterns become a visual representation of rhythm in space, using five costumes designed by the artist and animated by five dancers, with music composed by Dom Bouffard.
At the Padiglione de l'Esprit Nouveau in BolognaFiere, the Bologna-based artist will perform live, invited by Bruna Roccasalva, Artistic Director of Fondazione Furla and curator of the live performance program of Arte Fiera 2025.
On the 40th anniversary of the acquisition of Francesca Alinovi's book collection, the exhibition Re-Starting from Dada: The Books, Research, and Ideas of Francesca Alinovi celebrates the scholar’s intellectual legacy through a display dedicated to her books, research, and ideas.
The exhibition, curated by Pasquale Fameli and Federica Muzzarelli, with the collaboration of Katia Amaroli, is open to visitors until May 15 at the Biblioteca delle Arti - Sezione Arti Visive "I.B. Supino", within the Santa Cristina Complex in Piazza Giorgio Morandi.
The exhibition La Finestra sul cortile (Rear Window), curated by Veronica Camastra, Diana Cava, Andrea Di Natale, and Blu Mila Renzini, draws a spatial and conceptual parallel between Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic film and Collegio Venturoli. Held at the Fondazione Collegio Artistico Venturoli in Via Centotrecento, the internal courtyard, the heart of the artists' studios, becomes a metaphor for the dialogue between inside and outside, personal and collective, reflecting the fragmented microcosm of modern life depicted in the film.
The window, seen as both a threshold and a frame, symbolizes our way of observing and interpreting the world. The five exhibiting artists—Nicola Bizzarri, Federico Falanga, Chiara Innocenti Sedili, Elena Vignoli, and Aurora Vinci—use different artistic languages to "open a window" into their own artistic expressions, offering intimate and personal visions. Just like the protagonist in Hitchcock’s film, the viewer observes and interprets, reflecting on the relationship between the visible and the hidden, the inside and the outside. The window thus becomes a site of tension, balancing what can be seen and what lies beyond the limits of perception.
Forty years of free and intense creativity, narrated through the works that have accompanied four decades of a successful musical career: Rio Ari O is the exhibition with which Luca Carboni celebrates his extensive artistic journey. It was in 1984 that the singer-songwriter released his debut album, titled …Intanto Dustin Hoffman non sbaglia un film (…Meanwhile, Dustin Hoffman Never Gets a Movie Wrong). Set up in the spaces of the International Museum and Library of Music, the exhibition is open to visitors until March 2.
Curated by Luca Beatrice, the exhibition—conceived and produced by Elastica in collaboration with the International Museum and Library of Music—celebrates the synergy between music and visual art, revealing an unprecedented and parallel creative journey. Often intertwined with his musical production, many of Carboni's albums are accompanied by drawings, sketches, and paintings, offering insight into the creative process behind each song, concert, or tour.
The dmstfctn duo, selected by Sineglossa, presents the international premiere of The Models, an interactive audiovisual installation centered on the theme of fake news.The work draws inspiration from the Q conspiracy theory, as analyzed by Wu Ming 1, who argues that conspiratorial narratives thrive due to the human attraction to wonder, often at the expense of scientific evidence.
From this perspective, dmstfctn explores the boundary between truth and fascination, highlighting the deceptive and antagonistic tendencies of large language models (LLMs). Using 3D characters inspired by the masks of the Commedia dell'Arte, the installation invites the public to interact via smartphone, allowing them to explore the "personalities" of artificial intelligence—going beyond a passive critique of technology.
The Models, produced as part of the European Digital Deal and co-financed by the Creative Europe Program of the EU, is hosted at the Tecnopolo Manifattura Data Valley Hub (Botte B4) in Via Stalingrado and is part of The Next Real, a festival dedicated to art, artificial intelligence, and society, curated by Sineglossa.
The 2025 Dance Season at the Teatro Comunale opens on February 6 and 7 with an unmissable contemporary triptych: Trittico – Solo Echo | Glory Hall | Reconciliatio, performed by the Aterballetto company, an Italian excellence that acts as a bridge between national creativity and major international choreographers.
On stage at the Comunale Nouveau, in Piazza della Costituzione, the Reggio Emilia-based company presents a brand-new program, including two co-productions with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna:
The exhibition project Eterna Provincia by Claudiano.JPEG is on view in the Sala del Camino at Palazzo Fava Marescotti, home to the Red Cross of Bologna, until February 13.
The exhibition narrates the places of the artist's childhood through black-and-white photomontages, suspended between dream and reality. A magical and dreamlike dimension, so distant from Western culture, reclaims its space, giving life to quiet and silent images, at once playful and melancholic, where escaping one's past also becomes a return to one’s origins.
The work of Franco-Swiss photographer Matthieu Croizier explores the fluid nature of identity, challenging traditional beauty standards. The artist embraces the different, the new, and the grotesque, creating dreamlike scenes where bodies transform, and images capture acts of metamorphosis. Reality becomes malleable—things are no longer bound to fixed definitions.
That Moment When You Can See The Crack In The World, displayed at PhMuseum Lab in Via Paolo Fabbri, is a love letter to the abnormal, a liberation of bodies from conventional expectations. Croizier bends and distorts paradigms to shape a world where the words "beauty" and "ugliness" lose their conventional meanings. Monstrosity is reclaimed as tender and spectacular, while queerness becomes a magical act of continuous transformation.
Cover image: Angelo Plessas, Porta Mascarella. © Valentina Cafarotti, courtesy of Art City Bologna
