The third edition of the Biennale dello Stretto has been presented

From September 18 to December 13, 2026, the Biennale dello Stretto is set to return with a rich and ambitious program for the third edition of the cultural project conceived by Alfonso Femia - architect, designer, and urban planner - and promoted by the Fondazione Le città del futuro. Organized by 500x100 with the support and collaboration of public and private partners, the Strait Biennale will take place across various venues between Reggio Calabria and Messina, exploring the study of cities, architecture, art, and photography as both testimony to and interpretation of change.

The theme chosen for this edition, “Mutations,” is explicitly ambitious. It is not merely a semantic framework, but a widespread condition: change - climatic and digital, combined with social transformations - redefines the city as a living organism, subjected to increasingly rapid and misaligned pressures, forcing it to synchronize its rhythms. It is precisely this “evolutionary misalignment,” and the consequences already affecting territories and cities, that form the critical core the Biennale invites us to reflect upon.

The words of the director - Alfonso Femia, founder of the design studio Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia; Annalisa Metta, landscape architect and full professor at the University of Rome; and Salima Naji, anthropologist and architect based in Agadir - invite us to question what is already happening, proposing the Biennale as a space for awareness even before it becomes one of design.

The venues and curators of the Biennale

The curatorial program reflects and interprets this complexity through a plurality of perspectives and approaches to the theme. There are eight curators for the scientific area and four for the visual arts, shaping a path that addresses crucial and contemporary issues: from the relationship between natural and artificial, explored with architect Clément Blanchet, to new geographies of global architecture with Gaetano di Gesu (Palatina Cultural Group); from spontaneous aggregation models analyzed by Daniele Durante (Studio BV36) to the “invisible” underground spaces of the contemporary city explored by Alessandra Ferrari (CNAPPC).

Ico Migliore (Migliore+Servetto) will investigate the concept of mutation as an act of overwriting and the related artistic and design transformation at the intersection of “boundary” and “divergence”; water resilience as a structural - not emergency - paradigm with Filippo Pagliani, Michele Rossi, and Michele Versaci (Park); the changing logic of mobility with Federico Parolotto and Delia Valastro (MIC-HUB); and finally the theme of “places of culture,” addressed by Paolo Verri (Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori), poised between heritage and redefinition.

The artistic curatorships also offer diverse perspectives: architect and photographer Marco Introini will curate the photography section on the theme “Post Landscape,” investigating the effects of habituation to the widespread image of the city and architecture. Artist and curator Angela Pellicanò will work, together with selected artists, on the theme “The Imperfection of the Absolute,” while Pasquale Piroso will develop performative projects titled “Between Earth and Form” in collaboration with a group of artists.

ADI Nazionale, together with its Calabria and Sicily delegations, will continue the path initiated in the previous edition with the project “Not in the Strict Sense,” proposing - consistent with the theme “Mutations”- a focus on design titled “New Codes,” curated by Francesco Alati.

With its positioning, the Strait Biennale aims to reaffirm its territorial, cultural, and historical identity, promoting an open and participatory curatorial process in dialogue with the local communities of Reggio Calabria and Messina. In continuity with previous editions, Forte Batteria Sacci in Campo Calabro will play a key role in this Biennale, alongside the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria and Villa Genoese Zerbi, which will host talks and debates. In Messina, the Biennale will be hosted in the spaces of Fondazione Messina and the University of Messina.

This year, the Biennale also renews its relationship with universities in Reggio Calabria and Sicily, actively involving students and faculty through research projects dedicated to the theme of “mutations.”

Carmelo Versace, acting mayor of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, who has supported the project since its inception, emphasized the significance of the event:

«The Biennale dello Stretto, since its first edition, has stood out as a place of encounter and reflection that arises between two cities and two regions united by the sea and by history: Reggio Calabria and Messina. The theme guiding this edition -the mutations of climate and society - concerns us all closely. The Strait Biennale therefore represents not only a cultural event, but a project for the future: an invitation to rethink the relationship between humans, nature, and the city, placing at its core quality of life, the protection of the landscape, and the strength of communities». 

 

>>> Discover the 2024 edition of the Biennale dello Stretto