Artinvita — International Festival of Abruzzo

Artinvita, international art in the villages of Abruzzo

Founded in 2018, Artinvita — International Festival of Abruzzo is a performing arts festival that has chosen Orsogna, a small town in the province of Chieti, and the surrounding inland villages of Abruzzo as its home. Conceived and organized by the Associazione Insensi under Italian-French artistic direction, the festival brings contemporary dance, theatre, installations, cinema, and music to Abruzzo every year, featuring artists from all over Europe and the Mediterranean.

A widespread festival across Orsogna, Arielli, and Crecchio

The unique feature of Artinvita is its widespread nature: performances and installations are not concentrated in a single venue but span multiple towns. The Teatro Comunale Camillo De Nardis in Orsogna is the heart of the event, but the programme also reaches Arielli and Crecchio, involving deconsecrated churches, historic palaces, auditoriums, and open-air spaces. In this way, the festival enhances the architectural and landscape heritage of the small Abruzzo towns, restoring international cultural life to them.

Dance, theatre, installations, and residencies

The Artinvita programme weaves together different languages:

• Contemporary dance and physical theatre, often as national premieres;
• Video and sound installations hosted in churches and historic palaces;
• Dinner-shows and events that combine art, food, and ecological reflection;
• Artistic residencies that invite international creators to work in the territory.

Many events stem from international co-productions and European projects like the Nouveau Grand Tour, which bring French and Italian artists closer together.

A project rooted in the territory

Attentive to themes of ecology, collective memory, and the relationship between man and landscape, Artinvita is much more than a simple festival: it is a cultural stronghold for the Chieti province hinterland and for the whole of Abruzzo. From 2026, the festival has begun a transformation towards a programming model distributed throughout the year, with an increasingly close dialogue with local communities and institutions.