Michelangelo Pistoletto a Matera 2026

Pistoletto and the Mediterranean of Dialogue

Among the major protagonists of the program for Matera Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue 2026 is Michelangelo Pistoletto, a master of Arte Povera and a central figure in international contemporary art. For the occasion, the Municipality of Matera and the city's cultural institutions are hosting two projects that make the Mediterranean the heart of a reflection on the encounter between cultures, peoples, and languages.

"Art as a Document of Dialogue"

At the SoutHeritage Foundation, housed in a 16th-century noble chapel in the Sassi districts, the exhibition "Art as a Document of Dialogue" takes shape. The project is configured as a device for relationship and reflection between art, society, and civic practice, centered on the "Declaration of Foundation of the Mediterranean Cultural Parliament," originally presented in Strasbourg in 2008 and reinterpreted in the contemporary context. The exhibition has a transnational dimension, unfolding simultaneously in Tétouan and at the Italian Cultural Institutes in Tirana, Tripoli, and Algiers.

"Love Difference: Mediterranean Sea"

In the evocative rock complex of Madonna delle Virtù and San Nicola dei Greci, in the Sassi, the installation "Love Difference: Mediterranean Sea" is set up: a large mirrored table (7.5 x 4.5 meters) shaped like the Mediterranean basin, surrounded by chairs and carpets from the countries bordering this sea. The work, curated by Mariadelaide Cuozzo from the University of Basilicata, functions as a relational device that invites confrontation, sharing, and the construction of new common perspectives. It is promoted by the Pistoletto Foundation – Cittadellarte.

Art diffused in the Sassi

The two projects dialogue with the extraordinary setting of the Sassi, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and are accompanied by an extensive public program of meetings, discussions, and participatory practices, in full coherence with Matera 2026's intercultural vocation.