Viva Vittoria Matera

A work made by the whole city

Viva Vittoria is a national project of participatory art and civic engagement against violence against women, which in 2026 also arrives in Matera. The idea is simple and powerful: thousands of crochet and knit squares, 50 by 50 centimeters, made by citizens, schools, and associations, are joined together to form a large blanket-installation that symbolically covers a square. Each square is a hand, a voice, a gesture against gender-based violence.

The path towards the installation

The journey of Viva Vittoria Matera unfolds throughout 2026: from the project launch, to the opening of a workshop space to learn, work together, and collect the squares, up to the final installation on November 21 and 22, 2026 in Piazza Vittorio Veneto, just before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. A mobilization that transforms manual work into a visible and shared collective message.

Concrete solidarity

The squares made are then offered to the public with a donation: the funds raised support the Pangea Foundation ETS for pathways out of violence. The Matera project is promoted by T-Essere APS, a reality from Basilicata, in collaboration with Viva Vittoria ODV from Brescia, the originator of the initiative spread across numerous Italian cities.

A gesture of community

More than an event, Viva Vittoria Matera is a community process: those who don't know how to knit or crochet can learn, those who want can donate materials or time. The result is a work that speaks of solidarity, awareness, and mutual care, in the heart of a city that in 2026 places the culture of dialogue at its center.