The First Edition of Livorno Art Book Fair

The first edition of Livorno Art Book Fair is set to launch from 31 July to 2 August 2026 at the Museo della Città di Livorno – Polo culturale dei Bottini dell’Olio, introducing a new event dedicated to artist books, independent publishing, and contemporary editorial practices. 

The fair will take place alongside the seventeenth edition of Premio Combat and during 

Effetto Venezia, the historic city-wide festival that transforms Livorno’s Venezia district and attracts around 140,000 visitors over the course of the event.

Conceived as a platform dedicated to contemporary editorial research, Livorno Art Book Fair explores the publication as a space for experimentation, artistic language and exhibition device. Far beyond its documentary function, the artist book is presented here as an autonomous artwork capable of connecting visual practices, graphic design, photography, printing techniques, writing, and theoretical research. This perspective reflects the growing international attention toward artist publishing and independent editorial practices as active fields of contemporary cultural production. 

The fair will bring together independent publishers, artist-run spaces, collectives, photographers, designers, illustrators, and editorial projects working across artist-led publishing, offering a broad overview of contemporary editorial practices through zines, artist books, photography publications, graphic experimentation, and self-publishing initiatives. 

The opening will take place on Friday 31 July at 6 pm, with the fair continuing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 6 pm to midnight. 

With its first edition, Livorno Art Book Fair positions the Museo della Città di Livorno – Polo culturale dei Bottini dell’Olio as a meeting point for visual arts, publishing, and contemporary experimentation, further enriching Livorno’s summer cultural programme in dialogue with Premio Combat and Effetto Venezia.

All the information you need to take part can be found on the page: www.combatartreview.com/artbookfairlivorno For further information, please contact: info@livornoartbookfair.com

INFINITIES COMMISSION: nora chipaumire: gadzi

3 june- 23 august

nora chipaumire 2016 © Boyle

Tate Modern today unveils gadzi, an original installation by nora chipaumire, the recipient of the Infinities Commission 2026, a free to attend annual commission showcasing the limitless experimentation of contemporary art. Drawing on the legends, stones, and soil of her native Zimbabwe, multi-award-winning international artist nora chipaumire, has created an immersive, multi-sensory environment that brings together sculpture, sound, and moving image. Rooted in the legends of the Shona people, gadzi takes its name from gadziguru, the oldest and most powerful female presence, a generative force tied to land, ancestry, and creation.

Born in 1965 in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, chipaumire makes work and creates ideas that straddle multiple imaginaries: African, black, woman. Her artistic practice ranges from opera, dance, installation and film, channeling a punk resistance to each medium. The artist has transformed Tate Modern’s iconic East Tank into a sculptural and sonic environment that echoes the ancient landscapes of Zimbabwe. Defined by granite outcrops, red soil, and vast skies, the work takes shape as a ‘living and breathing organism’, constructed by hand and evoking a sense of enduring, haunted resilience. “There’s no answer to what I’m doing,” chipaumire reflects. “It’s a gesture I’m offering, a gesture to save the energy of the landscape, to move this energy, and to protect it.”

nora chipaumire, NEHANDA 2021 © Alla Kovgan @ Mko Malkhasya

The installation creates space for performance and features a custom-built dub sound system embedded within sculptural elements, activating the space through vibration as much as sound. Sound and movement are both integral to chipaumire’s practice, and for gadzi she draws on influences from dub and its punk subcultures, as well as Chimurenga music, all of which are associated with revolution and resistance. Drawing connections between the low-frequency sonic force of dub, which has African roots, and the geological and spiritual presence of stone, the work imagines how, in Zimbabwe, “God was heard through the rocks.” gadzi invites audiences to engage physically: to move through the structures, peer into their depths, sit on the speakers, and feel sound resonate through their bodies. Accompanying film elements introduce shifting light and visions of feminine presence within nature, extending the work’s exploration of land, spirit, and perception.

On select dates in June, gadzi will be activated by live performances in which chipaumire is joined by 14 performers and artists to lead a procession of movement and sound through the gallery, blending a confluence of guitars, saxophone and electronic sounds with traditional instruments of the Shona people: hoshos, mbiras and ngomas. A special edition of Tate Modern’s monthly Lates on Friday 26 June will also take inspiration from the Commission, bringing the gallery to life with a free programme of music, conversation, film and workshops, in collaboration with chipaumire. The artist’s mountainous speaker installation – designed conjointly with Ari Marcopoulos and Kara Walker and constructed by Matt Jackson Studio – will arrive in the Turbine Hall, celebrating the legacy of sound systems.

Launched in 2025 and with funding confirmed for the next decade, the Infinities Commission presents a long-term commitment to platforming international artists at the forefront of contemporary art, empowering them to realise ambitious, future-facing projects at pivotal moments in their careers. Each year, an expert panel is asked to select an innovative and boundary-breaking international artist to create a visionary new work for the Tanks, Tate Modern’s unique spaces dedicated to performance, installation and time-based art. For 2026, the selection panel included artist and academic Tony Cokes, curator Elvira Dyangani Ose, critic and writer Nora Khan and researcher and curator Daniel Blanga Gubbay. In addition to selecting the commissioned artist, the panel are also invited to choose three artists or collectives to receive a grant of £10,000 to fund research and development in their respective practices. This year’s bursary recipients are: collective Cercle d'Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), duo Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, and Sahej Rahal.

Informations Infinities Commission: nora chipaumire: gadzi

3 June – 23 August 2026

Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG

Open daily 10.00–18.00, and until 21.00 every Friday and Saturday

Admission free

More information at tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern

Il primo Picasso di Milano

Un Moschettiere tra rivoluzione, antifranchismo e solidarietà internazionale

3 june- 27 september 2026

curated by Roberto Pini

Pablo Picasso (Málaga, 1881 – Mougins, 1973), Homme assis (Le Fumeur), 1967. Oil on canvas. Acquired in 1972. © Succession Picasso. Photo: Studio Marco Bertoli.

From 3 June 2026, the Museo del Novecento presents The First Picasso in Milan. A Musketeer Between Revolution, Anti-Francoism and International Solidarity, a focus exhibition curated by Roberto Pini and dedicated to the complex history of Homme assis, the first painting by Pablo Picasso to enter Milan’s civic collections in 1972.

Installed on the museum’s ground floor, the exhibition offers a historical and critical reinterpretation of Homme assis, tracing its international journey between 1967 and 1972 while exploring the relationship between art, political engagement and cultural institutions in the second half of the twentieth century.

“This small yet precious exhibition exemplifies the research, study and enhancement work that our museums carry out every day on the city’s cultural heritage,” says Tommaso Sacchi, Councillor for Culture of the City of Milan.

“Through the story of the first Picasso to enter Milan’s civic collections, the Museo del Novecento returns to the public not only the history of an extraordinary artwork, but also the role of Milan as an open, democratic city deeply connected to the values of culture and international solidarity.”

Ainasi, Pillitteri, Palazzo Reale 1972

Created in 1967, Homme assis belongs to the Musketeers series, one of the most significant groups of works from Pablo Picasso’s late production. Traditionally interpreted by critics as an imaginary and autobiographical projection of the artist, the painting is reconsidered here in light of the different contexts that shaped its reception and public circulation between the late 1960s and early 1970s, a period marked by intense civic, cultural and political activism.

Before arriving in Milan in 1972, Homme assis was exhibited in major international contexts, from the Salon de Mai in Paris to the Salón de Mayo in Havana, where it was sent by Pablo Picasso himself as a symbol of his political commitment.

In March 1972, Milan hosted the major exhibition Amnistia. Que trata de España in the Sala delle Cariatidi at Palazzo Reale. Promoted by CGIL, CISL and UIL, the exhibition aimed to support Spanish workers and advocate for amnesty for political prisoners under the Franco regime.

The initiative became one of the most significant moments of civic and cultural mobilisation of the period, bringing together works by some of the leading figures of the international art scene, including Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Antoni Tàpies, Franco Angeli, Renato Guttuso, Carlo Levi, Emilio Vedova, Giulio Turcato and Toti Scialoja.

Among all the works on display, Homme assis by Picasso was the only one acquired by the City of Milan, at the request of Mayor Aldo Aniasi. Beyond enriching the city's public collections, this acquisition represented a concrete affirmation of Milan’s commitment to international solidarity and anti-Francoist values.

Museo del Novecento, installation view of The First Picasso in Milan. A Musketeer Between Revolution, Anti-Francoism and International Solidarity, 2026. Photo: Studio Marco Bertoli_14

Through photographs, archival documents and audiovisual materials, The First Picasso in Milan reconstructs the public history of Homme assis, tracing its international circulation between Paris, Havana and Milan, while exploring the cultural and political context that shaped its reception.

The exhibition project stems from the important work of surveying, studying and cataloguing the heritage of the Museo del Novecento, begun several years ago, which in 2026 will lead to the online publication of the collection catalogue.

This research has made it possible to rediscover significant works from the city’s civic heritage and to reconstruct their historical, conservation and exhibition histories, bringing often-forgotten connections back to light and highlighting the museum’s role as a centre for research into the artistic and cultural history of the twentieth century.

More than fifty years after its entry into the civic collections, the Museo del Novecento therefore offers a new reading of the historical and collecting value of a work that goes beyond the strictly artistic dimension, intertwining with processes of collective memory and Milan’s civic identity.