Tommaso Cascella. SORRISO ETRUSCO

Opening 4 july at 6.30PM

4 july– 13 september 2026

curated by Lorenzo Fiorucci

Tommaso Cascella, Project for a Fountain, 2007, ceramic and iron

Tarquinia renews its commitment to promoting culture and contemporary art with the 3rd Premio Città di Tarquinia "Luciano Marziano", an award dedicated to art criticism and established by the Società Tarquiniense d’Arte e Storia (STAS) to honor the memory of one of Italy’s foremost scholars of contemporary ceramics.

The 2026 edition carries particular significance as it marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Luciano Marziano (1929–2016), art historian and critic, a pupil of Giulio Carlo Argan, and a key figure in the recognition of ceramics as a fully established language within contemporary art.

The award ceremony will take place on Saturday, July 4, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at the National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia, a symbolic venue that embodies the city's rich cultural heritage and extraordinary historical legacy. On this occasion, the jury will present the selection process that led to the choice of the winner of the third edition of the award.

The event will also mark the opening of the solo exhibition by Tommaso Cascella, a member of the jury and one of the leading figures of contemporary Italian art, entitled SORRISO ETRUSCO, curated by Lorenzo Fiorucci. The exhibition will be open to the public from July 4 to September 13, 2026, across the spaces of the National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia and the Museum of Ceramics at Palazzo dei Priori.

The initiative aims to strengthen the bond between the city and its artistic vocation, a tradition rooted in Tarquinia's millennia-old history that today finds new perspectives through the dialogue between archaeological heritage and contemporary artistic research.

Tarquinia's history is deeply intertwined with the visual arts. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004 for its celebrated painted Etruscan tombs, and currently shortlisted to become Italian Capital of Culture 2028, the city is one of the Mediterranean's most important cultural centers. In recent years, STAS has promoted numerous initiatives designed to enhance this identity by encouraging dialogue between tradition and contemporary culture. This path also led to Tarquinia joining the Italian Association of Cities of Ceramics (AiCC) in 2022, alongside historic ceramic centers such as Faenza, Deruta, Gubbio, and Caltagirone.

Tommaso Cascella, slip-decorated terracotta, 1995, Bottega Gatti, Faenza

The award was established to honor the legacy of Luciano Marziano, an art critic, historian, and intellectual who devoted much of his career to promoting Italian contemporary ceramics. After moving to Tarquinia following a long career in public administration and cultural institutions, Marziano played a decisive role in fostering the local artistic debate and promoting the area's ceramic production. His innovative vision found its fullest expression in his later writings on the potential of ceramics as a language of contemporary art, texts that are now regarded as essential references for scholars and professionals in the field.

The inaugural exhibition will feature Tommaso Cascella, artist, sculptor, painter, and printmaker, one of the leading figures of contemporary Italian art and the incoming President of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca. Sorriso Etrusco stems from Cascella's profound personal and artistic connection with the land of Etruria and with Etrusculudens, the creative workshop founded by Sebastián Matta in Tarquinia, one of the most significant artistic experiments of the second half of the twentieth century. For Marziano, Etrusculudens—an initiative he studied extensively and was among the first to place within a historical framework—represented a cultural and social undertaking of remarkable importance, capable of bringing together art, craftsmanship, individual creativity, and community spirit. Its aim was to renew the language of traditional ceramics while liberating the creative potential of local artisans, allowing their manual skills to be guided by free and imaginative thought.

Through a rhapsodic exhibition design, Lorenzo Fiorucci and Tommaso Cascella have placed the artist's works in dialogue with the museum's archaeological collections, creating a path of resonances and contrasts in which both ancient and contemporary works are continuously reinterpreted. Cascella reflects on the Etruscan heritage as a living source of inspiration and as a model of an artistic vision capable of combining beauty, memory, and contemporaneity. "Tarquinia was the place of my artistic education, alongside a master such as Sebastián Matta and through his Etrusculudens. That Etruscan smile remains, even today, a necessary gesture within contemporary Mediterranean art," the artist states.

An additional section of the exhibition will be presented at the STAS Museum – Museum of Everyday Ceramics in Corneto, located in Palazzo dei Priori, where visitors will encounter an original dialogue between historical examples of Tarquinia's traditional ceramic objects and Cascella's contemporary reinterpretations. As Lorenzo Fiorucci explains, "In Cascella, the 'Etruscan smile' becomes a metaphor for a profoundly human form of knowledge: an intelligence shaped by memory, hands, and imagination, capable of transcending time and transforming every creative act into shared knowledge. Over the centuries this knowledge becomes tradition, yet it constantly requires renewal in order to preserve its vitality."

The previous editions of the award have demonstrated how culture and art can serve as strategic tools for enhancing the territory, encouraging new forms of cultural tourism and strengthening Tarquinia's national profile. Through the Luciano Marziano Award and the exhibition Sorriso Etrusco, STAS seeks to reinforce the city's role as a leading center for contemporary culture, building upon the artistic tradition that has long distinguished the area.

Tommaso Cascella

Tommaso Cascella was born in Rome in 1951 to the painter Annamaria Cesarini Sforza and the sculptor Pietro Cascella. From an early age, he painted in the studios of his father and his uncle Andrea Cascella. After completing secondary school, he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture, where he studied for several years.

In 1973 he founded the Etrusculudens fine art print workshop, working closely with Sebastián Matta. Together with his first wife, Emma Politi, he was also actively involved in publishing. After the workshop closed in 1981, he established Cervo Volante Editions, launching an art and poetry journal directed by Edoardo Sanguineti and Achille Bonito Oliva. He continues his publishing activity today through new Cervo Volante publications produced in collaboration with artists and poets.

To date, Cascella has held approximately 130 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 400 group exhibitions. His works are included in numerous museum collections and private collections in Italy and abroad.

Information

Opening:Saturday, July 4, 2026 – 6:30 p.m.

Exhibition dates:July 4 – September 13, 2026

Opening hours:

National Archaeological Museum: Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. Museum of Ceramics: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. / 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Venues

National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia Museum of Ceramics, Palazzo dei Priori

PREMIO COMBAT 2026 – XVII EDITION

Opening 4 july alle 5PM

4 july– 2 august 2026

Museo della Città di Livorno – Bottini dell’Olio

On Saturday, 4 July, the 17th edition of Premio Combat opens. Until 2 August 2026, the Museo della Città di Livorno will serve as the exclusive venue for the final exhibition, presenting works by the eighty artists selected for the international contemporary art competition.

Organised by Blob ART ETS Cultural Association, with the support of the Municipality of Livorno, the Region of Tuscany, and the Fondazione Livorno, Premio Combat remains one of Italy's longest-running and most respected initiatives dedicated to promoting contemporary artistic research.

The 2026 edition received more than one thousand submissions from Italy and abroad, reaffirming the international scope of the award and its ability to capture evolving artistic practices and languages. The eighty finalists, selected by a jury of curators, museum directors, and art professionals, offer a broad and multifaceted overview of current trends in contemporary art.

Painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, installation, and video come together in an exhibition that brings diverse artistic approaches into dialogue. The works explore themes ranging from personal experience to social and political issues, creating narratives, visions, and reflections that engage with the complexities of contemporary life.

This year's edition is distinguished by the works' ability to offer multiple perspectives on the present, revealing the sensibilities, urgencies, and imaginaries that shape contemporary artistic practice. The exhibition moves between intimate viewpoints and collective perspectives, everyday experiences and broader reflections on how we interpret, inhabit, and represent the world. Traditional techniques and experimental practices coexist, reflecting the richness and complexity of today's artistic production without adhering to a single trend or dominant language.

Entrance Museo della Città di Livorno – Bottini dell’Olio, courtesy Museo

The award ceremony will take place on Sunday, 2 August 2026, at the Museo della Città di Livorno. The overall Premio Combat winner, the section awards, and the special prizes promoted by the project's partners will be presented during the ceremony.

As part of the Effetto Venezia 2026 programme, Premio Combat will take place this year alongside the inaugural Livorno Art Book Fair, a new event dedicated to independent publishing, artists' books, photography, zines, and self-publishing.

The convergence of these two events marks the beginning of a new chapter for contemporary art in Livorno, bringing together artistic practices, independent publishing, visual culture, and new forms of cultural production. This dialogue reinforces the city's role as a place for exchange, research, and experimentation, while establishing the Museo della Città as a meeting point for diverse artistic languages, experiences, and audiences.

The finalists:

Painting Section

Alice Moschetta, Josefina Ayllon, Alessandro Cito, Claudia Aschieri, Marco Crispano, Dario Wela, Luigi Di Fabio, Carlo Galofaro, Giulia Spugnoli, Luca Guidotti, Andrea Loi, Luca Balottin, Simona Mastropietro, Simone Miccichè, Michela Milani, Nicola Barth, Anastasia Norenko, Alessia Offidani, Diego Randazzo, Francesco Ronchi, Marco Sandreschi, Giuseppe Sciortino, Sergio Gagliardo, Lena Shaposhnikova, Signorino Pale, Sofie Tobiasova, Tonino Lacertosa, Tomás Toste, Sofia Villa, Meng Zhang.

Drawing/Graphic Section

Luca Biffi, Ombretta Gamberale, Silvia Mantellini Faieta, Maria Marinelli, Mauro Valsecchi, David Michel Fayek, Pier Lorenzo Pisano, Pietro Ruisi, Aleksandra Trajkovic, Zhiyu Liu.

Photography Section

Agnese Oprandi, Angelica Porrari, Nadal Antelmo, Andrea Di Lorenzo, Francesca Macis, Giacomo Mallardo, Tunahan Havrandere, Gevis Lekiqi, Francesca Maroni, Alberto Messina, Lorenzo Mini, Susanna Fiona Murray, Riccardo Pallini, Mauro Pinotti, Patrizia Posillipo, Salvatore Sparavigna, Sofia Samar, Sebastiano Branca, Luca Sereni, Sara Vighi.

Sculpture/Installation Section

Alice Ahad, Serena Ciccone, Diego Azzola, Davide Fontana, Gonfio, Luca Gerry Conte, Chiara Niccoli, Marika Ricchi, Caterina Roppo, Tommaso Silvestroni.

Video/Performance SectionLorenzo Buongiovanni, Marco Calabrese, Paola Cenati, Anouk Chambaz, Rosa Lacavalla, Jiaye Liu, Rac Montoro, Mehrnoosh Roshanaei, Tommaso Buldini, Chiara Ventura.

Informations:

Museo della Città di Livorno

piazza del Luogo Pio, 19 - Livorno 

+39 0586 824551

From 4 july to 2 august, 2026

Opening saturday 4 july 5PM

Award ceremony sunday, 2 August 2026, 7:00PM

Opening hours Tuesday–Sunday: 10:00AM – 7:00PM Monday: Closed

Free entry

PAOLO CANEVARI. GOD YEAR

24 june - 16 october 2026

Curated by Sergio Risaliti

Paolo Canevari, DIO, 2008, tyre rubber, 160x63x33 cm

The major exhibitions return to Forte Belvedere, and inaugurating this new season on 24 June will be Drama: Four Acts, a project by Fondazione MUS.E, with the scientific coordination of Museo Novecento and promoted by Comune di Firenze. The project consists of three exhibitions conceived and curated by Sergio Risaliti. The first chapter is God Year by Paolo Canevari (Rome, 1963), a new exhibition developed through a dialogue between the curator and the artist.

One of the most internationally acclaimed Italian artists, Canevari is known for his use of a wide range of materials and media, including drawing, video, sculpture, installation, and performance. In his interdisciplinary practice, he employs common and easily recognizable objects and symbols to comment on—and often deconstruct and critique—ideologies, religious beliefs, political narratives, and the great myths of progress and social happiness. Having grown up in close contact with the practices of contemporary avant-gardes (Arte Povera, conceptual art, and performance art) and trained in sculpture within a family environment, he has consistently reinterpreted classical, Renaissance, modern, and modernist art through a contemporary lens. This distinctive approach has enabled the artist to engage with the world through both intellectual and practical intelligence.

“Paolo Canevari is one of the most authoritative and internationally recognized Italian artists, capable of questioning our time through works that address memory, conflict, power, and civic consciousness. With God Year, Forte Belvedere once again welcomes a major contemporary art exhibition, offering citizens and visitors an intense and thought-provoking experience. This project confirms Florence’s commitment not only to preserving its extraordinary cultural heritage, but also to being a place of cultural production, dialogue, and reflection on the present.” — Giovanni Bettarini, Councillor for Culture of Comune di Firenze.

Esodo, 1997, installation Galleria C. Stein Milano, 2019

“Canevari’s art confronts the viewer with the harshest and most tragic aspects of reality, conveying fratricidal violence and systems of domination and exploitation that are embedded in the language, behaviours, stereotypes and images of our time. He does so without the rhetoric typical of the media, which are sometimes complicit in the distortion of facts and images, as well as in the manipulation of the meaning of words and symbols. Canevari seems to tell us: the emperor has no clothes. With lightness and irony, his works reveal the cynicism of Economy and Capital, the destructive and oppressive nature of Power, and the conformist force of every Ideology, presenting the artwork as a material, anxious and unsettling object. As a tool for cognitive growth, awareness and creative regeneration. This is an art that opposes the desire for death and destructive impulses with a critical and courageous practice, one that understands love and tenderness, innocence and melancholy, combining the verticality of the icon with the communicative immediacy of familiar objects and universal symbols. It skilfully exploits double meanings and conceptual wordplay, creating an open work and a compassionate sense of participation in the fate of the world, in the unfolding of history and in the adventures of existence. A lyrical and dramatic counterpoint to the sirens of Power.” – Sergio Risaliti, Director of Museo Novecento.

For Canevari, the image performs a complex function and is never reduced to simple information or a mere caption. It is a poetic and iconic tool that fosters awareness and cognitive growth. From both an iconographic and symbolic perspective, it is always conceived and activated as an open experience, rich in multiple meanings. A Rolls-Royce is tattooed with the message “HO FAME”; a child bounces a skull amid the ruins of bombed buildings; small and large tanks made from the “skin” of tyres transform play into an image of war, and vice versa. A wooden figure of the Virgin Mary supports a tyre on her head as though it were a halo; nooses made from inner-tube rubber evoke sacrifice and condemnation; a man (the artist himself), elegantly dressed in black, welcomes with open arms an ordnance falling from the sky. A cut tyre is used to compose the word Dio on the wall, bringing together the material dimension of industrial civilisation and the spiritual one, the horizontal movement of the automobile and the vertical dimension of theology.

Canevari often works through the ambiguity of signs, materials and forms, transforming the most familiar images into unsettling presences, critical and deconstructive devices. His research emerges from the tension between the language of art and that of reality, between aesthetics and politics, placing cultural symbols, emblems of power, references to political and religious history, collective myths, stereotypes, clichés and everyday objects into dialogue—and often into conflict. Through these oppositions, he constructs a tragic vision of contemporary existence, in which every symbol may reveal its darker side and every image may become charged with contradictory and universal meanings.

Paolo Canevari, ThAnks, 2005, tyre rubber, legno

The reflection on violence, memory, and the mechanisms of control, separation, and censorship that permeate contemporary society lies at the heart of the exhibition. These themes are explored through the use of humble industrial materials such as tire rubber, which becomes a metaphor for social conditions and for the dangers arising from the exploitation of energy resources. Oil, its derivatives, and the automotive industry are placed under scrutiny. Black gold remains one of the most powerful instruments of geopolitical supremacy, a source of wealth and global dominance. While still considered essential to progress, it is also a resource capable of triggering wars and financial crises. Exemplary in this regard is the work Landscape, in which an American flag covers a pile of barrels and tires resembling a coffin. The piece offers a powerful and incisive reflection on the close relationship between petroleum and American global power.

The exhibition title itself, God Year, derives from the name of one of the world’s best-known tire manufacturers, while simultaneously evoking “the year of the Lord.” The phrase reveals how thin the boundary can be between the sacred and the profane, between bearers of peace and producers of death, between progress and poverty, between truth and false rhetoric.

In many of his works, Canevari also draws upon the dimensions of play and sacrifice, two elements that are only seemingly opposed. Play assumes both a cathartic and a perverse function: beneath the lightness of ludic action lie dynamics of domination, collective rituals, and symbolic forms charged with violence. Sacrifice, in turn, recalls ancient archetypes and deep structures of the collective unconscious, becoming a means through which Canevari interrogates the contradictions of history and contemporary society, as well as the destructive drives and death instincts that permeate individuals, groups, followers, and masses guided or subordinated by ideals of death or racial supremacy. It is precisely within this oscillation between innocence and cruelty, irony and tragedy, play and violence, that his work finds some of its most powerful expressions.

In collaboration with Galleria Christian Stein and Petri Corse Automobili Rolls-Royce Sales & Service Specialist Firenze.