Lecce has all it takes to participate in the tender which will identify the Italian capital of contemporary art every year from this year onwards. A candidacy that deserves a shared, participatory, inclusive, ambitious path that is not possible to undertake in the current contingencies. It will be the next administration to start this process and evaluate the candidacy for the first useful edition after this one underway for the awarding of the title for 2026.
A few weeks ago, following the publication of the first ministerial announcement for the designation of the “Italian Capital of Contemporary Art”, responding to a suggestion by the president of the Academy of Fine Arts Nicola Ciracì to nominate Lecce, the Municipality of Lecce convened an inter-institutional table to collectively evaluate whether or not there were the times and conditions to participate in this first edition.
Taking part in the meetings at Palazzo Carafa in three different sessions chaired by the mayor with the councilor for culture were the city’s university institutions (University of Salento, Academy of Fine Arts and “Tito Schipa” Conservatory of Music), the Polo bibliomuseale del Salento, which manages the Castromediano Museum and the Bernardini Library, the Must – Historical Museum of Lecce and the Biscozzi Rimbaud Foundation, which with different roles, areas and tasks deal with the theme of the contemporary in our territory.
In the meetings – during which external specialists were also consulted to obtain their authoritative point of view – the importance of taking into account the short deadline for submitting the dossier by 30 June, which the city finds itself at the end of the The current council session is just a few days away from the elections for the renewal of the municipal council, which the established rules prevent from being able to run for office in the immediately following years in the event of failure to be nominated.
And the shared idea of wanting to consider this announcement not as a simple competition aimed at recognition in itself, although important, but as the start of a process of involvement, participation, relationship aimed at structuring a cultural infrastructure, a work platform capable of guarantee the territory its own contemporary role in the Mediterranean area. Objective fully consistent with the experiences that have been launched and defined in Lecce and the province in recent years, qualifying themselves as innovative in the specific field of contemporary art.
Precisely because of this collegial vision, the common awareness has emerged that the timing and contingent situation of the electoral period risk compromising a candidacy path that is believed to be credible, ambitious, participatory – with the involvement of widespread protagonisms that also operate outside the borders specific to the city – and which is capable of sedimenting processes, actions, practices, regardless of the outcome of the tender.
It was therefore agreed with all the participants at the table that there is no need to draw up a dossier in a short time – sacrificing activations, involvement and participation – just to compete for the tender. But that it is right and useful to postpone until after the elections and to delegate to those who will be at the helm of the city the launch of a work platform that has the primary objective of strengthening the role of the city and the province as a point of reference for contemporary practices in the Mediterranean area.
With this commitment, the table was updated at the end of the electoral consultations.
The Municipality thanks the president of ABA Lecce Nicola Ciracì, Girolamo Fiorentino and Massimo Guastella of Unisalento, the president of the Conservatory Luigi Puzzovio and the director Corrado de Bernart, the director of the Polo Bibliomuseale del Salento Luigi de Luca and Brizia for their contribution and availability. Minerva, responsible for the artistic collection of the Castromediano Museum, Roberto Lacarbonara and Anna Maggio of the Biscozzi Rimbaud Foundation, the director of Must Claudia Branca and Titti Magrini of the Municipality’s Strategic Planning Office.
