Installation near Porta Mascarella, ACB 2025 | Angelo Plessas Talisman of All Beings, 2022 Courtesy the artist. Foto di Photo by Stelios Tzetzias

Home / Blog /

What to see for ART CITY 2025

Updated on 03 February 2025 From Bologna Welcome

The thirteenth edition of ART CITY Bologna will take place from February 6 to 16, 2025, offering a rich series of events dedicated to contemporary art. Organized by the City of Bologna, BolognaFiere, and MAMbo, the initiative will complement Arte Fiera (February 7-9).

If you're looking for exhibitions to visit as part of the institutional program of Art City 2025, this is the article you need to read!

Here is a list of institutional exhibitions to help you navigate the many events in the Art City 2025 program

Explore the full map of all events, including galleries and independent spaces ->


SPECIAL PROGRAM FOR ART CITY BOLOGNA 2025

The ART CITY Bologna 2025 Special Program celebrates the ten historic Gates of the city, emblems of its ongoing transformation. The theme was chosen to reflect on the relationship between history and urban changes in Bologna, presenting artistic installations that engage with each of the Gates. The journey will begin at Porta Mascarella and continue in a circular route toward Porta San Donato, passing through all the other Gates, and concluding at Porta Galliera. Completing the program, Derek MF Di Fabio's BARK performance will serve as a unifying experience, bringing together the works into a collective journey. The project will involve a group of queer people in a bike ride following the route of the Gates, symbolically linking all the artistic interventions.

Don't miss the opportunity to experience the route by bus with a 2½-hour door tour on
  • Saturday 8 February at 3pm (Art City White Night)
  • Sunday 9 February at 3 p.m.
  • Saturday 15 February, 3 p.m.
  • Sunday 16 February at 3 p.m.

ART CITY Bologna 2025 Special Program Tour: "The Gates of the City ->

Buy here ->


Porta Saragozza

EVENTS IN THE CIVIC MUSEUMS FOR ART CITY BOLOGNA 2025:

  • Nino Migliori, i Miei Gioielli curated by Lorenzo Balbi, until February 10, 2025 at the Museo Civico Archeologico in Via dell'Archiginnasio 2
    The exhibition showcases the most unusual work by the master of photography Nino Migliori: his jewelry.
  • Silvia Bächli. Before, curated by Lorenzo Balbi, until March 30, 2024 at the Museo Morandi in Via Don Giovanni Minzoni 14
    The exhibition, conceived for the spaces of the Museo Morandi, intertwines Bächli's abstract and poetic language with the legacy of Giorgio Morandi.
  • Alessandra Spranzi. Il quale cerca solamente la sua bellezza, nel modo qui descritto, curated by Lorenzo Balbi in collaboration with the P420 gallery of Bologna, until March 16, 2025 at Casa Morandi in Via Fondazza 36
    Spranzi’s artistic research is tied to photography, photographic staging, the reuse of both her own and others' photographs, collage, and the "photography of photographs."
  • Carol Rama. Unique Multiples, curated by Elena Re, until March 30, 2025 at Villa delle Rose
    This exhibition aims to highlight the significant body of multiples created by Carol Rama between 1993 and 2005 with Franco Masoero Edizioni d'Arte - Turin, and originating from the Franco Masoero and Alexandra Wetzel Collection.
  • Valeria Magli. MORBID, curated by Caterina Molteni, until May 11, 2025 at MAMbo - Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna
    The exhibition explores the artistic research of dancer and choreographer Valeria Magli (Bologna, 1952), focusing on her work redefining womanhood and the feminine throughout her career.
  • Facile ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo, curated by Lorenzo Balbi, until September 7, 2025, at MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, in Via Don Minzoni, 14
    With more than 100 works and archive documents from over 70 artists, this exhibition spans approximately seventy years— from the 1950s to today— and aims to trace the history of Italian art through the theme of irony.
  • Alessandro Roma. Vestirsi paesaggio, in collaboration with the CAR gallery of Bologna, until March 2, 2025, at the Museo Civico Medievale in Via Alessandro Manzoni 4
    The exhibition reflects on the interaction with the surrounding world, understood as both a vital and subjective environment in which the individual finds their way of being.
  • Contemporary Museum Watching. Alex Trusty Photographer, curated by Luciano Bolzoni, until February 16, 2024 at the Collezioni Comunali d'Arte at Palazzo d'Accursio in Piazza Maggiore 6
    More than 50 shots, selected from around 25,000 photographs taken over nearly ten years (2015-2023) in over 80 museums worldwide, depict viewers contemplating the works of art housed in museums in Italy and abroad.
  • Christian Fogarolli. Corpo eterico, curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto, until February 16, 2025 at the Museo Civico d'Arte Industriale e Galleria Davia Bargellini in Strada Maggiore 44
    Fogarolli's works interact with the artifacts of daily life, of which the objects of "industrial art" exhibited at the museum are the most vivid expression.
  • Rio Ari O. Luca Carboni, 40 anni tra musica e arte, curated by Luca Beatrice, until February 9, 2025 at the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica in Strada Maggiore 34
    The exhibition celebrates the synergy between music and visual art, showcasing a unique and parallel creative journey, often intertwined with the musical one, as many of Carboni's albums are accompanied by drawings, sketches, and paintings that tell the creative process behind each song, concert, or tour.


Alessandra Spranzi. Il quale cerca solamente la sua bellezza, nel modo qui descritto

INSTITUTIONAL VENUES AND HISTORICAL PALACES:

  • Flavio Favelli. Nuova Mixage Up, curated by Roberto Pinto, until March 28, 2025 at the Biblioteca Zeri at the Complesso di Santa Cristina in Piazzetta Giorgio Morandi 2
    A visually striking installation made up of a series of wooden shelves, similar to those that host books, containing 216 bottles of liquor in different shapes and sizes, collected over the years by the artist. The work aligns with Flavio Favelli’s poetic approach, which focuses on the use of objects filled with memory, but reassembled and given new meaning.
  • Grazia Toderi and Gilberto Zorio. TORRI: TERRA, curated by Cristina Francucci, with texts by Gianfranco Maraniello, until February 9, 2025 at the Oratorio di San Filippo Neri in Via Alessandro Manzoni 5
    In the darkness of the Oratorio, the five points of the two Torri Stella by Gilberto Zorio— one of the leading figures of Italian Arte Povera— meet and intertwine in a dance marked by different symmetries. The projections We Mark by Grazia Toderi interact with the surfaces of the Torri Stella and the Oratorio, transforming in shape and design, revealing multiple layers of meaning through their own spatiality and temporality.
  • Antonello Ghezzi. La Palazzina dei sogni, until June 12, 2025 at the Palazzina Liberty at Giardini Margherita in Piazzale Jacchia ¼
    The two artists propose a true "galactic journey" within reach, where Piazzale Jacchia becomes the starting point for a unique experience: a cosmic journey that invites us to look beyond our differences and feel united under the same starry sky.
  • Riassunto delle puntate precedenti, curated by Tommaso Pasquali, until February 23, 2025 at Palazzo Bentivoglio in Via del Borgo di San Pietro 1
    Palazzo Bentivoglio aims to reconnect with the history of the building and make public the previously unknown story of an art collection born and grown within these walls during crucial decades for artistic research and the establishment of the contemporary art market in Italy.
  • In a Naked Room, Peggy Franck, curated by Davide Ferri, until March 2, 2025 at Palazzo De’ Toschi, in Piazza Minghetti 4d
    The exhibition explores the intersection of painting, sculpture, and photography—disciplines the artist combines to create images and spaces in continuous evolution.
  • Doni d'artista, (various artists), curated by Giovanni Gardini and Francesca Passerini, until February 16, 2025 at the Raccolta Lercaro in Via Riva di Reno 57
    Many of these works come from the exhibitions organized in recent months both in the central space of the museum and in its Project Room. This exhibition space is dedicated to projects in collaboration with many national realities.
  • Luca Freschi. Se chiudo gli occhi il buio non mi vede - Atto II, curated by Niccolò Bonechi in collaboration with the L’ARIETE gallery of Bologna, until March 2, 2025 at the Raccolta Lercaro in Via Riva di Reno 57
    The artist presents research on the otherness of the human figure and on personal and collective memory, explored through techniques such as casting, assembly, and ceramics.
  • Agostino Arrivabene. La linea verticale, curated by Giovanni Gardini, until March 9, 2025 at the Raccolta Lercaro in Via Riva di Reno 57
    The exhibition presents the latest research of the artist through 22 works, paintings, and drawings centered on the themes of transcendence, vision, and inner dialogue.
  • Una, Doppia, Collettiva. L'identità al tempo del Metaverso, curated by Federica Patti and Claudio Musso, until May 31, 2025 at CUBO Unipol, in Via Larga, 8
    LaTurbo Avedon, Auriea Harvey, Kamilia Kard, and Mara Oscar Cassiani present a multifaceted series of events, formats, and works arranged in the exhibition spaces according to aesthetic, dynamic, and thematic dialogues, guiding visitors on a journey through art, psychology, and technology.
  • Luisa Gardini, La stessa voce ma non lo stesso canto, curated by Cecilia Canziani and Ilaria Gianni, until March 8, 2025 at the Fondazione del Monte in Via delle Donzelle 2
    For the first time in an institutional setting in Italy, the Fondazione del Monte presents the work of Luisa Gardini (Ravenna, 1935, lives and works in Rome), continuing a series of exhibitions that focus on the poetics and practices of artists born or active in Emilia-Romagna from a generation that received late recognition, despite an uninterrupted research and studio practice.
  • MAST Photography Grant On Industry and Work 2025, curated by Urs Stahel, until May 4, 2025 at MAST in Via Speranza 42
    A photographic competition on industry and work dedicated to emerging artists developing an original and unpublished project for Fondazione MAST on the themes of the award. The finalists of the eighth edition are showcased in this exhibition.

©2025 Bologna Welcome - All rights reserved
Newsletter

Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter and stay updated on events and offers. Receive a 10% discount code to use on selected experiences

Subscribe