Per Barclay - The Massacre of the Innocents

After careful restoration and redevelopment, on the occasion of ART CITY Bologna 2025 and Arte Fiera, the former Church of San Barbaziano opens to the public with a special project by Norwegian artist Per Barclay (Oslo, 1955), The Massacre of the Innocents, curated by Denise Tamborrino and Patrizia Cirino.

The exhibition, promoted by the Musei Nazionali di Bologna - Direzione Regionale Musei Nazionali Emilia-Romagna, produced in collaboration with AICS Bologna, Otto Gallery and Galleria Giorgio Persano, runs from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9 (opening: Jan. 31). Per Barclay reinterprets with a spectacular installation intervention inside the former Church of San Barbaziano the famous painting The Massacre of the Innocents by Guido Reni, in order to activate a complex fruition experience of a social, cognitive and emotional nature and insights into the age of contemporary disorientation, vulnerability, contradictions and conflicts of our complex and troubled times. In conjunction with this event, the former church is finally reopened to the public, having come to the end of the long restoration work that consolidated its architectural appearance in its peculiarity as an urban ruin. Thanks to Barclay's special opening, it will be possible to visit the space before its re-functionalization by AICS Bologna.