STILLS OF PEACE
AND EVERYDAY LIFE Ed.XIiI
Italy and ARGENTINA: GLOBAL IDENTITY
July 4th – September 13, 2026 / ATRI – PESCARA
Artistic Director Giovanna Dello Iacono
STILLS OF PEACE AND EVERYDAY LIFE. ED. XIII
Italy and Argentina: Global Identity
With its thirteenth edition dedicated to Argentina, “Stills of Peace and Everyday Life” brings to a fitting conclusion a trilogy focused on Latin America—a curatorial journey that, over the past three years, has taken us through Mexico, Colombia, and finally Argentina, exploring some of the major issues defining our times. Following the edition dedicated to Mexico and its reflection on “Global Humanity”—understood as an expression of solidarity, empathy, and belonging to a shared human condition—and the previous edition dedicated to Colombia and the theme of Global Future, as the right to imagine a shared, equitable, and sustainable future, the exhibition now arrives in Argentina with the theme of Global Identity, completing a conceptual journey that moves from shared humanity through responsibility toward the future to a reflection on identity in the global world.
This curatorial choice stems from a desire to explore one of the most significant issues of our time: the relationship between local identities and a sense of global belonging. In this sense, Argentina represents a privileged case study. Its history is, in fact, deeply intertwined with the migratory phenomena that, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, helped shape one of the most diverse societies on the American continent. Among these, the contribution of Italian emigration was fundamental, leaving a profound mark on the language, architecture, traditions, social practices, and cultural imagination of Argentina.
The encounter between Italy and Argentina thus offers particularly fertile ground for reflecting on identity not as a static or exclusive category, but as a dynamic process of collective construction. Contemporary identities are, in fact, shaped by the constant crossing of geographical, cultural, and symbolic boundaries; they are the result of layers of influence, cross-pollination, shared memories, and ceaseless transformations.
In a present marked by global mobility, geopolitical crises, climate change, and rapid technological advancements, the very notion of identity requires new ways of understanding. Global Identity does not propose a homogenizing view of the world, but invites us to recognize the value of differences within an increasingly dense network of relationships and interdependencies. Identity thus becomes an open space for dialogue, a place where multiple affiliations intersect, where memory and the future, rootedness and movement, the individual and the collective meet and redefine one another.
The exhibitions and events in this edition explore these issues through various artistic languages, offering perspectives that capture the complexity of contemporary experiences. Art thus becomes a tool for knowledge and cultural mediation, capable of shedding light on the deep connections that unite seemingly distant histories and geographies.
The curatorial project comprises five exhibitions: two in the Cisterne and Scuderie Romane spaces of Palazzo Acquaviva in Atri, a photography exhibition in the s.l.m.00 space – zerozerosullivellodelmare, a solo exhibition in the Church of Sant’Anna in Pescara, and a documentary exhibition on the first floor of Palazzo Acquaviva dedicated to the Atri-born composer Rodolfo Zanni (1901–1927), an emblematic figure of the historical and cultural bond between Italy and Argentina.
Alongside the exhibitions and performances, the Cine Argentina film series returns with six screenings of Argentine films in their original language with Italian subtitles, as does Stills Story, a series of literary events dedicated to Argentine authors. Cinema and literature will once again take center stage in the Cloister of the Ducal Palace of the Dukes of Acquaviva in Atri.
Seven curators, eleven international artists, and over three months of programming make up the mosaic of this thirteenth edition, which presents itself as a space for the encounter of cultures, experiences, and perspectives. A shared think tank that invites the public to reflect on the meaning of identity in the 21st century, recognizing it not as a given, but as a continuous construction, open to others and capable of generating new forms of coexistence and mutual understanding.
Giovanna Dello Iacono
Artistic Director
PROGRAM:
MA.CO. / Marathon of the Contemporary
July 4th, 6 p.m. / Atri (TE)
Cloister of Palazzo Acquaviva – Opening of Stills of Peace
Cisterns of Palazzo Acquaviva – Opening of the exhibitions Global Identity, curated by Giovanna Dello Iacono and Maria Letizia Paiato, and Stills of Peace for Young, curated by Eva Comuzzi and Giovanna Dello Iacono.
Rooms of Palazzo Acquaviva – Opening of the exhibition Rodolfo Zanni. Note dall’oblio, curated by Giuseppe Zanni.
July 5, 6 p.m. / Pescara
s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare – Opening of the exhibition L’uguale, il diverso curated by Paolo Dell’Elce
July 6, 6 p.m. / ATRI (TE)
Cloister of Palazzo Acquaviva / Atri (TE)
6 p.m. – First event of Stills Story curated by Giuliana De Petris- Presentation of the book of Mempo Giardinelli Sant’Uffizio della Memoria.
9 p.m. – First event of Cine Argentina curated by Martina Juncadella – Screening of the movie Los domingos mueren más personas.
EXHIBITIONS:
July 4th – September 13, 2026
ATRI
10.30 – 12.30 a.m./ 5 – 8 p.m. / 9-11 p.m. / everyday
July 5 – September 13, 2026
s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare / PESCARA
6-9 p.m. / from thursday to saturday and by reservation: info@fondazionearia.it
September 5 – October 3, 2026
Church of Sant’Anna / PESCARA
4 – 7 p.m. / wednesday and friday and by reservation: info@yag-garage.it /+39 3473567678 (by WhatsApp)
Free entry
Cisterns of Palazzo Acquaviva – Atri (TE)
Global Identity
Luciana Lamothe, Nicola Samorì
Curated by Giovanna Dello Iacono and Maria Letizia Paiato
Argentina, a true melting pot and one of the world’s most tangible examples of authentic cultural syncretism, embodies the idea of an intrinsic global identity, where diverse currents and influences—lifestyles, philosophies, and mentalities—constantly intermingle with local traditions and international influences. In its unique sharing with Italy of a values-based identity, the Latin American country leads the 13th edition of Stills of Peace and Everyday Life, Global Identity, in a dialogue between two exceptional international figures in contemporary art: Nicola Samorì and Luciana Lamothe. Formally and visually distant, radically different in their expressive language, the two artists, in the Cisterns of Palazzo Acquaviva in the ancient city of Atri, where the past overlaps with the present, offer viewers the opportunity to participate in a silent yet profound conversation on the concept of the self and the group in today’s global context, through the symbolism that the very essence of art proposes, as a representation of a living and inexhaustible cosmic force. In this context, the work of Nicola Samorì—rooted in the tradition of Western art, where impeccable academic technique in both painting and sculpture is juxtaposed with the artist’s bold interventions that destabilize its chronological placement in time, transcending it—intersects with that of Lamothe. Thus, the Argentine artist’s gaze—which continually draws on Brutalist architecture and industrial sculpture, moving between minimalism and urban construction systems, and is increasingly oriented toward penetrating the spatial dynamics of societal control—bounces off that of the Italian artist, sharing a deeply visceral artistic vision. Through traumas inflicted on matter, both artists’ work focuses on the breaking point, on that precise instant when a form ceases to be intact, revealing its intrinsic weakness. From the deconstruction of the canon to that of architecture, from the wounds inflicted on art to the perception of precariousness, Nicola Samorì and Luciana Lamothe share, in the theme of representation, the tool to interrogate reality and formulate a contemporary conception of Global Identity.
Cisterns of Palazzo Acquaviva – Atri (TE)
STILLS OF PEACE FOR YOUNG
Satya Forte, Agustina Leal, La Porkeria Mala, Gianlorenzo Nardi, Maria Positano
Curated by Eva Comuzzi and Giovanna Dello Iacono
This year, the “Stills of Peace for Young under 35” section features the artists Satya Forte, Agustina Leal, Gianlorenzo Nardi, La Porkeria Mala, and Maria Positano. The theme of “Global Identity” is explored in their works through reflections that focus specifically on the body, the landscape, and the identity connected to them—that is, how a place defines us and, conversely, how it also shapes our very being and our existence in the world. Italy and Argentina are certainly united by the theme of migration and, consequently, by relationships, comparisons, and hybridizations. It is true, however, that identities are constructed not only in the present but also—and above all—based on what has been, on what is defined as transgenerational, and also, in this case, on what has disappeared and never returned. From this perspective, Italy and Argentina become both symbolic and concrete spaces for a shared narrative, where roots intertwine with migration patterns and social transformations, giving rise to new forms of belonging. The exhibition thus invites us to reflect on how identities are continually redefined in everyday life, becoming spaces for negotiation, resistance, and creativity, capable of generating unexpected connections and shared perspectives in an increasingly interconnected world.
Rooms of Palazzo Acquaviva – Atri (TE)
RODOLFO ZANNI. NOTE DALL’OBLIO
Curated by Giuseppe Zanni
On the first floor of Palazzo Acquaviva, a documentary exhibition explores the life and work of Rodolfo Zanni (1901–1927), a composer originally from Atri. Visitors will have the opportunity to listen to a selection of his musical compositions and view highlights of his brief yet intense life in Argentina, thereby celebrating the deep historical and cultural bond between the two lands. The exhibition aims to give a voice back to an extraordinary composer, celebrating the unbreakable bond between his homeland, Atri, and his adopted country, Argentina. A cultural bridge built of notes, passion, and genius that time has failed to erase.
s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare / pescara
L’uguale, il diverso
Armando Di Antonio, María Zorzon
Curated by Paolo Dell’Elce
Through their photography, María Zorzon and Armando Di Antonio portray the human form as an expression of a unique lived experience. Photography becomes a mediator of human experience, the result of a civil dialogue between equality and diversity, revealing the fragile balance of the individual forced to find fulfillment in conflicting situations—including those arising from being uprooted from one place and transplanted to another entirely different one, as María Zorzon’s work demonstrates. This is the difficult condition of the migrant, but also of every person who knows they cannot return to their origins. Deprived of the possibility of return, what remains is perhaps nostalgia for the missed reunion with one’s birthplace, but also a sense of acceptance or resignation to having to be reborn in another world. On the other hand, Armando Di Antonio’s photographic work reveals a more inner and suspended dimension where we seek the similarities and differences that define our oxymoronic nature, and where the fragility or precariousness of the human race—likely stemming from the melancholic perception of feeling alone and mortal in the Universe—is most evident. Armando invites us to view human fragility with compassion; María gives us hope that change is always possible and that sometimes it is even desirable to “die” in one place in order to be reborn elsewhere.
Church of Sant’Anna – Pescara
In collaboration with YAG/garage
Oh madre!
Martina Marini Misterioso
Curated by Giovanna Dello Iacono and Maria Letizia Paiato
Martina Marini Misterioso’s exhibition *Oh madre!* is an intimate yet universal exploration of the themes of care, origin, and transformation. At the heart of the artist’s exploration lies the experience of love, understood in its most complex and total form: a generative force, a radical openness to the other, but also an inevitable site of loss and pain. The materials—clay, linen, ceramics—become progressively more ethereal, as if each work were part of a process of sublimation in which the weight of experience transforms into vibration, echo, and breath. In dialogue with the theme of this edition, Global Identity, the exhibition offers a reflection on identity as a fluid and relational construct, in which the individual dimension opens up to a collective resonance. Oh madre! thus presents itself as a place of passage, where personal experience becomes a shared language, and where the sacred emerges as a living practice: in the ability to traverse pain, to evolve, and to lighten the burden of its weight.
CINE ARGENTINA:
Cloister of Palazzo Acquaviva – Atri
Cine Argentina
Curated by Martina Juncadella
Six appointments with argentine cinema in original language with italian subtitles.
July 6, 13, 27 / August 3, 24, 31 2026 – 9 p.m.
Alongside the waves of immigration, technicians, producers, and artists arrived in Argentina and, from the very beginnings of cinema, contributed to the development and expansion of film culture in the country. Argentina has a vast silent film heritage and, with the arrival of sound cinema, developed major film studios and established itself as one of the leading centers of the Latin American film industry.
Through crises, ruptures, and transformations, Argentine cinema has continued to reflect the history of a young and restless country in constant reinvention. A cinema capable of reshaping its production models and aesthetic forms according to the resources, limitations, and tools available in each era.
This brief program of six films brings together a classic work and a selection of more recent titles that reflect different modes of production: cooperative and collective experiences; industrial structures sustained by long-standing international co-productions; and more intimate, personal approaches, in which filmmakers engage with images through free, handcrafted, and deeply subjective practices.
These films are all markedly different from one another, yet they share a strong and singular expressive identity. Because if there is one defining characteristic of Argentine cinema, it is precisely its extraordinary diversity.
Martina Juncadella
Monday, July 6 – 9 p.m.
Los domingos mueren más personas (2024) by Iair Said
Comedy, Drama / 73 minutes
Los domingos mueren más personas follows David, a young Jewish gay man with a fear of flying, who returns to Buenos Aires from Europe after the death of his uncle. Back in the family home, he discovers that his mother has decided to take his father off life support. As he moves through grief while avoiding confronting his father’s illness, David wanders through the city trying to fill his existential anguish through driving lessons, medical appointments, and fleeting emotional relationships. With humor and sensitivity, the film explores themes such as loss, loneliness, and family bonds.
World premiere: ACID section at the Festival de Cannes, May 2024. It also screened at the San Sebastián International Film Festival (Horizontes Latinos).
Monday, July 3rd – 9 p.m.
Todo documento de civilización (2024) by Tatiana Mazú
Experimental documentary, 90 minutes
An avenue intersection that is, at the same time, the border between the city of Buenos Aires and its urban outskirts. Every night, thousands of people cross it on their way home from work. Buses, traffic lights, asphalt, concrete, a rusted sign. Someone going to study, another person selling bread. Public lighting and political propaganda. Billboards for cell phones and hamburgers. Garbage and the woman selling flowers. The testimony of a mother who lost her son at the hands of the police confronts the image of normality. Her struggle and her voice trace the imaginary worlds of Jules Verne, which they used to dream about together. This film is a process of excavation. Or the dissection of the landscape where, fifteen years ago, the State disappeared Luciano Arruga.
Festival:
FIDMarseille – International Competition – France – 2024 – Prix Georges de Beauregard International
DocBuenosAires – Opening Film – Argentina – 2024
PerSo Film Festival – International Competition – Italy – 2024
FICViña – Documentary Competition – Chile – 2024 – Best Director Award
Monday, July 27 – 9 p.m.
La mujer de los perros (2015) by Laura Citarella and Verónica Llinás
Drama, 100 minutes
A woman walks across the countryside.
Around her, a swarm of dogs moves in every direction, unpredictable,
unraveling fiction like Penelope’s weaving.
Further away, the world, the outskirts,
the seasons of the year, and day
and night,
and the different versions
of the sky.
Produced by El Pampero Cine. El Pampero Cine was founded in 2002 not simply as a production company, but as a group of people willing to experiment and renew the procedures and practices of filmmaking in Argentina.
Monday, August 3rd – 9 p.m.
La vida dormida (2025) by Natalia Labaké
Documentary, 74 minutes
In the 1990s, the wife of a Menemist politician filmed her husband’s public and private life. Against the backdrop of this strict, patriarchal family, Agustina and her aunt Bibiana weave a story of fascination and disillusionment, of tensions and silences that oscillate between love and power.
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA 2020) in two sections: LUMINOUS and IDFA Competition for Creative Use of Archive, where it received a Special Jury Mention at the ReFrame Award.
Monday, August 24 – 9 p.m.
Errante corazón (2021) by Leonardo Brzezicki
Drama, 107 minutes
Santiago (award-winning actor Leonardo Sbaraglia) is an emotionally shattered man going through a deep emotional crisis after a separation. As he struggles to maintain his bond with Laila, his teenage daughter, the two embark on a chaotic journey between Argentina and Brazil that will put their relationship to the test. Between excess, fragility, and desire, Errante corazón portrays the desperate search of a man who only wants to love and be loved.
Monday, August 31 – 9 p.m.
Prisioneros de la tierra (1939) by Mario Soffici
Based on stories by: Horacio Quiroga
Social drama, 85 minutes
Set in the yerba mate plantations of Misiones around 1915, the film portrays the brutal exploitation of the mensúes, workers recruited through deception and subjected to conditions close to slavery. Through a narrative marked by violence, love, and rebellion, the film became one of the foundational works of Argentine social cinema.
This screening is made possible thanks to the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken.
STILLS STORY
Cloister of Palazzo Acquaviva – Atri
Stills Story
Curated by Giuliana De Petris
Argentina in four voices
July 6, 13, 27 – August 3rd – 6 p.m.
Contemporary Argentine literature emerged largely as a response to the trauma of the 1976–1983 military dictatorship, a period marked by repression, censorship, persecution, and forced disappearances that profoundly affected cultural production.
In this context, writing emerged as a space for resistance and survival, developing between forms of internal exile—characterized by self-censorship and indirect language—and experiences of external exile, experienced as a rupture of identity and the loss of one’s homeland.
With the return of democracy in 1983, literature assumed a central role in the recovery of memory and the construction of justice, addressing themes such as testimony, trauma, identity, and the ethics of representation.
Memory emerges as an unstable and fragmentary element, constructed through multiple voices, in which the historical narrative and the private narrative intertwine in complex ways. In this sense, writing is not merely an artistic expression, but an ethical and political practice, capable of resisting oblivion and giving voice to what has been repressed.
Monday, July 6 – 6 p.m.
Santo Uffizio della Memoria – Mempo Giardinelli
Giardinelli’s figure stands at the heart of the relationship between dictatorship, exile, and memory. Forced into exile in Mexico between 1976 and 1984, he developed a style of writing marked by a sense of “not belonging,” in which political violence, uprooting, and nostalgia come to the fore. The novel takes the form of a vast family saga spanning roughly a century of Argentine history, intertwining the private and collective dimensions. The polyphonic structure, built through multiple narrative voices, reflects the fragmentary nature of memory, while the protagonist’s return from exile becomes a journey of identity reconstruction. Memory is affirmed as a conscious and necessary act, an ethical and political practice that opposes oblivion and restores meaning to the present. Central to the narrative is also the theme of emigration, which constructs an identity suspended between multiple worlds, alongside the role of female figures as guardians of family continuity.
Monday, July 13 – 6 p.m.
Casa dove non si abita più – Luisa Futoransky
Futoransky’s writing stems from a state of constant transition between countries, languages, and cultures, in which exile becomes a permanent existential condition. In his texts, one senses a constant disconnect between the place where one is and the place to which one belongs, rendering identity fluid and unstable. Language emerges as a space of passage, a fragile yet necessary place where different registers and fragments of memory intertwine. The home, a central theme, loses its concreteness to become a symbolic figure of something that is receding or that has never been fully habitable. The collection unfolds a discontinuous geography made up of displacements and stratifications, in which travel becomes a form of thought and writing a way to reconstruct an ever-provisional sense of belonging.
Monday, July 27 – 6 p.m.
Il buon male – Samantha Schweblin
With Schweblin, the home once again becomes a tangible space, yet one permeated by a subtle tension that shatters its familiarity. Relationships—especially family ones—become sites of vulnerability, where love and fear intertwine. Her fiction is built around invisible threats, perceptible through minute details and imperceptible deviations, generating a profound unease. Central to her work is the focus on the unsaid, which leaves the stories open-ended and involves the reader in the construction of meaning. In *Il buon male*, this poetics is distilled into the ability to capture the moment when equilibrium breaks, transforming the everyday into something destabilizing. “Evil” is never entirely external, but permeates relationships, becoming a form of revelation as well.
Monday, August 3rd – 6 p.m.
Anche gli alberi caduti sono il bosco – Alejandra Kamiya
Kamiya’s writing is distinguished by a rarefied and essential quality that prioritizes silences, perceptions, and inner movements over action. Her stories unfold in everyday situations, told with attention to detail and the unsaid, creating spaces for contemplation. Unlike other authors, she does not introduce unsettling elements, but rather constructs an intimate dimension in which the fragility of experience emerges with delicacy. The book proposes a poetics of continuity, in which even what has fallen away or is marginal continues to be part of a larger whole. Themes such as loneliness, memory, and absence unfold seamlessly, like silent presences coexisting with the present, lending meaning even to the most insignificant experiences.
Stills of Peace and Everyday Life
A research into the sense of contemporaneity
Stills of Peace and Everyday Life is a project promoted by the Aria Foundation, based on an experimental hypothesis: to realise art and culture ‘events’ through the encounter, communication and knowledge of different cultural traditions around the world. These events are intended to start building a global network of connections and collaborations which, through the production of further events, will lead to a knowledge and respect of the Cultures themselves, mutually enhancing their Beauty and depth. Sociology, Contemporary Art, Sustainable Economics, and Education are the disciplines that contribute to dialogue and deep understanding of the common humanistic and existential values that underpin each specific Culture.
Throughout the twelve editions of Stills of Peace, we have had the honour of receiving the patronage of prestigious national and international institutions, which have recognised the cultural value and intercultural dialogue message of the festival.
At the international level, the festival has received the support of numerous embassies, including those of Pakistan, France, Morocco, the Republic of Korea, Armenia, Mexico, Colombia in Italy, as well as the Italian Embassies in their respective countries, such as Islamabad, Seoul, Armenia and Mexico. The support of important cultural institutions such as the French Cultural Institute in Italy, the Japanese Cultural Institute and the Korean Cultural Institute was also significant. The diplomatic attention towards the exhibition was also witnessed by the official visit of the Ambassadors of Pakistan and Armenia. Furthermore, Stills of Peace received the patronage of foreign ministries, such as the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, as well as the Ministry of Culture of Spain.
In Italy, the festival was recognised by leading institutions, including the Ministry of Culture (MiC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI). The Italian Federation of UNESCO Associations and Clubs and UNICEF also granted their patronage, confirming the educational and cultural value of the project. Among the national and international cultural institutions based in Italy were the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, Acción Cultural Española, the Instituto Cervantes in Rome, the Dante Alighieri Society and CEPELL (Centre for Books and Reading). The support of the Study and Documentation Centre of the Armenian Community, the Armenian Community of Rome, the Italiarmenia Association and the Asociación Fronteras was also very important.
The recognition of the high artistic and intellectual value of Stills of Peace was also confirmed by the patronage of numerous academic institutions, both Italian and international. Among them, the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana de México and the Real Academia de España en Roma gave their support, together with prestigious Italian universities such as the University of Florence, the University of Macerata and the University of L’Aquila. The Confucius Institute of the University of Macerata, the ABAQ – Academy of Fine Arts of L’Aquila, the University of Studies ‘G. d’Annunzio’ Chieti-Pescara (UniCH) and the University of Studies of Teramo (UniTE) have also given their patronage.
Finally, at regional and local level, the festival received the support of the Abruzzo Region and the Abruzzo Regional Council, as well as that of numerous municipalities, including Atri, Pescara, Chieti, Vasto and Orsogna. The Honorary Consulate of Spain in L’Aquila and the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio of Abruzzo also recognised and supported the value of the festival, together with the Associazione Giappone in Abruzzo.
Curated by:
In collaboration with:
With the High Patronage of Regione Abruzzo and the Patronage of:
Sponsored by:
