Mosaic Biennial in Ravenna: the city becomes an art laboratory among memory and vision

In Ravenna, the Contemporary Mosaic Biennial brings a millennia-old technique back to the forefront, combining the city's great Byzantine and early Christian traditions with a focus on the most current experiments and influences of global art. For three intense months, the new edition of the biennial will enliven museums, churches, cloisters, monuments, and public spaces with exhibitions, installations, events, and performances, presenting Ravenna as the contemporary capital of mosaic under the artistic direction of Daniele Torcellini.

The chosen title, "Shared Place," prompts a profound reflection on mosaic art as a language of dialogue and connection, capable of weaving together not only the colored tiles of the works but also the people, experiences, and diverse cultural universes that meet in real places, in the heart of the city. The idea of ​​sharing takes on an ever-more urgent value today, in an era marked by political conflicts, wars, and social and economic tensions. The Contemporary Mosaic Biennial aims to be a concrete response to fragmentation and individualism, proposing art as a resource for overcoming loneliness and rebuilding communities.

One of the most anticipated events is the exhibition at the MAR – Ravenna Art Museum, dedicated to Marc Chagall and mosaic. The exhibition, inaugurating the Biennial, begins with the masterpiece Le Coq Bleu and expands to document Chagall's artistic career through mosaics, drawings, projects, and a rich collection of collaborations that the artist, a symbol of the twentieth century, established with the mosaicists of Ravenna. This narrative fully demonstrates how the practice of mosaic is not relegated to the past, but continues to provide a platform for poetic, spiritual, and visual experimentation.

The experience extends throughout the city: Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste hosts, among others, a solo exhibition by Shahzia Sikander, a Pakistani artist living in New York who interprets the miniature traditions of Central and South Asia, subverting them in a contemporary way, and an exhibition by Omar Mismar, a Lebanese artist who draws on ancient mosaics to reflect on identity, memory, political tensions, and gender issues. Both exhibitions, curated by Serena Simoni and Daniele Torcellini, are the result of collaborations with the Accademia Statale di Belle Arti and include experimental works born from the work of students and young mosaic artists. This reinforces the idea of ​​Ravenna as a widespread laboratory, inextricably linked to mosaics but open to the multidisciplinary nature of contemporary art. The Biennale extends its network beyond Ravenna, with projects in collaboration with museums and institutions in other cities of Emilia-Romagna, confirming the open and widespread nature of the initiative.

A strength of this edition is the city's extensive involvement: UNESCO monuments, museums, public and private spaces are transformed into open-air galleries. The public will be able to explore the history of mosaics, from San Vitale and Sant'Apollinare Nuovo to contemporary installations, and participate in workshops, guided tours, meetings, performances, and workshops that make Ravenna an immersive, educational, and inclusive experience for all ages. It's not just art to be contemplated, but art to be experienced, capable of fostering participation, exchange, and active citizenship.

The major artists involved, the variety of projects, and the ongoing dialogue with the city's mosaic school allow Ravenna to once again be recognized as a museum-city and laboratory, animated by the presence of international artists and the energy of young mosaicists. Chagall, Sikander, Mismar, and many others restore the polyphony of an art that speaks to everyone, embracing the tensions of the present and drawing attention to the future of mosaic as an evolving discipline.

The Biennale thus establishes itself as a key event for reflecting on the values ​​of sharing, respect, and the cross-fertilization of artistic practices. In contemporary mosaic, the tile is both a material element and a metaphor for pluralistic identities: each piece tells a unique story, but together with the others, it creates a collective image that gives meaning to the community and the times in which we live. Ravenna, with its ancient and ultra-modern spaces, offers the ideal stage for this narrative, renewing a millennia-old vocation for dialogue between the arts, between past and present.