Curated by Lorenzo Benedetti with Giuliana Pascucci
11 July 2026 – 10 January 2027
Opening: 10 July 2026, 5.00 pm
Civic Museums of Palazzo Buonaccorsi | Sferisterio | Mozzi Borgetti Library, Macerata
Promoted and organized by:
Municipality of Macerata, Academy of Fine Arts of Macerata, University of Macerata – School of Advanced Studies “G. Leopardi”
The Municipality of Macerata, the Academy of Fine Arts of Macerata, and the University of Macerata – G. Leopardi School of Advanced Studies present EXPOSITIO MUNDI. The Exhibition as Medium, a group exhibition dedicated to the history and evolution of the exhibition as a cultural language, public practice, and relational device.
The event brings contemporary art into dialogue with history, transforming the city of Macerata into a widespread laboratory on the theme of exhibition: not just the presentation of works, but the exhibition itself understood as a form of thought, construction of the gaze, and shared space.
EXPOSITIO MUNDI arises from some central questions in the history of art and culture: who invented exhibitions? How did the modern idea of public exhibition arise? What happens when masterpieces leave their palaces and become accessible to a wider audience? Can an exhibition become a democratic space?
At the center of the itinerary is the figure of Giuseppe Ghezzi (1634–1721), painter, scholar, academic, and cultural organizer, who contributed decisively to the birth of the modern public exhibition between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Beginning in 1676, in the cloister of San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome, Ghezzi organized exhibitions of paintings from private collections, opening art to a wider audience and inaugurating a model that would define modernity: the exhibition as a tool for cultural dissemination and a means of shared knowledge.
350 years after that founding experience, EXPOSITIO MUNDI continues this reflection through a widespread itinerary between the Civic Museums of Palazzo Buonaccorsi, the Sferisterio and the Mozzi Borgetti Library, bringing together historical documents, paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, site-specific interventions and exhibition devices.
Beginning with Ghezzi, the exhibition features artists who, at different times and in different ways, have redefined exhibition as an autonomous language and critical practice. The exhibition explores how the act of display can become a creative gesture, a reflection on visibility, a shared experience, and the building of an active relationship with the public.
The artists
The artists on display are: Ed Atkins, Joseph Beuys, Catherine Biocca, Paolo Chiasera, Michele Ciacciofera, Adelaide Cioni, Fabrizio Cotognini, Giuseppe Ghezzi, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jason Hirata, Oliver Laric, Jonathan Monk, Maurizio Nannucci, Laura Paoletti, Giulio Paolini, Dimitar Solakov, Nedko Solakov, Veit Stratmann, Agnès Thurnauer.
The exhibition includes works and interventions that explore the relationship between artwork, space, document, audience, and urban context: from early documents relating to the organization of exhibitions and paintings by Giuseppe Ghezzi, to the conceptual reflections of Giulio Paolini, the participatory practices of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, the reinterpretations of ancient painting by Michele Ciacciofera, the light interventions of Maurizio Nannucci, the sensorial experiences of Jonathan Monk, and the ironic and critical narratives of Nedko Solakov.