Following the success of the first edition, Cariboni will be sponsor at “La Biennale dello Stretto”, the cultural project conceived by Alfonso Femia. It is promoted by 500x100sb and OAPPC Reggio Calabria, and supported by the local Public Authorities and private entities.

The second edition started on the 18th September and will last until the 14th December 2024. The main location is the exposition site Forte Batteria Siacci in Campo Calabro.

The 2024 edition maintains its cultural and multidisciplinary dimension promoted by architecture, activating a larger echo on design, art and cinema, anthropology, literature and photography, along with more guests and talks.

“La Biennale dello stretto” is a project curated by the architect, designer and urban planner Alfonso Femia, Francesca Moraci, architect and full professor of Urban Planning at Università degli Studi Mediterranea in Reggio Calabria, and Mariangela Cama, architect and technical official of high professionality at “Territorio e Tutela dell’Ambiente” Department. The project has three dimensions:

• una a photography exhibition;
• an installation; 
• various talks (18th-22nd September, 18th-19th October, 13th-14th December).

For the 2024 edition, two main topics have been chosen: a deepening of “Le tre linee d’acqua" (“The three water lines”) from the first edition, e “Il Futuro delle Città” (“The Future of the Cities”). The two topics are furtherly developed into notions of substantial aspects of public spaces, living, mobility and cultural barycenters, for improving present and move towards a sustainable future.

During the talks, along with the topics above, three specific elaborate discussions will take place with international speakers participating.

• CITTÀ D'ACQUA / CITTÀ PORTO _ The urban water plays a strategic role in the environmental and geopolitical context. Architecture becomes the key response to the climate emergency, international challenges and promoter of economic development for the cities.
• CULTURA DEL PROGETTO / IL RUOLO DELL'ARCHITETTO _ The role of the architect in meeting the needs and understanding the ever-changing scenarios.
• SCUOLE D'ARCHITETTURA / IL FUTURO DELLA FORMAZIONE _ The search for new training paradigms in an era of profound changes that transform architectural design. The evaluation of academic pathways and a necessary comparison between education, research and professional activity. 

The event started from the conviction that “La Biennale dello Stretto” is an opportunity to discuss and elaborate – together with authorities, citizens, national and international representatives of culture, architecture, art and academics - the transformation of the three Mediterranean coasts, igniting a permanent research program aiming at a new balance between territories, landscape, city and architecture, humans and environment.

The choice of the naming targets a specific area of the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait between the regions of Calabria and Sicily. It is considered as a geographical element of balance: an attracting magnet as well as an antenna acting as a reverb not only of the past, history, architecture and art, but also astonishingly able to produce cultural, technological and scientific innovation.

In the words of Alfonso Femia: “La Biennale dello Stretto is not only a simple event, but the important step of a pathway started seven years ago. During this period of time, the project has favoured the meeting, the observation and the live listening of the voices of the Mediterranean territories, particularly of those that are hidden, and “invisible”. La Biennale dello Stretto wants to be an opportunity of projection toward the future, an international laboratory to reflect about the three costs of the Mediterranean Sea and the link between the Mediterranean Sea and the rest of the world. Having this clear ambition in mind, La Biennale should be a crucial starting point to build a dialogue that the ever-changing environmental context makes even more needed and urgent. As an antithesis to every shape of selfishness and planning cynicism, our commitment for the future lies in responsibility towards places and people, together with generous vision and perspectives”.

La Biennale dello Stretto was born from the research project “Mediterrani Invisibili” (“Hidden Mediterranean Seas”), from the mind and supported by Alfonso Femia in collaboration with 500x100sb. Since 2018, La Biennale dello Stretto is a permanent project of analysis and research on the Mediterranean territories. The project is delivered through travel and exploration, interviews with important actors, part of academic, professional and Public Authorities, as well as significant design analysis.

For more information, check the program of "La Biennale dello Stretto".