Matteo Mandelli at CONNEXXION 2026: Screen as Surface, AI as Confessional in Savona
From September 18 to 26, 2026, the Pinacoteca Civica di Savona will host Matteo Mandelli's project as part of the fourth edition of CONNEXXION – Festival Diffuso di Arte Contemporanea, curated by Livia Savorelli. The exhibition opens with Lucio Fontana's Attese. On the opening day, Mandelli will present The Contact, where he carves into a digital screen that projects images, causing glitches and transforming the screen back into a tangible form. Mandelli reflects that Fontana was interested in what lies beyond the surface, a concept that the screen now reexamines. Additionally, The Algorithm Creed / Digital Confessional turns a wooden confessional into an AI tool, challenging notions of trust and reliance on technology. The festival's theme, Elegia della fragilità, delves into technology's complexities.
Key facts
- Matteo Mandelli intervenes at the Pinacoteca Civica di Savona for the fourth edition of CONNEXXION – Festival Diffuso di Arte Contemporanea.
- The festival runs from 18 to 26 September 2026, curated by Livia Savorelli.
- The project starts from Lucio Fontana's Attese, conserved in the Pinacoteca's collection and from Galleria Il Naviglio, historic seat of Spazialismo.
- The Contact is a performance on 18 September in which Mandelli physically incises a functioning digital screen while it continues to produce images, light, and information.
- The altered screen generates glitches, luminous lines, and unpredictable reactions, turning the immaterial interface back into matter.
- The Algorithm Creed / Digital Confessional is an installation transforming an early 20th-century wooden confessional into a contemporary device traversed by artificial intelligence.
- The theme of CONNEXXION 2026 is Elegia della fragilità.
- Mandelli connects two opposing gestures: physically crossing the screen and entrusting it with interiority, with the human at the center.
Entities
Artists
- Matteo Mandelli
- Lucio Fontana
- Livia Savorelli
- Arianna Airoldi
Institutions
- Pinacoteca Civica di Savona
- CONNEXXION – Festival Diffuso di Arte Contemporanea
- Galleria Il Naviglio
- Collezione da Tiffany
Locations
- Savona
- Italy