Luciano Schifano's Traveling Exhibition on the Cantico delle Creature Opens in Casentino in 2026

Luciano Schifano will present a traveling exhibition titled Francesco in the Casentino valley, marking 800 years since the death of Francesco d'Assisi. The project is organized by writer Lorena Fiorini, with art historian Alberta Piroci serving as artistic director, and is supported by mayors Luca Santini of Pratovecchio Stia and Antonio Fani of Castel San Niccolò. The exhibition opens on 2 August 2026 and unfolds across August, September, and October through a series of stops in the Casentino, the Aretine valley whose landscape already carries Franciscan memory. Schifano's conceptual starting point is the Cantico delle Creature, composed by Francesco in 1224 and widely regarded as the first poem in the Italian vernacular. Rather than falling into devotional rhetoric or predictable iconography, the artist adopts a posture of discretion, naturalness, and grace — terms that recur in the project's presentation and describe both the tone of the works and an ethical stance toward the subject. The itinerary format places the works in direct dialogue with the territory, allowing the Franciscan landscape to function as an active element of the exhibition rather than a neutral backdrop.