IX Biennale di Mosaico Contemporaneo Turns Ravenna into a Diffuse Exhibition

The ninth edition of the Biennale di Mosaico Contemporaneo has transformed Ravenna into a citywide exhibition, running until January. Artistic director Daniele Torcellini, a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Ravenna, curated the event under the theme "Luogo Condiviso." A highlight is the show "Chagall in mosaico. Dal progetto all'opera" at the MAR – Museo d'Arte della città di Ravenna, co-produced with the Musée National Marc Chagall in Nice and curated by Anne Dopfer, Grégory Couderc, Giorgia Salerno, and Torcellini. It features archival materials—diaries, photos, letters—from mosaicists Romolo Papa, Antonio Rocchi, and Lino Melano, who worked with Chagall. For the first time, the original sketch and two versions of "Le Coq Bleu" by Papa and Rocchi are shown side by side, alongside a mosaic from Chagall's Nice home, never publicly exhibited. At the Biblioteca Classense, the GAeM (Giovani Artisti e Mosaico) prize showcases under-35 artists. Under Porta Adriana, Nicola Montalbini (born 1986) installed a punk-inspired mosaic pavement featuring a fantastical bestiary. At Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste, works by Shahzia Sikander (born 1969) and Omar Mismar (born 1986) engage in dialogue. Mismar's large-scale mosaic depicts a nocturnal Beirut scene, realized with students from the Scuola di Mosaico dell'Accademia di Belle Arti under Leonardo Pivi's guidance. The biennial also includes the Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra, a Byzantine site with 5th–6th century floor mosaics.