In Brescia it is the year of victory – Brescia – Arte.it

Brescia – On the wings of victory, Brescia flies towards new goals in 2026. Brescia, which, from the ashes of the pandemic, was elected symbol of a national civic, cultural and creative rebirth with the designation of Italian Capital of Culture 2023, presented the 2026 program of its Foundation, emblem of a long-term strategic vision that transforms the Cinderella of Italian art cities into a vibrant and participatory destination capable of connecting citizens and visitors.In the 2026 program of Brescia Museums Foundationpresented in Palazzo Loggia by the President Francesca Bazoli and the director Stefano Karadjov together with the mayor Laura Castellettia vision is clearly emerging that brings together protection, planning and the ability to reinterpret heritage as cultural infrastructure. A museum system that aims to make Brescia an authentic ‘heritage community’. Not a simple sequence of exhibitions and events, but an organic design that crosses archaeology, visual arts, photography, film and a wide spectrum of cultural and participatory practices, with the aim of consolidating the role of urban museums as a place of production of meaning for the city, for the territory and, more generally, for the public of art lovers.

At the origin of the Foundation’s entire project, or rather at its beginning, as Bazoli and Karadjov emphasize, lies the Winged victory, the precious statue from the 1st century AD preserved in the Capitol of Brescia, found in 1826 along with other Roman bronzes and which will celebrate the bicentenary of its discovery in 2026. The Winged Victory is an icon and a thousand-year-old symbol of the history and culture of Brescia, and it is the treasure around which the idea was born to create the first museum of the modern and industrious city, sandwiched between Milan, Lake Garda and Verona. A small metropolis that has struggled to reconnect with its historical identity and to rediscover a cultural vocation that has remained on the margins for decades.

Around the birthday of Bicentenary of the Winged Victory a broad program of exhibitions, initiatives and events is organized in which the bronze masterpiece is the symbolic and narrative center of the entire season. The festivities culminate in the summer and fall with major exhibition projects. On the one hand, the exhibition Brescia’s victory. 40 photographers and an eternal beautythat entrusts the gaze of important protagonists of Italian photography to comparison with antiquity. A project that, among other things, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Francesco Cito, Bonomo Faita e Ferdinando Sciannacalled to bring Brescia’s Nike back to life, viewed from multiple angles, reinterpreted and reread in a tribute in which contemporary art compares itself with the old and recognizes it as a living source of inspiration.

The project will be continued in the wake of this vision Archaeological stagesthat renews the dialogue between contemporary art and heritage with the exhibition dedicated to Franca Ghitticentral figure of Italian art of the second half of the twentieth century. His work is reread as a device that can activate the archaeological and museum space through a layering of signs, memories and languages. A comparison, that between archeology and the contemporary, which Fondazione Brescia Musei constantly cultivates and which in the past has seen interventions from artists such as Francesco Vezzoliauthor of the installation Victoria Mater. The idol and the icon in the Brixia Archaeological Park, inaugurated on December 4 and open to visitors until April 12, 2026.

Moreover, the theme of identity is a key element of the vision of the Bazoli-Karadjov duo, which identifies another major pivot of the 2026 program in the autumn exhibition dedicated to the bicentenary of citizen collections. The title immediately clarifies the horizon: We are the power of the past. 1826–2026: 200 years, 200 stories. The exhibition, curated by Roberta D’Adda together with Karadjov himself, will be built exclusively from the works preserved in the deposits, transforming what usually remains invisible into a shared story, composed of objects and people, places and ideas, that can shape “another possible museum”.

At the same time, one of the Foundation’s most ambitious strategic projects continues: the refunctionalization of the Roman theatre in the Brixia archaeological park. During 2026, decisive steps will be taken at design and technical level, in dialogue with the central administration and the municipality, with the support of partners such as A2A, the Chamber of Commerce of Brescia and the Alliance for Culture of the Brescia Museums Foundation. A long-term path that intertwines conservation, accessibility and future performative use of the site and that aims to provide continuity, overcome bureaucratic obstacles and overcome critical conservation issues, to the project signed by the star architect David Chipperfield.

In addition to the archaeological axis (archaeology and the rediscovery of ancient Rome are also a very in fashion also for the Ministry of Culture led by Giuli, as became clear during the meeting a few days ago Archeo site presented by Simone Quilici al Colosseum), the Foundation’s exhibition program stands out for its international and contemporary openness. In the spring, photography will take center stage with a new project dedicated to Bruce GildenNew York master of the close-up, with an exhibition curated by Dennis Kurti between which it will be divided Santa Giulia Museum and the Tosio Martinengo Art Gallery. The initiative represents one of the pillars of the ninth edition of Brescia Photo Festival (March 26–29, 2026) and is part of the survey among American photographers that started in 2023 with David LaChapelle and continued in 2025 with Joel Meyerowitz. Central to the exhibition is an artist committee that calls on Bruce Gilden to question himself about the theme of Grace, understood as God’s gift to humanity through Redemption, with the creation of a photographic polyptych inspired by Raffaello Sanzio and to his Blessing of Christ the Redeemer (1502)one of the great masterpieces from the collections of Tosio Martinengo Art Gallery which will be given on loan at that time And the new hurts for the exhibition Raphael: Sublime poetry.

The Foundation’s program is of course even broader than can be summarized in a short article. New purchases, deposits and “rearrangements” will enrich the museum routes, from the Tosio Martinengo Pinacoteca to the Museum of the Risorgimento. Great attention will also be paid to practices of participation and cultural mediation, with a dense constellation of initiatives: archeology courses, series of meetings such as ParlaTosiourban routes and educational projects that confirm a conception of the museum as a space of constant relationship and interaction. The cultural system designed by the Foundation ultimately extends to cinema New Edenincreasingly integrated into the overall vision, et al Brescia Castlewhich in the summer months again becomes one of the city’s most important cultural meeting places, including music, light installations and projects to beautify historic spaces.

As a whole, the ’26 program recreates the image of an institution that works on the basis of duration and not on isolated events, capable of bringing together major anniversaries, infrastructure projects and daily practices of engaging with the community. A cultural strategy that recognizes heritage not as an immobile inheritance, but as a living material that can be questioned and transmitted, making museums the place where the past and present continue to reinvent the future. In a world that seems devoted to fragmented immediacy and poor long-term vision, Brescia’s is an exception worth following with attention and curiosity.