The programme for the 12th edition of the historic Stills of PEACE International Contemporary Art and Culture Festival, promoted by the Aria Foundation, was presented in Pescara to the press and partners. From 5 July to 7 September, Stills of PEACE, in collaboration with the municipalities of Atri and Pescara, will promote dialogue between Italy and Colombia through the language of contemporary art. After the welcome address by President La Rocca, the new President of the Aria Foundation, entrepreneur Giulio Caso, confirmed his desire to learn about and promote the traditions of a country rich in indigenous and colonial influences, geographically very distant from us but strongly aligned with essential values such as family, home and friendship. The plurality of peoples living in Colombia is a significant example of complexity, in terms of social and anthropological sharing and coexistence.
This year, we have chosen to focus on Colombia, a country that symbolises biodiversity worldwide, to explore an urgent and universal theme: the future,” said Giovanna Dello Iacono, Artistic Director and Head Curator of Stills of Peace. Global Future is a manifesto that affirms everyone’s right to think about their future with renewed confidence and is ideally linked to the slogan Paz con la Naturaleza (Peace with Nature), coined at the 16th United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP16), hosted in Cali, Colombia, the heart of one of the most biodiverse regions in the world.
The curators then introduced the work carried out for each of the four exhibitions planned for this edition, which will be inaugurated with three days of events in Atri and Pescara: the “Ma.Co. / Maratona del Contemporaneo”, scheduled from 5 to 7 July.
The Cisterns and Rooms of Palazzo Acquaviva in Atri will host the exhibition ‘Global Future’ curated by Giovanna Dello Iacono and Maria Letizia Paiato, featuring Lorenzo Aceto, Aycoobo, Chiara Calore, Rudy Cremonini, Federica Giulianini, Pietro Moretti, Matteo Montani, Mariangela Levita, Luz Lizarazo, Giovanni Paolo Randazzo Mora, Alejandro Sánchez Suárez, and María Alejandra Torres, artists from different generations but with a great spirituality, who relate to each other through the medium of painting to reach people.
Also in the Roman Cisterns of Palazzo Acquaviva, the exhibition ‘Generazione dalla luce’ (Generation from Light) by Juan Eugenio Ochoa, the duo Mozzarella Light (Giulia Ciappi – Marco Frassinelli), Paolo Scirpa, Natalia Triviño Lozano, curated by Marta Michelacci and Antonio Zimarino, which emphasises how light defines the architectural structure of the exhibition venue, where it is distributed in a particular and articulated way, revealing ever-changing structural angles. The artists work precisely on this combination of space and light, with different sensibilities of the luminous element that allows for a change in perspective in perception.
In Pescara, on the other hand, the exhibition “Forgotten People” by photographer Luz Elena Castro, hosted at the zerozerosullivellodelmare space and curated by Paolo Dell’Elce, describes it as a journey of discovery and encounter with the people we perhaps encounter less, the representation of a weak individual seeking redemption for their need to exist and find their dignity.
YAG/Garage is hosting the collective exhibition Stills of Peace for Young with works by Daniele Di Girolamo McManu Espinosa, Martina Marini Misterioso and Lalula Vivenzi Carrasco, curated by Cecilia Buccioni, Giovanna Dello Iacono and Maria Letizia Paiato. The research of the four young protagonists is linked to the theme of the exhibition through political, social and introspective subjects, rendered through conceptual languages.
The courtyard of Palazzo Acquaviva in Atri will host the usual Cine Colombia film festival curated by P. Federico Ibargüen Ruiz, with six events from 7 July to 1 September featuring screenings in the original language with Italian subtitles. Another new feature for 2025 is Stills Story, a series of four events dedicated to contemporary Colombian literature curated by Giuliana De Petris, which will be held in the same courtyard on 7 July at 6.30 p.m. and on 17 July, 28 August and 4 September at 9 p.m.
This year, Stills of Peace reflects its multifaceted nature in its poster image, designed specifically for the event by artist, designer and creative director Stefano Chiassai: hearts, butterflies, flowers and cartographic symbols intertwine with textual references and visual fragments that evoke biodiversity, the meeting of worlds and everyday aesthetics as a political gesture. The poster thus becomes both a visual representation and a symbolic action: a collective call to “stop and observe”, “imagine in order to build”, “meet in order to transform”.
(from the press release)
Stills of Peace and Everyday Life, with artistic direction of Giovanna dello Iacono, Atri-Te, Pescara, Italy, 05.07 – 07.09.2025
For the 2025 edition, the project enjoys the patronage of the Colombian Embassy in Italy, the High Patronage of the Abruzzo Region, the Regional Council, the Municipalities of Atri and Pescara, the Instituto Cervantes in Rome, the Centre for Books and Reading (CEPELL), the Dante Alighieri Society and the Academy of Fine Arts in L’Aquila.
images: (cover-1) Luz Lizarazo, “Mi cuerpo dice la verdad (My Body Speaks the Truth)”, 2023 (presented as part of the exhibition “Global Future”, photo credit Niko Jacob (2) Paolo Scirpa, Espansione e traslazione (Expansion and Translation), 1984, photo credit Paolo Scirpa Archive, presented in the exhibition Per una generazione della luce (For a Generation of Light) (3) Luz Elena Castro, “Desalojos en Guayaquil, Medellin”, photo credit Luz Elena Castro, presented as part of the exhibition “Forgotten People” (4) Lalula Vivenzi, “Woman Power | Maria Lai”, 2025, photo credit © Marianne Sin-Pfaltzer, Ilisso Archive, presented as part of the exhibition “Stills of Peace for young”.
Program
MA.CO. / Marathon of the Contemporary, 5 July, 6 p.m. / Atri (TE)
Courtyard of Palazzo Acquaviva – Opening of Stills of Peace
Cisterns and Halls of Palazzo Acquaviva – Opening of the exhibitions Global FUTURE, curated by Giovanna Dello Iacono and Maria Letizia Paiato, and Generation from the Light, curated by Marta Michelacci and Anton Giulio Zimarino
July 6, 6 p.m. / Pescara, s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare – Opening of the exhibition Forgotten People, curated by Paolo Dell’Elce
YAG/Garage – Opening of Stills of Peace for Young, curated by Cecilia Buccioni, Giovanna Dello Iacono, and Maria Letizia Paiato
7 July, 6 p.m. / Atri (TE), Courtyard of Palazzo Acquaviva / Atri (TE)
6:00 PM – First event of Stills Story, curated by Giuliana De Petris – A conversation with writer Alberto Bile Spadaccini and presentation of the book In Colombia with Gabriel García Márquez. Without Gravity and the book “The Risks of the Body” by María Ospina Pizano, edited by Edicola Ediciones.
9:00 PM – First event of Cine Colombia, curated by Fr. Federico Ibargüen Ruiz – Screening of the short film La Sixtina (2022) by Juan Camilo Fonnegra and the feature film Cuando las Aguas se Juntan (2023) by Margarita Martínez
