Gibellina Photoroad Open Air & Site-specific Festival 2026

Gibellina Photoroad is transforming the Sicilian town of Gibellina into a space where large-scale images, installations, and urban landscapes meet.

Overview

The festival explores the relationship between photography, public space, and collective memory. Through large-format prints, outdoor exhibitions, projections, and installations, the festival transforms the town of Gibellina into an open-air museum, where images enter into dialogue with architecture, landscape, and the traces of history.

Born from the encounter between contemporary photography and a town rebuilt through art, Gibellina offers a unique setting for questioning how images can exist beyond traditional exhibition spaces. Here, photography becomes part of the urban environment: a tool to reactivate memory, create new connections, and generate different ways of experiencing public space.

Located in Sicily’s Trapani region, Gibellina carries the memory of the devastating 1968 Belìce earthquake, which destroyed the original town. Following the disaster, mayor Ludovico Corrao, together with artists and intellectuals, initiated an extraordinary reconstruction project based on culture and contemporary art. Artists including Alberto Burri, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Pietro Consagra, Mario Schifano, Joseph Beuys, and Carla Accardi contributed to the creation of a new urban identity. Today, Gibellina is considered one of the largest open-air contemporary art museums in the world, with Alberto Burri’s monumental Grande Cretto covering the ruins of the old city.

Since 2016, Gibellina Photoroad has continued this legacy by presenting site-specific projects by international and emerging artists, exploring photography as a living language capable of connecting past, present, and future. The 2026 edition features new installations by Erik Kessels, Teresa Giannico, Alice Grassi, Jacopo Di Cera, and Stefano Cerio.

The festival is promoted by the Municipality of Gibellina and Fondazione Orestiadi and organized by the Cultural Association On Image. It is founded and artistically directed by Arianna Catania.