The Sè Design Festival, the international festival dedicated to Social Eco Design Research: an open laboratory in which art—in its visual, design, and performative forms—becomes a language, method, and lens through which to observe the world, continues until May 31 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara. The Festival is part of the calendar of initiatives of C.O.M. – COM.unità dell’Arte Diffusa, the vast widespread art project supported by the PNRR and led by the Carrara Academy, which involves 18 Italian academic institutions with the aim of strengthening and sharing contemporary artistic heritage.
“Every project, every venue, every artist, every scholar contributes to C.O.M. by bringing a piece of art: together, these experiences become the limbs of a single living body, in constant transformation,” says Angelo Capasso, Artistic Director of the project, art critic, and professor at the Academy. “C.O.M. generates mental and symbolic places, where art transcends physical and conceptual boundaries and rediscovers its total nature, according to a Wagnerian vision that today becomes a great contemporary COM.unity.”
The Sè Design Festival—inaugurated in November 2025—offers a series of meetings, workshops, and exhibitions in which designers, artists, students, and researchers discuss eco-design, social sustainability, and responsible design. Design is explored as a field of action in which artistic practice inspires new ways of thinking, creating, and transforming.
Educational activities, “learning by doing” workshops, theoretical and practical lessons, exhibitions, and conferences offer a multidisciplinary approach that combines art, science, matter, and collective imagination.
The goal is to build an international network that promotes a new idea of design: ecological, participatory, and deeply linked to art’s ability to generate meaning, forms, and community.
PROGRAM
Ezio Manzini: Liveable Proximity. Ideas for a Caring City
January 12, 10:00 a.m. – Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara
China Design / Conference – Hubei Academy of Fine Arts
January 13, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. – Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara
(Guests: Qiu Qi, professor of Industrial Design; Lin Langming, professor of Porcelain Design at Jingdezhen Ceramic and member of the Chinese Society for Art Anthropology)
Castiglioni Foundation – Conference / Workshop: Design is a serious game
January 19 – Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara
(student workshop 2:30–5:00 p.m.; public conference at 6:00 p.m. with Giovanna Castiglioni)
Johann Le Guillerm – Workshop + Performance
Artist, designer, and performer
January 26–28, 9:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. and 2:00–5:00 p.m. – Former San Giacomo Hospital, Carrara
(workshop open to the public; performance reserved for students)
Exhibition of works by students of the School of Design
February 1–28 – Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara
Giovanni Raimondi and Debra Werblud: Posidonia oceanica
Between science and art, an ongoing dialogue
February 2, 10:00 a.m. – Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara
Exhibition “Design by Living Beings”
February 2–3 – Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara
Sabrina Sguanci – Workshop: Materials for Bioreticivity
February 3, 9:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. and 2:00–5:00 p.m. – Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara
(reserved for students)
What is C.O.M.unità dell’Arte Diffusa
C.O.M. is an expanded museum, an ecosystem of living art, capable of existing beyond the traditional geographies of cities, parks, and squares. The Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara has launched a project that builds new artistic communities through concentric circles, in which each institution involved generates and receives knowledge, contributing to a temporary constellation of different experiences united by the same vision.
Funded by the PNRR, C.O.M. brings together 18 institutions of higher artistic education and focuses on contemporary research, intertwining design, applied arts, technology, theater, dance, cinema, music, and performing arts.
The project strengthens and expands the educational offering of the AFAM system, creating unprecedented connections between art, science, digital technology, and the local area, and promoting the work of artists, students, and scholars who interpret the present through the lens of art.
All events are free of charge, subject to availability.
Info:
