Fantastica — 18th Quadriennale d’Arte
Fantastica — 18th Quadriennale d’Arte, Rome 2025–2026
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome | October 2025 – January 2026
Fantastica — Italian for both fantastic and to imagine — celebrates the power of art to open new horizons, to surprise, and to rekindle wonder, imagination, and hope. Conceived as a collective exploration of contemporary Italian creativity, the exhibition invites viewers to lose and rediscover themselves through the symbolic and the unexpected.
The 18th Quadriennale d’Arte, Italy’s leading survey of contemporary art, features 54 artists, including 16 under 35 and 45 making their Quadriennale debut, with 187 works across 2,000 square meters, many of them site-specific.
Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, Francesco Bonami, Emanuela Mazzonis di Pralafera, Francesco Stocchi, and Alessandra Troncone, Fantastica presents five curatorial chapters examining today’s Italian art scene after the year 2000. Themes include self-representation and identity, the artist’s autonomy, the saturation of images in the digital age, and new narratives of the human, animal, and mechanical body.
Presented by Fondazione La Quadriennale di Roma, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Culture, Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, and key institutional partners, the exhibition was announced in Rome in June 2025.
In dialogue with Fantastica, a historical show curated by Walter Guadagnini, I giovani e i maestri: la Quadriennale del 1935, revisits the legendary second Quadriennale, marking its 90th anniversary as a pivotal moment in Italian art history.
Exhibition design is by Studio BRH+ (Marco Rainò and Barbara Brondi), with graphic identity by Studio Leonardo Sonnoli and catalogues published by Marsilio Arte. A special research project by Christian Caliandro examines international perceptions of Italian contemporary art.
The Quadriennale operates with a €2.5 million budget, supported by the Ministry of Culture, private partners, and institutional funds.
Intesa Sanpaolo is the exhibition’s Main Partner, with Enel as official sponsor and Fondazione Roma as cultural partner, supporting the Quadriennale Prize and Young Art Award.
