The Power of Fragility: Connexxion 2026 and the Art of Resistance
In Savona, the fourth edition of “Connexxion – Festival Diffuso di Arte Contemporanea” turns fragility into a political and cultural force, bringing contemporary art into dialogue with technology, community and the human condition.
From 18 to 26 September 2026, the Ligurian city of Savona will host the fourth edition of “CONNEXXION – Festival Diffuso di Arte Contemporanea”, curated by Livia Savorelli. Spread across the Santuario, the Pinacoteca Civica, the former Sant’Agostino prison and Villa Cambiaso, the festival brings together exhibitions, installations, performances, talks, workshops and participatory projects under a deliberately provocative title: Elegia della fragilità — Elegy of Fragility.
Rather than treating fragility as a condition to be overcome, Connexxion 2026 proposes a different reading. Fragility is presented as an intrinsic characteristic of human existence and, precisely for this reason, as a potential source of strength. The festival’s premise is that vulnerability need not necessarily mean weakness or resignation. It can become an active position, capable of generating awareness, resistance and change.
This perspective gives the exhibition its distinctly political undertone. In Savorelli’s view, contemporary societies are increasingly shaped by economic and political systems founded on efficiency, competition and domination. Those who fail to conform to such standards are easily rendered “fragile”, marginalised or treated as less valuable. Against this logic, the festival advocates a form of active fragility, one rooted in empathy, intelligence, care and attention to others.
The conceptual framework draws in part on Roberto Gramiccia’s 2026 volume Teoria della Fragilità. Alla ricerca di un potere nascosto, which distinguishes between individual, social and existential forms of fragility. Each may take either a passive or an active, rebellious form. Connexxion is particularly interested in the moment when vulnerability ceases to be a state of resignation and becomes an instrument for transformation.
One of the festival’s most relevant concerns is the relationship between technology and human vulnerability. Technology has undoubtedly expanded access to information, reduced physical distances and increased the capabilities of numerous tools and systems. Yet the digital revolution has also produced new forms of dependence. The platforms that initially promised greater democratic participation have developed a darker dimension, contributing to isolation, loneliness and an increasingly pronounced separation between digital and physical existence.
Connexxion also addresses the economic structures behind the digital world. The festival points to the capacity of major technology companies to transform aspects of human experience, from interests and needs to desires, into behavioural data. In this sense, the digital environment becomes another space in which human fragility can be exploited rather than protected. The festival seeks to stimulate critical awareness and encourage forms of resistance capable of safeguarding individual identity.
The artistic programme brings together fourteen artists invited by Savorelli: Riccardo Bandiera, Veronica Benedetti, Fabio Bix, Luca Carlevarino, Monica Carrera, Francesca Catellani, Elisabetta Di Sopra, Clarissa Falco, Martina Fontana, Fatma Ibrahimi, Stefania Loreto, Max Magaldi, Matteo Mandelli and Camilla Marinoni. Their practices contribute to a programme conceived not simply as a sequence of exhibitions, but as a network of encounters between artworks, places and communities.
This participatory dimension is particularly important to Connexxion’s identity. The festival has established collaborations with local associations and groups, seeking to broaden access to contemporary culture beyond conventional institutional spaces. The former Sant’Agostino prison is emblematic in this respect. Reopened temporarily to the public through the festival, the site has been one of Connexxion’s principal locations since 2024, in collaboration with the Italian State Property Agency, the Municipality of Savona and the local heritage authorities.
The programme begins on 18 September at the Pinacoteca Civica di Savona, with performances by Clarissa Falco and Matteo Mandelli, alongside works by Mandelli and Martina Fontana. The following day, the former Sant’Agostino prison opens its doors to installations by all the participating artists, remaining accessible until the festival closes.
Two special projects further extend the festival beyond the conventional exhibition format. Martina Fontana’s Moire, developed with Opere Sociali and involving residents of the Santuario care home, introduces a participatory dimension centred on encounters with people requiring particular attention and care. The second project, Le Luci di Zinöa by Francesca Catellani, takes the form of an audio and video podcast created through conversations with long-time inhabitants of Savona’s Zinola district. Combining memories, testimonies, photographs and reflections, the project constructs a portrait of a neighbourhood undergoing rapid transformation.
The latter project encapsulates perhaps the broader ambition of Elegy of Fragility: to understand contemporary art not as an isolated cultural product, but as a space for listening. By bringing individual memories into contact with collective histories, Connexxion asks what happens when vulnerability is shared rather than concealed.
Ultimately, Elegia della fragilità does not offer fragility as a fashionable aesthetic category. Its ambition is more demanding. It asks whether vulnerabilit – individual, social and existential – can become a form of critical knowledge, and whether art can help transform that knowledge into collective action.
In an age marked by technological acceleration, political conflict, social fragmentation and growing uncertainty, Connexxion’s answer is deliberately human: rather than denying fragility, perhaps we should learn how to inhabit it, recognise it in others and turn it into a force for change.
Practical Information
CONNEXXION – Festival Diffuso di Arte Contemporanea Elegia della fragilità Curated by Livia Savorelli 18–26 September 2026 Savona, Italy
Opening: Friday, 18 September 2026, 6pm – Pinacoteca Civica | Saturday 19 September, from 5pm to 7.30 pm – 2026, ex Carcere Sant’Agostino
General Programme: connexxion.it – General Programme 2026
Information: Arteam Associazione Culturale Via Traversa dei Ceramisti, 8/bis – 17012 Albissola Marina (SV), Italy Tel. +39 019 4500744 info@arteam.eu www.arteam.eu info@connexxion.it www.connexxion.it
Image credits:
- Martina Fontana, “Tempo di non resistenza”, 2023. Installation view, Post Umano, Scalo Vallino, Torino. Photo credits Matteo Fontana, courtesy of the artist.
- Elisabetta Di Sopra, “Attraversamenti”, 2026, mounted photographic print. Courtesy of the artist.
- Monica Carrer, “Exercise on Foucault”, 2016, site-specific installation. Courtesy of the artist.
