Within the framework of the XXI Giornata del Contemporaneo 2025—the initiative promoted by AMACI (Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums), which involves over 1,000 institutions and cultural organizations in Italy and worldwide to promote and enhance Italian contemporary art internationally—the MAXXI presents “MILIEU – Returning to the Wounded Body,” an event curated by Sergio Mario Illuminato.

The appointment marks the conclusion of the transdisciplinary project IOSONOVULNERABILE, recognized by the Region of Lazio as one of the exemplary cultural practices realized between 2020 and 2025. The project gave rise to a movement capable of intertwining visual arts, cinema, photography, dance, music, and publishing, with significant stages in Buenos Aires, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, and Rome.

Since 2023, IOSONOVULNERABILE has received numerous institutional recognitions: the High Patronage of the European Parliament, the Patronage of the European Commission – Representation in Italy, the Endorsement of the VII Culture Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, as well as the Patronage of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers – Ministry for Disabilities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Region of Lazio, the Metropolitan City of Rome, the Department of Culture of Rome, and the Municipality of Velletri, with support from the Italian Cultural Institute of Paris and the Villa Altieri Museum.

A distinctive value of the project has been its connection to the Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation (PCTO) of the Ministry of Education and Merit, enabling students and technicians from the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome and the Piaget-Diaz School to engage with complex creative processes, integrating traditional training with direct experiences in professional contexts.

In line with the theme chosen by AMACI for the 2025 edition—education as a plural process encompassing learning, research, and exchange of experiences—the project embodies MAXXI’s commitment to linguistic experimentation, civic engagement, and dialogue with communities and territories at an international level.

Within this context, curator Sergio Mario Illuminato states:

“MILIEU indicates the vital space in which existence is formed and transformed: not a mere physical place, but an intertwining of relationships, memories, and conflicts. Here, the wounded body does not appear as a passive object of pain, but as a living archive of signs, traumas, and forms of resistance. Returning to the wounded body means recognizing vulnerability as a constitutive condition of being human: a political and poetic act that brings the body—with its visible and invisible scars—back to the center of a milieu that tends to either erase or spectacularize it.”

The film VULNERARE
At the heart of the event is the screening of the experimental art film VULNERARE, which premiered in Europe in 2024 at the Italian Cultural Institute of Paris and was already awarded in 2025 with maj