At a time when culture, technology, and everyday experience are becoming increasingly intertwined, how can creative practices transcend geographical and disciplinary boundaries to connect with different forms of experience? How can an artwork move beyond individual expression, enter the public sphere, and acquire new meanings through observation and dialogue? With “MEET” as its central concept, NOVE 2026 brings contemporary art, design, and culture together in a shared space, exploring the many possibilities of establishing connections between creative practices, between cultures, and between people and artworks.
As an international exhibition and awards programme, NOVE 2026 is jointly presented by Spira9Art, Centro Culturale di Milano, and A4U, and will take place from 22 to 28 October 2026 at the Centro Culturale di Milano. The exhibition aims to create an open international platform for exchange, bringing together artists, designers, diverse cultural perspectives, and audiences. The materials, methods, and ideas introduced by each participant become part of this encounter, offering new ways of understanding one another.
The concept of “MEET” runs throughout the exhibition. When art meets design, it opens discussions about form, function, and perception. When different cultures meet across geographical boundaries, they discover pathways for dialogue through their respective histories and contemporary experiences. When identity encounters new forms of expression, personal experiences gain opportunities to be articulated, seen, and understood. When technology meets human imagination, new possibilities emerge for images, materials, and creative methodologies. And when individual artistic practices encounter the public, the meanings of artworks continue to evolve through observation, response, and discussion.
These encounters also accommodate differences, questions, and perspectives that have yet to reach a consensus. The same artwork may evoke different memories, while the same medium may embody entirely different cultural experiences. NOVE explores how such differences can be perceived within a shared space and how distinct creative positions can respond to one another while maintaining their individual identities. Exchange thus becomes an open-ended process, offering both creators and audiences opportunities to reconsider familiar subjects and engage with experiences that remain unfamiliar.
The exhibition encompasses painting, photography, sculpture, installation, digital art, mixed media, visual communication, and interdisciplinary design. This diversity of media offers different modes of engagement: images invite sustained observation; materials awaken an awareness of texture and form; spatial arrangements shape bodily movement; and digital expressions encourage reflection on technology and imagination. Together, these practices create a richly layered exhibition, allowing visitors to approach artworks through different perceptual pathways and discover the questions, experiences, and ideas underlying their forms.
NOVE 2026 adopts an open framework that allows these creative practices to coexist without restricting artworks to a single style or predetermined theme. Connections within the exhibition may arise from shared concerns, but they may equally emerge from differences in media, form, and cultural background. Presenting the works within a common space establishes new contexts for their interpretation, enabling audiences to discover resonances, tensions, and unexpected relationships between them.
Public participation constitutes another essential dimension of “MEET.” Every visitor enters the exhibition with their own life experiences, cultural background, and sensibilities, developing personal interpretations through moments of reflection, observation, and exchange. The encounter between artworks and audiences brings creative practices beyond the individual process of making and into a shared space of discussion, transforming the exhibition into a place where different experiences can connect.
NOVE 2026 invites us to reconsider the relationships between art, design, and culture through the idea of encounter. Within this shared space in Milan, diverse forms of expression become visible, and different experiences are brought into closer dialogue. We hope these encounters will generate new questions, new understandings, and new creative connections, allowing the conversation to continue beyond the exhibition itself.
Event venue
Cultural Center in Milan, Largo Corsia dei Servi, 4, 20122 Milano MI, Milano, Italy
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