E fu sera e fu mattina

“Evening came and morning followed”
In Martina Franca, a journey through art, fashion, music, and thought

There are projects that develop like maps, and others like stories. “Evening came and morning followed” belongs to the second dimension: a cultural journey that unfolds through time and space, accompanying Martina Franca from April 30 to June 6, 2026, in a path made of intertwined languages and shared visions.
The program takes shape in the symbolic places of the city — Palazzo Ducale, Conservatorio Santa Maria della Misericordia, Biblioteca Isidoro Chirulli — transforming them into traversable spaces inhabited by experiences that connect art, fashion, music, literature, and research.
Opening the journey on April 30 is Regina Schrecker, a leading figure on the international scene, who will present “Elogio della bellezza sostenibile” (In Praise of Sustainable Beauty) in the noble halls of Palazzo Ducale. This is a narrative told through images and creations that traverse epochs and imaginaries: garments, costumes, and objects inspired by Dante, Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Arnaldo Pomodoro, up to the most recent experiments related to artificial intelligence. It is a living archive that can reflect the continuity between tradition and innovation.
Literature fits into the program as a space of reflection and narration. Presentations guide the audience through paths that touch on biographies, contemporary anxieties, and collective memories: from the last hours of Edith Piaf narrated by Teresa Caricola, to the inner landscapes and paths of medieval pilgrimage evoked by Marino Pagano and Angelo Palmieri, to the writing of Rossella Dentuto, which navigates between identity and transformation. The literary presentations will be led by Cinzia Cofano, a lecturer, cultural operator, and writer who won the “Premio Adriatico. Un mare che Unisce” in 2024, and is the curator of the cultural column “Librinstreaming,” collaborating with Tony Vinci, who will cover all the events in the program with the cameras of Valleditrialivechannel.
Music permeates the entire project with a widespread presence. The piano of Maestro Paolo Palazzo and the voice of Manuel Amati in “Solfeggi Notturni” present the music of Aprile and Perla, among the most significant composers from Martina Franca: pages created for singing education, here reinterpreted in a non-philological manner. Almost entirely in modern first performance, the program invites rediscovery and valorization of the historical-musical heritage of the territory, while the sounds of Simon Armenise and the performances of Luna Dragonieri with the project “TuaSorellaMinore” create sound environments where electronics and video art interact immersively.
Alongside the artistic appointments, the program opens spaces for in-depth study and research. Meetings dedicated to the relationship between art, science, and spirituality, along with reflections on the persistence of the magical in Apulian popular culture, bring back to the center a dimension of knowledge rooted in the territory, with the participation of the Museo Etnografico "Alfredo Majorano," a significant civic institution in the Ionian area, established in 2003 to preserve and promote the demological collection named after the famous Taranto scholar; the exhibited items at the Museum articulate a precise narrative around magical-religious rituals and popular traditions of the territory, at least since the 18th century. The project of researcher Maria Grazia Carriero is configured as an interdisciplinary investigation that employs the codes of contemporary art to explore and document the popular beliefs still alive in the Apulian territory. Over about two years of exploration, the artist adopted dialogue as a primary investigative tool, collecting extensive video and photographic documentation in the streets and homes of numerous municipalities in the provinces of Taranto, Bari, Brindisi, Lecce, and Foggia.
The focus of the research is the entity known as laùru (or with local variants such as jurj’, avurie, scarcagnulu or scazzamurrieddhu), an ambivalent "little spirit" that inhabits the collective memory of communities in danger of extinction. The investigation is not limited to mere ethnographic collection but transforms testimonies into works of art, installations, and videos (such as the works “Darkness” and “Parole a Sud”), where the documentary and "raw" character of the footage aims to convey the freshness and pathos of everyday encounters.

Exhibitions, displays, and cultural walks complete the journey, offering further chances for exploration. The training in the fashion sector with the MITA Fashion Academy Foundation presents, in the evocative spaces of Palazzo Ducale in Martina Franca, an exhibition dedicated to the contemporary reinterpretation of Bisset's Carmen. The setup features a selection of outfits created by the Academy's students, who reinterpret the opera's imagery from a modern perspective, blending theatrical aesthetics with current sensibilities. The spotlight is on the sartorial dimension of haute couture, expressed through refined craftsmanship, material research, and attention to detail, bringing creations to life that engage in a dialogue between tradition and innovation. The exhibition of popular musical instruments and guided itineraries contribute to building a far-reaching narrative that can engage diverse audiences.
The project is realized with the financial sponsorship of the Municipality of Martina Franca and with the moral support of the Puglia Region and the Province of Taranto, ideated by the Caracciolo De Sangro Foundation, Aps Federico II, Aps Liberuomo, and Vallisa.
The initiative “Evening came and morning followed” thus becomes a time to inhabit. Martina Franca embraces this movement and expresses it through its spaces, its layers, its openings. A story that unfolds day by day, allowing connections, encounters, and new perspectives to emerge.