Cantiere Levante

Ostuni (BR) — From August 6 to 9, 2026, the under renovation space of Villa Levante (in Contrada Fumarola, in the territory of Ostuni) will host the 2026 edition of Cantiere Levante, a project conceived and promoted by the Studio Flore & Venezia. The platform for research and contemporary production thus returns to activate a deep dialogue between art, architecture, territory, and community. The event, which is open to the public free of charge every evening from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM, is part of the path initiated in previous years, consolidating itself as a meeting place and multidisciplinary experimentation.

The central theme of this edition is recognition and belonging, understood as dynamic conditions shaped by the relationship with places, memory, and transformations over time. Within the Mediterranean context, and particularly in the comparison between Puglia and Palestine, these themes take on urgent ideal and political relevance. The aim of the various exhibition and performance sections is to work on the relationships, affinities, and contaminations between the two territories, opening up shared reflections on the architectures, landscapes, traditions, and daily life of both shores.

The methodology of Cantiere Levante finds its perfect expression in the spaces of Villa Levante, currently under renovation, fully representing the spirit of the project. It is a space suspended between past and future, an open and unfinished construction site, ideal for welcoming artistic practices that reflect on processes of regeneration and identity.

The visual section will feature the participation of important international artists. Emily Jacir, whose interdisciplinary practice has explored Southern Italy and the Mediterranean for over twenty years through video, photography, sculpture, and performance, will present a series of video and sound projects alongside site-specific works. Adam Broomberg and Rafael Gonzalez will propose the photographic project Anchor in the Landscape, documenting the planned destruction of ancient olive trees in the West Bank: here, the image transcends formal contemplation to become an archival testimony, ecological safeguard, and resistance against cultural extinction. The Palestine Home Coming project, created by Mauro Bubbico, Luca Capuano, and Roberto Lenza, presents itself as a large photographic book guiding the reader to discover the normality of the Palestinian village of Dheisheh, aiming to deconstruct the misinformation and lack of empathy produced by common media narratives. Luca Capuano will also present the photographic investigation project Terre dell’occupazione.

Beyond the visual arts, Cantiere Levante explores cultural contaminations through the languages of music and sound. The Zina project, led by Cesare Dell’Anna and born from the meeting of African and Apulian musicians, proposes a sonic journey from the desert spaces to the plains of Salento, fused with metropolitan atmospheres and the rhythms of Maghreb and Senegalese traditions, including jazz, rap, reggae, and dub. Zina is a sonic melting pot that symbolizes aggregation and coexistence, reflecting a society that finds its vital essence in diversity. The musical research will also be enriched by the listening DJ set by Agostino Quaranta, focused on the research and sound overlaps between Apulian and Palestinian traditions.