XNL Aperto 2025: three days of contemporary art, opened by an evening of listening at the Nicolini
From 19 to 21 September 2025, the fourth edition of XNL Aperto, XNL Piacenza’s contemporary art festival spread across the city and the province. Gianmarco coordinated it together with Paola Nicolin and Paola Pedrazzini; it opened with a sound performance at the Nicolini Conservatory, with XNL Musica.
XNL Aperto is the contemporary art festival of XNL Piacenza, the centre of the Fondazione di Piacenza e Vigevano, spread across the whole territory. It was born in 2022, coordinated by XNL Arte: for three days museums, galleries, independent spaces and artists’ studios in Piacenza and its province open their doors, with exhibitions, performances, talks and special openings. Its first three editions involved 21 museums, galleries and independent spaces, and 5 artists’ studios and archives.
The fourth edition, from 19 to 21 September 2025, was coordinated by Gianmarco for XNL Musica, together with Paola Nicolin, then director of XNL Arte, and Paola Pedrazzini, director of XNL Cinema e Teatro.
The programme
- Friday 19 September, at 9 pm, the opening at the Nicolini Conservatory, in collaboration with XNL Musica: the sound performance “Solo ascoltando, la musica accade” (“Just by listening, music happens”), an immersive experience across composition, performance and improvisation, for active, unconventional listening. It was “Le forme del suono” (“The shapes of sound”), curated by Benedetta Broegg and Michele Lombardelli and inspired by Giacinto Scelsi’s vision.
- Saturday 20 September, the openings of galleries, exhibition spaces and projects across the city and the province.
- Sunday 21 September, in the morning, a talk by the architect Mario Cucinella closed the edition.
The eagle
The 2025 identity was designed by the Propp studio, which has signed XNL Aperto’s graphics since 2022. After the wolf, the bee and the horse of the first three editions came the Napoleonic eagle, a symbol of Piacenza’s history between 1796 and 1814, to reflect on the relationship between old and contemporary, public and private.
“Contemporary art is the tool for building a cultural path that, year after year, captures the creative ferment of our territory.”
Roberto Reggi, president of the Fondazione di Piacenza e Vigevano, to Libertà
XNL Aperto is promoted by Rete Cultura Piacenza: the Fondazione di Piacenza e Vigevano, the City and the Province of Piacenza, the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Emilia Chamber of Commerce and the Diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio.
Inside XNL
XNL Musica is the Conservatory’s home inside XNL: we designed it and we run it. The first collaboration with XNL Arte had come in 2024, with Valentina Furian’s exhibition. After XNL Aperto came Oltre le nuvole, in 2026, with Paola Pedrazzini and Gianmarco among the curators.
It was also covered by the Fondazione di Piacenza e Vigevano, exibart, piacenzasera.it and Piacenza24. The articles are in Italian.
From the press
The clipping is in Italian.
