Volcanic Attitude 2026
For its fifth edition, Volcanic Attitude Festival takes place in late summer, from 25 to 29 September 2026. In this encounter of art and science, the journey sets off from Naples, at the foot of Vesuvius, towards Stromboli and Vulcano and back, taking in the evocative and extraordinary sites along the Aeolian routes.
Special guests of this edition are the volcanoes of Iceland and Martinique, in dialogue with the Mediterranean landscape.
During the Festival we explore the geographies of shifting lands and attend to the flashes of light that speak from cosmic and sidereal distances. We imagine acoustic and sonic waves that populate the underwater world where other volcanoes lie, massive and silent.
The programme gives voice to a multitude of ‘vibrant elements’ by alternating artistic performances, scientific discussions, volcano climbs and thermal baths, moments of conviviality and the rediscovery of collective rituals.
In our current world of conflict, this year’s Festival aims to reflect on the ethical dimension that drives artists and scientists in their search for possible visions, harmonious balances and an attentiveness to what exists.
Volcanic
Attitude
2026
25-29
September
The protagonists
Alba Balmaseda, Kathrin Doppler, Ines Lechleitner
Artistic Research Group
Bjarki Bragason
Artist
Nicola Capone, Simona Da Pozzo, Paola Mautone
Philosopher, Artist, Agronomist
Casagrande // Giorgini
Performative Research Duo
Stefano Graziani
Artist
Anna Líndal
Artist
Pietro Lo Cascio
Naturalist and founder of NESOS
Rachele Maistrello
Artist
Alessando Manfrin
Artist
Melina Mulas
Photographer
Magnús Pálsson
Artist
Curated by An Paenhuysen – Representing the artist Petúr Magnússon
Paolo Piattelli
INFN Physicist
Massimo Ricciardo
Artist
Carlo Andrea Rozzi
physicist CNR National Research Center
Vulcani Sacri
Artistic Research Group
Laura Chatenay-Rivuaday e Giuseppe Schillaci
Curated by Gaetano la Rosa
The program
Naples
16:00
GIARDINO DEI CAPEZZOLI
Largo Proprio d’Arianello – Metro DanteVibrant Soils*
Paola Mautone, agronoma UniNa – Simona Da Pozzo, artist – Nicola Capone, philosopher >
Anna Líndal, artist and researcher with The Seismographic Trace of Emotion >
Bjarki Bragason's Installations, artist > and Simona Da Pozzo, artist >
Talk Il suolo è un laboratorio ecologico vitale di connessioni e di germinazioni inaspettate. E’ memoria di generazioni e di relazioni interspecie. E’ un ambiente vibrante, una stratificazione in continua trasformazione.Port of Naples
18:30
BOARDING To Eolian Islands
20:00
Aperitif on the upper deck and departure
Naples> Aeolian Islands
epistolary exchange*
Rachele Maistrello, artist >
Intimate performanceWish you were here*
Alessandro Manfrin, artist >
Installazione itinerante NAVE LAURANA22:00
BAIA
Marco Casagrande e Nicolò Giorgini, Duo of dancers and choreographers >
Performance PONTE SUPERIORE – NAVE LAURANANAPLES>Vulcano
6:00
Sunrise on Stromboli
LAURANA FERRY
9:30
Breakfast with the protagonistsBathing Vulcano
Alba Balmaseda, Kathrine Doppler, Ines Lechleitner, Introduction to the research projectkm3-scale Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT)
Paolo Piattelli, Fisico INFN Introduction to the research project10:45
ARRIVAL IN Vulcano
12:00
Coffee table
Coffee Break di benvenuto sull’isola con artistə e ricercatorə Hotel Les Sables Noirs16:00
Visit to the INGV “Marcello Carapezza” Center
with Marcello Liotta INGV volcanologist
17:00
Obsidian Threshold
Rachele Maistrello, artist
Azione Partecipativa HOTEL LES SABLES NOIRS, Baia di Ponente, Vulcano18:30
Opening Night
Sunset aperitif and dinner TERRAZZA LES SABLES NOIRS – PORTO DI PONENTEVIBRANT ELEMENTS
Presentation of the protagonists of the festivalShaken Grounds. Art as Seismography >
with Lucie Strecker Shaken grounds collective) e Ana Škegro (MSU) Presentation of the European project in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art of Zagreb (MSU), the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and the Iceland University of the Arts.22:00
Cross InterviewCielo Stellato*
Alessandro Manfrin, artistkm3-scale Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT)* II parte
Paolo Piattelli, Fisico INFNA dialogue on the visible and invisible relationships within the landscape that surrounds us.
What is the prefiguration of the nature we look at and what escapes? What does the experimental project M3NeT Neutrino Telescope of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics intercept and show us? Which particles from sidereal space interact with the Sicilian sea depths? A dialogue between the physicist Paolo Piatteli and the artist Alessandro Manfrin who introduces his research work that moves between images of "natural" landscapes and the real configuration sedimented by constant human action.
*Programma in via di definizione. *Titolo provvisorio
Vulcano –MORNING
Bathing Vulcano
Alba Balmaseda, Kathrine Doppler, Ines Lechleitner, Artistic Research Group >
Thermal practices are a well-known and deeply rooted feature of the island of Vulcano. From sulfur muds to hot waters, the ritual of immersion - the collective bath for aesthetic and healing purposes is a tradition that renews itself and carries a culture that seeks in nature a source of well-being and accessible regenerative connection.
Collective performance
Bjarki Bragason, artist >
Near the Spallanzani sea stack, beneath which the hot water beach opens. Traditions from volcanic islands - the Aeolian Islands and Iceland - intertwine.
Installation
Culinaria. Cooking together with ancient methods
Massimo Ricciardo, artist >
Walk and story on The ancient ways of cooking also accompanied by the presence of the Aeolian naturalist Pietro lo Cascio
BAIA DI LEVANTE, warm water beach
AFTERNOON
Ascent to the La Fossa Crater, Vulcano
Archiving SurpriseS
Anna Líndal, artist >
A performative account of the research and immersive experiences the artist has carried out in her homeland, Iceland, such as swimming among ice and pumice inside the Grímsvötn crater, in the Vatnajökull glacier, in 2013. How can past journeys be revisited, extracting from archival material new sources of investigation and creation?
Performative Talks
Reflections on the Scientist’s Vocation in Times of War
Carlo Andrea Rozzi, CNR Physicist >
The ethical demands of "free" research in times of war.
Talk
Under The Volcano and Other Stories, (II round)
Stefano Graziani, artist >
The artist returns to the places he visited in 2009 (at the time, the artist’s book Under the Volcano and Other Stories was published by Galleria Mazzoleni), with the idea of creating a geography of instability of things that change, even within those rocky landscapes that appear immutable.
Exploration
LA FOSSA CRATER, VOLCANO
EVENING
Obsidian Threshold
Rachele Maistrello, artist >
Obsidian Threshold. The work captures the presence of obsidian not only as volcanic material, but as a conceptual device that makes visible the transition between the black of geological stillness and the red of ongoing eruption. Through silhouettes she has created, the artist invites the audience into a narrative bordering on nonlinear science fiction, made of apparitions, interruptions, and continuous perceptual shifts.
Participatory action
Culinaria. Cooking together with ancient methods
A collective kitchen
Massimo Ricciardo, artist >
A project that connects cuisine, matter and volcanic landscape. Through the firing in a clay crust, earth, body, flesh and fire meet, evoking the use of clay in the Aeolian Islands, the mud of Vulcano, the practice of hot sand and the imagery of the bodies of Pompeii. The anthropomorphic landscape of the island thus becomes part of a reflection on the relationship between body and natural matter.
Shared act
CASA, VIA LENTIA, VULCANO
* Program to be defined
* temporary title
The program may be subject to changes due to weather conditions and any restrictions due to the volcanological risk
<
The program*
Vulcano>STROMBOLI
Morning
Mini-mob-shop >
Collective mobile workshop action with curator An Paenhuysen representing the artist Petúr Magnússon
Völundarhús (Project for a Labyrinth, 1980)
by Magnús Pálsson, artist
Action/poster installation
Pálsson’s volcanic labyrinth, Völundarhús (Project for a Labyrinth, 1980), is transposed from Iceland to Stromboli. Between Stromboli’s beach and several sites in Ginostra, the projection and partial reenactment of his “choir without voice” Cross (1996/2013) takes place. After a mini-mob-shop on the beach of the island of Stromboli, other non-vocal approaches will be explored, culminating in the screening of the 2013 edition of Cross.
STROMBOLI, Spiaggia di Scari
AFTERNOON
BY BOAT > GINOSTRA
Vulcani Sacri >
with Giuseppe Schillaci and Laura Chatenay-Rivauday
IN NAVIGATION toward the Sciara of Stromboli and GINOSTRA
Ginostra
Cross (1996/2013) >
Partial reenactment of the "non-voice choir" Cross (1996/2013) by artist Magnús Pálsson, and screening with the curator An Paenhuysen representing the artist Petúr Magnússon
Le mie Eolie **
Melina Mulas >
Collective Photography Workshop on the Landscape. Meeting with a group of students from the Faculty of Architecture of the Swiss University of Mendrisio and activation of an open action dedicated to photographic observation of the landscape, following the teachings of Ugo Mulas and Nini Mulas.
Wandering workshop
GINOSTRA, STROMBOLI
20.00
Boarding and return TOWARD NAPLES
EVENING
Cielo stellato
Alessandro Manfrin, artist >
Installations and video screenings
The voyage concludes by returning to the port of departure. Artist Alessandro Manfrin reflects, through his erratic installations stratified like a visual relational diary over the days of the festival on the multiple readings of a landscape in which nature and human presence bring forth, in a sometimes challening coexistence, the contradictions and the threads indissolubly knotted between the “wild” and the “political.”
LAURANA FERRY
* Program to be defined
** temporary title
Does the Volcanic attitude festival experience find us changed? We talk about it on a coffee table before heading home.
7:20
Possible transformations
Breakfast with artists, scientists, and festival participants.
Coffee table
Sbarco a napoli
8:00
End of the festival
The programme may be subject to change due to weather conditions.
THE VOLCANIC ATTITUDE FESTIVAL
Volcanic Attitude is a contemporary culture festival that brings together artists and researchers for a program of explorations, lectures, and performances, taking part in a collective journey that follows the volcanic route between Naples and the Aeolian Islands.
discover the past editions
Find out how to participate
Festival Pass
Full pass for all cultural activities: €90
Daily Ticket - Eolian Islands €40
Buy your ticket on EventBrite
Volcanic Journey
Contact us to receive a quote for the Volcanic tour, including travel from Naples to the Eolian Islands and accommodation, or for travel only.
Scrivici a: festival@volcanicattitude.org
Volcanic Attitude 2026 è realizzato da
Co-founded by
Con il Patrocinio di
Main Partner
Partner Culturali Istituzionali
Cultural Partners
Partner tecnici e territoriali
IL TEAM di Volcanic attitude 2026
Curated and organized by: Helga Franza ~ Susanna Ravelli ~ Giulia Restifo
An Paenhuysen – guest curator of Magnus Palson
Davide Pompejano – Video Documentation
Emilio Messina – Photo
Francesca Salemi – social media manager
Carmin Catacchio – production assistant
Eugenia Mulattieri – administration
Michela Farnè Corzo – Organization
Magda Placek – web site assistant
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