Salento is preparing for a summer 2025 dedicated to art in all its forms. Exhibitions, festivals, artist residencies, installations, and photographic journeys unfold across Lecce, Gallipoli, Mesagne, Nardò, and Castrignano dei Greci, creating a dialogue between contemporary creativity and architectural heritage. In this vibrant and ever-changing context, Salento’s architecture is not merely a backdrop but a silent and complicit protagonist, capable of giving meaning and depth to every cultural proposal.

Lecce Art Week (20–30 June 2025): the baroque city speaks the language of the contemporary

With its fourth edition, Lecce Art Week has confirmed the central role of the Salento capital in the contemporary art scene. Ten days of exhibitions, talks, performances, and widespread installations have transformed historic courtyards, palaces, squares, and deconsecrated churches into true creative hubs.

The Lecce baroque, with its porous and luminous stone, welcomed contemporary experimentation in a play of suggestive contrasts. Sculpted volutes stood side by side with abstract works, multimedia installations, humble materials, and current visual languages, giving life to a fertile friction between memory and vision. The historic architecture amplified the message of the works, providing temporal depth to themes of identity, the body, the landscape, and transformation.

The Time of the Impressionists in Mesagne (27 June 2025 – 6 January 2026)

At the evocative Norman-Swabian Castle of Mesagne, the exhibition “The Time of the Impressionists, from Monet to Boldini” comes to life—a visual journey through light and color, from late 19th-century Paris to early 20th-century Europe.

The castle, with its stone walls, vaulted halls, and windows overlooking the historic center, proves to be the ideal container for works born in dialogue with natural light. Impressionist painting—vibrant, immediate, and sensitive to atmospheric variations—intertwines here with the light of Salento, creating a parallel between the French and Mediterranean landscapes, between water reflections and whitewashed walls, between ephemeral atmospheres and enduring architecture.

Vittorio Tapparini in Nardò: “Canto Libero” between vision and roots

In Nardò, a gem of Salento baroque, the historic Chiostro dei Carmelitani hosts the exhibition “Canto Libero” by Vittorio Tapparini, a Salento painter who merges figuration and symbolism in a powerful and intimate expressive research.

The evocative and layered works enter into dialogue with the austere elegance of the convent architecture. The Lecce stone columns, the silence of the cloister, and the sharp shadows that mark the spaces all contribute to making the exhibition a contemplative experience, where art and architecture share the ability to preserve memory and vision.

Gallipoli Photowalk (3 August 2025): capturing the contradictions of beauty

Another innovative proposal for the Salento summer is the Gallipoli Photowalk, a street photography route curated by Fotogrammatica and photographer Paolo Morra, in collaboration with Gabriele Albergo (SalentoDeathValley).

On Sunday, August 3, from afternoon until sunset, a limited group of participants will traverse Gallipoli’s historic center, seeking out glimpses, contrasts, and unfiltered truths. Far from postcard imagery, the Photowalk aims to shake the gaze, as Albergo states, revealing a raw, lively, authentic Gallipoli. An experience where architecture and photography interact in real time, in alleys, on stone surfaces, among shadows cast by the sun and textures sculpted by time.

KORA in Castrignano dei Greci: contemporary art and the rebirth of Palazzo de Gualtieriis

In the heart of Grecìa Salentina, KORA – Center for Contemporary Art, active since 2021 inside the historic Baronial Palace de Gualtieriis in Castrignano dei Greci, launches a new season rich in visions and languages. On July 4, 2025, the collective exhibition “Selvatica” opens, curated by the IUNO curatorial team, exploring the concept of the wild as a free, untamed space capable of embracing the monstrous and the primordial: works by artists such as Chiara Camoni, Gaia Fugazza, Cynthia Montier, and Marta Roberti transform the palace halls into an inner and emotional landscape, where the stone itself becomes a vessel for contemporary thought. In parallel, Yirong Wu’s solo exhibition, “Natura Morta,” reflects on the relationship between image, body, and nature, starting from the symbolic figure of the palm tree, a quintessentially Mediterranean plant. A major highlight of the summer is the reopening of the palace courtyard, now a cultural and convivial space through the Korte project: a place where art and daily life meet through music, performances, social gatherings, and creative fusion. On July 4, the “Ogni Altro Suono” festival kicks off the season with a concert by Silvia Tarozzi, while on July 25, KORA hosts the international talk “Wonder Women”, featuring Judith Benhamou and other leading voices from the contemporary art and curatorial world.

Conclusion: art and architecture, a natural alliance in the heart of Salento

In all these events, from the Photowalk to international exhibitions, what emerges is the symbiotic relationship between art and architecture. The stones of Salento are not mere scenery—they are living material that absorbs and reflects, welcomes and stimulates the imagination. From Lecce’s baroque vaults to the reborn courtyard of Castrignano, from the silent cloisters of Nardò to the ramparts of the Mesagne castle, contemporary art finds in Salento’s heritage a formidable ally, capable of offering a rare and necessary depth of meaning.