Anna Serlenga, Virginia Sommadossi
Milano Mediterranea

This talk investigates how artistic practices can contribute to social change in urban contexts marked by fragmentation and social inequality. Focusing on the case study of Milano Mediterranea, a decolonial cultural centre based in Milan, the intervention explores how collaborative art and co-design processes can regenerate communities and nurture a shared sense of future. Through inclusive methods involving local residents, artists, and institutions, Milano Mediterranea fosters creative responses to urban challenges such as marginalization, cultural division, and spatial neglect. Artistic interventions become acts of care and imagination, enabling new forms of dialogue, belonging, and solidarity. The project reveals how hope can be materially expressed through public art, transforming spaces into platforms for listening, healing, and collective dreaming. By analyzing this case, the intervention highlights the role of art not only in representing change but in making it possible—embodying hope as a practice rooted in community, co-creation, and a vision for more just and humane urban futures.

About

Milano Mediterranea is a decolonial and nomadic participatory art center. Since 2020, it inhabits the Milan’s suburbs, where it carries out community art projects, training activities, events and a public space festival. Milano Mediterranea is a curatorial project of the art collective “Corps Citoyen”.

Useful links

Website