Cortona On The Move16° edition – Beautiful Country, artistic direction by Renata Ferri. Bookshop curated by Leporello photobooks et al.

We are delighted to share some great news: this year, Leporello will be curating the festival bookshop. A wide range of publications will be available not only during the opening days but throughout the entire duration of the festival.

In addition to a selection of works by the exhibiting artists, Leporello is presenting an overview of the most interesting Italian photography publishers, alongside a curated selection of international publishers whose catalogs align with the themes of this year’s festival.

Soon online the talks program and information regarding the bookshop venue — where all the books presentations and signings will take place.

The theme of the 2026 edition is *Beautiful Country*, a curatorial project by Renata Ferri that invites reflecting on the contemporary gaze and the relationship between image, memory, and identity.

The festival unfolds as an exploration of Italy over recent decades: an open visual atlas—a “journey of journeys”—in which photography becomes a tool for critical and poetic inquiry. Italian and international artists engage in a dialogue that blends the spirit of the Grand Tour with the depth of contemporary investigative practice.

The exhibition program features thirty-three shows—ranging from solo and group exhibitions to intergenerational dialogues, new projects, and commissioned works—presenting a complex portrait of the country, where wonder intertwines with disillusionment.

The collective exhibition Peninsula, a commission involving ten artists– Arianna Arcara, Fabio Barile, Marina Caneve, Federico Clavarino, Matteo De Mayda, Giorgio Di Noto,  Alessandro Imbriaco, Rachele Maistrello, Giulia Parlato e Giovanna Silva –, complements a series of solo exhibitions: Campagna Romana, by Joel Sternfeld, Perfect Beauty, by Candida Höfer, Failed Postcards from Napoli by Kourtney Roy, Songs of a Lost World, by Botto&Bruno, Cosmoogonies, by Antonio Biasucci, Milano at the edges, a dialogue between the images, taken between the ’80 and the ’90, by Gabriele Basilico anf those by Angelo Leonardo, from the project Le Monde Ou Rien, Italian Story, by Andrea Modica, Stella Inquieta (Restless Star), by Mattia Balsamini and Raffaele Panizza, Paparazzi, from the editorial project curated by Francesco Piccolo, Sonata, by Aaron Schuman, Guilty Grounds, by Steffi Reimers, Diorami, by Sohei Nishino, Rave, with photographs by Mattia Zoppellaro and Chiara Fossati, Stromboli, presented through the double gaze of Federico Patellani, who in 1949 documented what was going on both in the Island and on the set of Stromboli (Terra di Dio) by Roberto Rossellini – and of Chiara Indelicato, author of Pelle di Lava, Settimana Santa, by Ivan Carozzi and Giulia Mangione, Restful Oasis. Italy in the Images of the Eni Archive, Battle Royale, where the research by visual artist Federica Sasso is presented with an immersive installation curated by Emanuele Amighetti, When the night falls, by Luca Campigotto, The border I am. With Medici Senza Frontiere (Doctors Without Borders): travel, waiting, and care, by Francesco Anselmi, For the grace received, by Paolo Ventura, Reversed landscape, by Silvia Camporesi, The Islanders, by Alys Tomlinson, Bingo, by Jason Fulford, Realpolitik, by Marco P. Valli and Luca Santese, In search of the wolf and the saint, by the Spanish photographer Yago Soria Díaz, At Italo’s House. An Italian Collection, a project conceived by Fotoromanzo Italiano (Giorgio Barrera, Andrea Botto e Michele Apicella) a partial re-arrangement of the home of Italo Manzo, a collector, patron, and enthusiast of Italian popular culture, OverTourism, by Alessandro Toscano, Video-Stadio, by Paola Di Bello, A Lidiput, by Moira Ricci, Gino Severini, upclose, by Fabrizio Vatieri, and Groundswell Project, realized in collaboration with Photo Museum Ireland, FOTOHOF and Imago Lisboa.