OLTRE LE MURA | Beyond the Walls
Florence, October – November 2026
ART, PARTICIPATION AND COMMUNITY IN A CHANGING CITY
Florence has always been shaped by people, cultures, languages and knowledge. OLTRE LE MURA | Beyond the Walls looks at the contemporary city as a constantly changing space, where new forms of belonging, memories and imaginaries contribute every day to reshaping its identity. A journey that unfolds across the city’s neighbourhoods and places young people, new citizens and second generations at its centre, inviting them not simply to attend, but to take part in artistic processes.
Dance, music, contemporary circus, visual arts and participatory practices become tools for encounter and connection. The artists involved activate processes in which different experiences and cultural heritages can come into contact and transform one another, generating new narratives.
With the project WAX, Chinese choreographer and visual artist ER GAO starts from the history of the fabric of the same name, shaped by connections between Indonesia, Europe, Africa and China, to explore the circulation of cultures, migration and the transformation of identities. In Florence, his project, curated by Fabrizio Massini, theatre producer and sinologist at the University of Vienna, takes shape through encounters and shared practices, weaving together body, movement and visual arts, leading to the final performance / installation
Senegalese singer and performer BADARA SECK, who comes from a historic family of griots, guardians of the oral memory of West Africa, proposes, together with other artists, a journey through music, singing and words, that become practices of transmission through which memory and experience are shared, creating a common space for listening and participation.
With Carta Blu | Blue Back, CLARA STORTI / QUATTROx4, which uses circus as a tool for inclusion and community building, invites audiences to observe urban space by changing their perspective. Through circus, play and interaction with space, the performance transforms everyday places into landscapes to be imagined, involving adults and children in a shared experience. How can urban space become a space for imagination? How can we re-see what we look at every day?
From PARC Performing Arts Research Centre to the Gasometro del Pignone, from Circolo Il Progresso to Il Lavoratorio, OLTRE LE MURA | Beyond the Walls unfolds across the neighbourhoods of Florence, building connections between different places and communities. It is not simply about bringing art to the outskirts, but about creating opportunities to involve those who live in these areas in the construction of a new narrative: that of a city that continues to transform through the people who inhabit it.
PROGRAMME
 | FRI 16 OCTOBER 3 – 7 PM PARC Performing Arts Research Centre | Florence ER GAO WAX – Patterns in Motion Audition for the selection of participants for the multidisciplinary workshop led by choreographer Er Gao For information, please email fabbricaeuropaaudition@gmail.com | Er Gao project details | |  | MON 19 OCTOBER – WED 4 NOVEMBER 2 – 6 PM PARC Performing Arts Research Centre | Florence ER GAO WAX – Patterns in Motion Multidisciplinary workshop led by choreographer Er Gao | Er Gao project details | |
 | MON 19 – TUE 20 OCTOBER 4 – 6 PM PARC Performing Arts Research Centre | Florence BADARA SECK | AMINE EZZALZOULI | MATAR MBAYE | ALICE CHIARI Workshop for voice and instruments led by Senegalese griot Badara Seck with Moroccan musician Amine Ezzalzouli, Senegalese percussionist Matar Mbaye, and cellist Alice Chiari | Badara Seck project details | | |
 | WED 21 OCTOBER 9 PM Circolo Il Progresso | Florence BADARA SECK | AMINE EZZALZOULI | MATAR MBAYE | ALICE CHIARI | SUSANNAH IHEME Concert | Badara Seck project details | | |
 | MON 26 – THU 29 OCTOBER Gasometro del Pignone | Florence CLARA STORTI / QUATTROX4 CARTA BLU | BLUE BACK Artistic residency in public space | Clara Storti / Quattrox4 project details | | |
 | WED 28 OCTOBER Istituto Tecnico per il Turismo Marco Polo | Florence MEETING/WORKSHOP with choreographer ER GAO and curator FABRIZIO MASSINI for students, focusing on experiences of cultural mobility | Er Gao project details | | |
 | FRI 30 OCTOBER 4.30 PM Gasometro del Pignone | Florence CLARA STORTI / QUATTROX4 CARTA BLU | BLUE BACK Site-specific performance Multicultural celebration | Clara Storti / Quattrox4 project details | | |
 | TUE 3 NOVEMBER 6 PM PARC Performing Arts Research Centre | Florence TALK/LECTURE “Provenance and fraying in the Arts” with Prof. LUCA FARULLI “Authentic copies? Chinoiserie, shanzhai and the myth of originality” with curator FABRIZIO MASSINI | Er Gao project details | | |
 | THU 5 – FRI 6 NOVEMBER 6 PM PARC Performing Arts Research Centre | Florence ER GAO WAX – Patterns in Motion Performance | Er Gao project details | | |
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THU 5 – SUN 8 NOVEMBRE PARC Performing Arts Research Centre | Florence ER GAO ENJOY THE BEAUTIFUL WAX Outdoor installation | Er Gao project details | |
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 | FRI 6 – SAT 7 NOVEMBER 5 – 7 PM Il Lavoratorio | Florence BADARA SECK | AMINE EZZALZOULI | EDOUARD MANGA | MATAR MBAYE | ALICE CHIARI Workshop for voice and instruments led by Badara Seck with Matar Mbaye, Alice Chiari, and Senegalese musician Edouard Manga | Badara Seck project details | | |
 | SUN 8 NOVEMBER 5 PM Il Lavoratorio | Florence BADARA SECK | AMINE EZZALZOULI | EDOUARD MANGA | MATAR MBAYE | ALICE CHIARI Concert | Badara Seck project details | | |
 | WED 11 NOVEMBER 9 PM Circolo Il Progresso | Florence BADARA SECK | AMINE EZZALZOULI | EDOUARD MANGA | MATAR MBAYE | ALICE CHIARI Final concert | project Badara Seck details | |
PARC Performing Arts Research Centre Piazzale delle Cascine 4/5/7, Florence
Circolo Il Progresso Via Vittorio Emanuele II 135, Florence
Gasometro del Pignone Via dell’Anconella, Florence
ITT Marco Polo Via di S. Bartolo a Cintoia 19A, Florence
Il Lavoratorio Via Giovanni Lanza 64A, Florence
OLTRE LE MURA | Beyond the Walls is a project by Fondazione Fabbrica Europa as part of Autunno Fiorentino 2026.
photo (detail) © Winnie Yeung, courtesy of Tai Kwun Hong Kong
