• The competition drew 134 project proposals from 232 students at 57 art high schools in 18 Italian regions
  • The eight winning works will be on display at the GNAMC from 10 to 27 September and will permanently join the Foundation's art collection

Rome, 9 September 2026 – The award ceremony of the second edition of EvolveArt was held today at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GNAMC) in Rome. The national competition is promoted by Fondazione MAIRE – ETS and MAIRE, together with the Associazione Amici della Biennale dei Licei Artistici (ABiLiArt) and the Rete Nazionale dei Licei Artistici (ReNaLiArt), in collaboration with the GNAMC.

Open to students at Italian art high schools, EvolveArt draws on contemporary art to explore the energy transition, bringing artistic research, ethics and science into dialogue. This second edition set a demanding challenge: to design and build original sculptures and installations on the theme "Sustainable development, energy transition and circular economy: the role of young people in tackling climate change".

The response was significant: 134 project proposals from 232 students at 57 Art High Schools across 18 Italian regions. The Jury selected eight winning works:

  • Futuro: Alessandro Giovanni Brianda – Liceo Artistico Statale (IIS) "Fabrizio De André", Tempio Pausania (SS).
  • Zefiro: Doria Bracchetti, Alessio Civardi, Mariama Dieme, Elisa Guarini, Viola Battisti, Claudia Ortolani – Liceo Artistico Statale (IIS) "Donato Bramante", Rome.
  • BreakTree: Nicolas Fanfoni, Marco Perrone, Giada Zidda – Liceo Artistico Statale (IIS) "Soleri – Bertoni", Saluzzo (CN).
  • Percentorane: Elena Gianfelici, Elena Mazzanti, Arianna Mencarelli – Liceo Artistico Statale (IIS) "Nolfi – Apolloni", Fano (PU).
  • Skyline: Iga Ayu Manik Mas Astagina Mortato, Vanessa Galatone, Cosimo Mazzarano – Liceo Statale (IIS) "Domenico De Ruggieri", Massafra (TA), Liceo Artistico section.
  • Mercis Est: Matilde Aiassa – Liceo Artistico Statale (IIS) "Bianchi – Virginio", Cuneo.
  • EreditàSostenibile: Giuseppe Franzese – Liceo Artistico Statale (IIS) "Emilio Sereni", Cardito (NA).
  • Cono di Luce: Letizia Volpe, Aurora Marseglia, Francesca Saldutto – Liceo Artistico Statale (IIS) "Lanza – Perugini", Foggia.

Each work offers its own perspective, idea and vision, yet all share the ambition to imagine a more aware and sustainable future.

Together they reveal a remarkable range of materials, with industrial, natural and reclaimed elements playing off one another to interpret the energy transition. Iron, aluminium and metal move from structure to expression, while ceramic, terracotta, clay and cement bring a tactile, almost ancestral quality. Plexiglass, resins, plastics and gold leaf add transparency, reflection and visual contrast. Especially telling is the use of technological components and recycled materials — LEDs, dynamos, salvaged copper wire — which lend the sculptures a contemporary, sustainable edge. These young artists do not simply use materials to build: they turn them into symbols. Matter becomes narrative, memory and a vision of what lies ahead, uniting craft, innovation and environmental awareness in a single creative process. The exhibition shows that the energy transition can prompt not only conceptual reflection but genuine technical and material experimentation — and that art, too, has something to add to the debate, by exploring alternative materials, giving new value to reclaimed elements and rethinking resources too often dismissed as waste.

The ceremony was followed by the opening of the exhibition, on view to the public in the Soppalco Aldrovandi at the GNAMC from 10 to 27 September 2026. The works will then enter the Foundation's art collection and be permanently housed at one of the Group's sites in Rome.

Cristina Mazzantini, Director of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, commented: "The GNAMC has been a firm supporter of EvolveArt, an initiative that encourages contemporary creativity and engages art high school students across the country. The works selected and produced show extraordinary inventiveness in interpreting sustainability, together with a remarkable command of different artistic languages — confirming that flair and innovation emerge early and are part of who we are as a country."

Fabrizio Di Amato, Chairman of MAIRE and Fondazione MAIRE, added: "MAIRE is choosing the languages of contemporary art as a way to take forward the collective conversation about how urgent the energy transformation is. Above all, I want to thank everyone who took part in this competition, which closed this evening in the magnificent setting of the National Gallery. The initiative captures exactly what we mean by 'evolution': young people moving from the audience to centre stage."

Background: Launched in 2024 on the theme "Technology and innovation for the energy transition", the first edition of EvolveArt collected over 280 digital works from 50 Art High Schools across 18 Italian regions; the 28 works awarded in May 2024 at the Colosseum Archaeological Park gave rise to the EvolveArt roadshow, a travelling exhibition hosted at various Group sites, and illustrate the covers of "EVOLVE", the magazine of MAIRE and Fondazione MAIRE – ETS.