Once dismissed as a failed postmodern utopia, the Sicilian town of Gibellina is preparing for a year-long programme of exhibitions, performances and artist residencies. But can art finally bring life back to a place conceived as an art utopia?
The theatre straddles the road, a hump-backed concrete leviathan dominating the skyline. Designed by Italian sculptor Pietro Consagra, Teatro is one of the most iconic buildings in Gibellina – but it looks more like an abandoned multistorey car park than a theatre. Built in the first half of the 1980s, it remains unfinished some 40 years later. I’ve never seen any building like it.
Teatro is one of hundreds of neglected artworks and postmodern buildings scattered through the town, which was rebuilt in the 1970s and reimagined as an art utopia, with sculptures and architectural designs on every corner. Yet, this open-air museum receives few visitors; not many holidaymakers think to take a day trip from Palermo or the white-sand beach of San Vito Lo Capo.
In 2026, however, that is expected to change. Italy has named Gibellina its first-ever Capital of Contemporary Art, launching a year-long programme of exhibitions, performances and artist residencies designed to transform the town’s long-dormant buildings and public spaces. For travellers, it offers a rare chance to experience a place mid-transformation – part open-air museum, part working cultural experiment – at a moment when the town is launching an urban revival.
Teatro was being prepared to reopen as an exhibition space when I visited in November, with workers building steps to the upper floors and barriers in front of the windows, which otherwise offered only a vertiginous drop onto the road below. I noticed graffiti flowering up the walls and pools of rainwater collecting at the bottom of ramps. Andrea Cusumano, the director of the year’s programme, showed me around. An artistic polymath who has conducted orchestras, published poetry, directed plays and created art installations around Europe, he swept through the space in a long black coat, switching easily between English and Italian.