After eight years under the leadership of architect Stefano Boeri, the Triennale di Milano today inaugurated a new president. Vincenzo Trione, a professor of art and media history at Milan's IULM University, a columnist for Corriere della Sera and a curator of modern and contemporary art, used his first press conference to lay out his vision for what he described as a 'deeply Italian' next four years.
'We are living in an age in which it is perhaps more important to ask questions than to offer answers,' Trione announced during the presentation of his four-year programme. 'We have sought to create an institution that endeavours to ask questions and regards all our activities as possible and open-ended answers.
'We will begin with a major question – a decisive question of our time. From this question will stem the exhibitions, the public programme and a series of initiatives. Every year, an installation that will serve as a manifesto for that year's Triennale will be placed at the entrance to the Palazzo dell'Arte, becoming, in a sense, our programmatic statement and our artistic manifesto.'
‘We are living in an age in which it is perhaps more important to ask questions than to offer answers’
Vincenzo Trione
Beyond the exhibitions, Trione outlined a wide-ranging public programme that will accompany each exhibition, comprising lectures by leading thinkers alongside seminars and conferences. The first will be hosted by Franco-Tunisian sociologist Asma Mhalla and will focus on resistance in times of crisis.
Strengthening Triennale’s educational mission
Vincenzo Trione
As a longtime academic, Trione also emphasised the institution's educational mission and its relationship with universities and research institutions, including the revival of the Triennale's Centro Studi (Study Centre), originally founded by Giuseppe Pagano and Piero Bottoni in the 1940s. He also announced plans to establish three-year degree and PhD programmes offering advanced training in curatorial studies, architecture, design and fashion.
Michele de Lucchi
Alongside the new cultural programme, Trione also unveiled a new Scientific Committee, led by architect and designer Michele De Lucchi, who will also serve as the Triennale's creative director and curator of the Museo del Design Italiano. Joining him are Manuela Lucà-Dazio, formerly managing director of the Venice Biennale and currently executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Foundation, who will oversee architecture; and Andrea Villani, currently curator of the Ministry of Culture's Digital Heritage Gateway Platform and formerly curator of the Museum of Civilizations in Rome, who will lead contemporary art.
Sharing a brief remark during the announcement, De Lucchi hinted at some of the themes his tenure as curator of the Museo del Design Italiano would explore. 'I've always held on to this idea that Italian design is shaped by wonderful entrepreneurs and architects,' he said. 'But the area where we perhaps need to focus more attention is on the artisans, because I must say that in Italy there are still artisans who have disappeared in many other countries around the world. This culture of Italian craftsmanship, this culture of manufacturing, is a truly very special one.'
In his concluding remarks, Trione made a point of noting that although De Lucchi, Villani and Lucà-Dazio each bring extensive international experience, he considers them all 'deeply Italian'.
'I believe that at a time when there has been a blatant preference for foreign figures in the selection of curators and commissioners, this small cultural signal is worth highlighting,' he said. It was an interesting choice of words for Italy's foremost design institution in its most cosmopolitan city, at a time when Milan's growing international profile has increasingly set it apart from the country at large.
While the 2027 programme will be announced this autumn, visitors can look forward to an upcoming retrospective on modernist sculptor Costantino Nivola, which will open in November 2026, as well as a tribute to the American singer and poet Patti Smith, staged in collaboration with Fondation Cartier, also slated for November.