AIDENTITIES - TRACES OF SELF AND POSSIBLE WORLDS

Accademia Italiana presents an event with Matteo Cibic exploring identity, sustainability and new visions of design. To mark Pitti Uomo 110, Tuesday 16 June will see the opening of a collective exhibition on the theme of identity, featuring works by students from the Florence campus selected by Matteo Cibic, whereas on Thursday 25 June the exhibition will move to Rome.

Florence, June 15, 2026

As part of Pitti Immagine Uomo 110, on Tuesday 16 June at 5:30 PM at Accademia Italiana (Piazza de’ Pitti 15), the event “AIdentities | Traces of Self and Possible Worlds” will take place: a talk and collective exhibition on the themes of identity, sustainability, and new visions of design, featuring works selected by renowned designer Matteo Cibic, a creator whose strength lies in his interdisciplinary approach.

Identity as origin, belonging, transformation. Identity as a visual language, personal memory, and design gesture. Identity as a space for dialogue between different cultures, within an international community spanning fashion, design, visual arts, and communication. The projects on display offer perspectives, questions, and visions about the present and possible worlds.

The opening talk will be introduced by Nicola Accurso, General Manager of the AD Education Group. The round table discussion, focusing on innovation, heritage, sustainability, and design practice, will feature, alongside Matteo Cibic (Final Work curator 2026), Filippo Pernisco (Academic Director of Accademia Italiana), Andrea Cavani (Casa del Made in Italy Florence), Pierangelo Quintieri (Manteco), Vera Innocenti (Fabric House), Andrea Taborelli (Taborelli), and Cecilia Rinaldi (Fashion Design Coordinator at Accademia Italiana). The event will be followed by a vernissage with a guided tour of the exhibition, a striking “Fashion Design Performance” with Kinesis, an aperitif, and a DJ set by Luksek.

After Florence, the second event will take place in Rome on Thursday 25 June, from 6:30 PM, at the Rome campus of Accademia Italiana (Via dello Scalo San Lorenzo 10), located within the innovative campus of The Social Hub.

Each year, Accademia Italiana entrusts the curation of its students’ Final Work to leading figures in the international creative scene, with the aim of bringing an authoritative and contemporary perspective on the most urgent themes of the present into the institution. After Fabio Viola in 2024 and Matteo Ward in 2025, for 2026 Accademia Italiana has chosen Matteo Cibic, an internationally recognized designer known for his interdisciplinary and visionary approach. This confirms the institution’s commitment to building an educational model that combines advanced training, design experimentation, and critical reflection on contemporary cultural, social, and technological transformations.

Over the past months, Matteo Cibic has guided students from the Florence and Rome campuses through a curatorial and design journey dedicated to the theme “AIdentities,” fostering an open dialogue on identity, sustainability, material research, artificial intelligence, new aesthetics, and the social role of design. “In the students I met during this experience, I recognized a desire to exist without being forced to fully explain themselves. A silent, gentle, non-violent rebellion. A refusal to surrender to a world that demands immediate definitions, readable identities, and fixed positions,” says Matteo Cibic. “Among them I found many poets—not in writing, but in their gaze. They move through the present with fluid and unstable languages that seem fragile to my generation, yet they hold a new way of interpreting the contemporary.”

At the core of the work with students is also a reflection on the relationship between manual gesture and technology. “The difference between human intelligence and artificial intelligence is not expressed aesthetically in perfection, but in hands. In gesture. In error. In the trace of time on materials. The task of artists, intellectuals, and designers is to defend the possibility of a desirable future: a place where differences coexist without being erased,” Cibic continues.

The Final Works developed by students from the Rome and Florence campuses span different languages and disciplines: from contemporary jewelry projects such as the work on ingot-bracelets, to research on ancient Turkish weaving techniques reinterpreted in a contemporary key; from urban regeneration and communication projects dedicated to Via Palazzuolo in Florence, to numerous works in social photography. There is also extensive research into sustainable materials and experimentation between design, fashion, and new technologies. This path reflects the strong international vocation of Accademia Italiana, with students from all over the world and a multidisciplinary approach that brings together cultures, languages, and different visions.

Nicola Accurso, Managing Director of AD Education Italy, states: “For the third year, Accademia Italiana entrusts the curation of its students’ Final Work to leading figures of the international creative scene, with the aim of bringing an authoritative perspective on the most sensitive issues of contemporaneity into the institution. After Fabio Viola in 2024 and Matteo Ward in 2025, for 2026 the choice falls on Matteo Cibic, an internationally recognized designer known for his interdisciplinary and visionary approach. This decision confirms Accademia Italiana’s commitment to building an educational model capable of intertwining advanced training, design experimentation, and critical reflection. The theme AIdentities addresses a central issue of our time: the need to define oneself in relation to the multitude of perspectives through which we are perceived. In this scenario, belonging becomes an antidote to identity fragmentation. Accademia Italiana offers students not only educational tools, but a community in which to recognize themselves, engage, and develop their individuality.”

The results of this curatorial project will be on display at two events taking place at the Accademia Italiana’s venues in Florence and Rome. Both events will be attended by Matteo Cibic alongside companies, professionals, experts and stakeholders from the creative sector, who will be invited to discuss some key themes currently shaping Accademia Italiana’s research and approach to education: heritage, sustainability and innovation.

The exhibition can be visited free of charge on the following days:

17–18 June, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
19 June, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Accademia Italiana, Piazza de’ Pitti 15, Florence

25 June, 5.30 PM | talk & vernissage

Accademia Italiana, Viale dello Scalo San Lorenzo, 10, Rome