The Superpowers of Culture and Good Relationships
We are a “society of conflict.”
Conflict is a universal human experience; at any time and latitude. Different forms of violence and war are examples of destructive ways of managing conflict.
Conflicts with oneself or with others often over silly matters: between family members, between employers and employees, between colleagues, between neighbors, between those that propose a change and those that resist it, generational conflicts, religious conflicts, conflicts between two or more countries, conflicts between humans and nature and ecosystems, conflicts between humans and non-humans: such as ideas, atmospheric agents, data, technologies, artificial intelligence.
The great challenge of our time, then, is the ability to know how to mediate, conciliate, compose, and build a more robust culture of peace, collaboration, and respect.
The great antidote to conflict, the real super power, is the ability to build and maintain good relationships. Scientists from around the world confirm that good relationships help people live longer, cope better with stress, have healthier habits and a greater resistance to disease.
In the year that Agrigento will be Capital of Italian Culture, the fourth edition of Countless Cities, Farm Cultural Park's Biennial of World Cities, intends to take inspiration from cities around the world to promote projects, strategies, and actions that can build a legacy of lasting “relationships of value” and trigger radical economic, social, and cultural transformations.
The fourth edition of Countless Cities intends to explore the following topics:
Culture Always
Culture as an engine for the development of human beings and a tool for change: to take care of and enhance common goods, to make existing rights real and effective, to recognize new ones, and to take people left behind by the hand.
Healthy Cities
The relationship between the urban environment and health: by promoting those international good practices that, with different approaches related to green areas, mobility, social cohesion, culture or sport, focus on improving the health of citizens.
Cities & Soft Power
An increasingly important role is being given to the concept of “soft power,” which involves not only cities but also companies, museums, universities, religious denominations and other institutions of civil society, to propose culture and values.
RING for Countless Cities
Starting this year, the fourth edition of the Biennale of the Cities of the World is enriched by a collaboration with Ring Beyond Borders through a research project titled "Mapping a Fractured World", coordinated by Carla Bartoli in collaboration with Frances Carlson, Beatrice Baldi, Ciganer Albeniz, Davide Russello, and Ines Billeaud. The project explores the dynamics of contemporary global conflicts—from wars between nations to ethnic tensions and civil unrest.
The pavilions curated by RING for this edition are:
The Gaza Genocide – One of the Most Severe Humanitarian and Moral Catastrophes of Our Time
Khartoum Pavilion – Climate, Chaos and Conflict: Political Instability in the Sahel
Kinshasa Pavilion – The Congo Wars: The Persistence of Ethnic Divisions and Violence
Haiti Pavilion – Forgotten Humanitarian Crisis: Stories of Resistance and Survival from a Forgotten Nation
Literature & Cities by Roberto Bruccoleri
In an exploration that follows the historical and literary traces left by works that have shaped their global imaginary, literature blends with interviews, research meets current events, and writing intertwines with travel—woven together by a fil rouge that seeks balance between the concepts of border, vision, and identity.
Six cities that rarely feature among travelers’ top destinations, yet offer a deep sense of authenticity to those who walk their streets in search of their truest soul. Three beautiful cities, still untouched by mass tourism. Three places where the traveler is still welcomed with curiosity and interest—not as yet another consumer of an endless pie.
Take this journey with us, confident you won’t be disappointed—and that afterwards, you’ll want to explore them in person, with the right book tucked under your arm.
Pavilions
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Varanasi: A Journey into the Infinite
Curated by Farm Cultural Park, with a photographic reportage by Andrea Marcheggiani and a video contribution by Salvatore Izzo, the exhibition will offer a visual and sensory journey through one of the world’s oldest and most mysterious cities.
Varanasi, also known as Benares, is a unique center of spirituality and culture, where the sacred and prayer mark the most important moments of the day and the life of all the faithful. Visitors will be guided through an immersive experience that unveils the city in its contrasts: from the lively narrow streets, to the temples, to the ghats along the Ganges River, and the sacred ceremonies and daily cremations. The exhibition invites reflection on the essence of a city that, as the title suggests, seems to escape the bounds of time and the limits of the finite.
The project is financed by the Sicilian Region and realized in collaboration with the Municipality of Agrigento, the Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park, the Sicilian Heritage Department of Agrigento, and the Municipality of Aragona.
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New Cities, built from scratch
Curated by Analogique and Farm Cultural Park, this exhibition for Agrigento Capitale 2025 is funded by the Sicilian Region and realized with the Municipality of Agrigento, the Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park, the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, and the Municipality of Aragona.
The cities featured offer visionary answers to today’s urban challenges—from Songdo’s smart technologies to the radical verticality of The Line in Saudi Arabia. Through videos, installations, and images, the Pavilion explores both the promises and critical issues of these urban utopias, questioning the true sustainability and inclusiveness of their development models.
Set inside a public building in Aragona left unfinished for thirty years, the exhibition prompts reflection on cities built from scratch: could they be the future—or are they at risk of becoming social and environmental dystopias? This is a rare chance to uncover the hidden sides of these bold urban visions and ask how we can create cities truly designed for people.
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The Gaza Genocide
The Gaza Genocide is an exhibition of denunciation and remembrance that, through photographs, audiovisual materials, testimonies, and analysis, documents one of the gravest humanitarian and moral catastrophes of our time.
With over 49,000 dead, 2 million displaced, and a generation deprived of education and homes, Gaza is the symbol of a genocide unfolding in real time, under the world’s gaze.
The exhibition offers a visual and sound journey into the daily life of a population denied basic human rights, and reflects on the broader geopolitical risks in the region.
It is not just an exhibition, but an act of cultural resistance and a call to not look away.
Dates: June 20, 2025 – May 30, 2026
Venue: Farm Cultural Park Mazzarino – Palazzo Tortorici, Corso Vittorio Emanuele 408
Curator: Carla Bartoli, President of RING
Scientific Curators: Una Ines and Davide RusselloRING Beyond Borders promotes cultural integration, migration justice, and peace through urban regeneration and spaces for migrant reception.
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… a day in South Korea
A Day in South Korea is an immersive journey through a land of contrasts, where ancient traditions meet rapid modernization. The Pavilion explores the cultural role of traditional villages amid South Korea’s economic rise, especially in Seoul and Busan, and examines how tradition and modernity intersect in cinema, architecture, and music.
A fluid, temporary space unfolds through mobile, floating, and inflatable structures. Visitors navigate this "city in motion" via projections, music, photography, and architecture under a fabric canopy suspended by ground-anchored inflatables.
Lanterns and glowing lights recall the fireflies of Korean villages, evoking memory and possibility. More than an exhibition, the Pavilion invites reflection on South Korea’s cultural and political tensions—a nation still seeking reconciliation.
Project team: Renzo Lecardane, Zeila Tesoriere, Paola La Scala, Inhee Lee, Jaehoon Chung, Yoonjeong Kim, Mladen Jadric, Silvia Serreli, Gianfranco Sanna, Giovanni Maria Biddau.
With support from: Pusan National University, University of Palermo, TU Vienna, Università di Sassari. -
Haiti Forgotten Humanitarian Crisis
In 2024, Haiti faces an unprecedented crisis: 5.5 million people need aid, over 1 million are displaced, and 4.4 million suffer severe food insecurity. Gang violence has halted hospitals, schools, and transport, disrupted education for over a million children, and caused a surge in sexual violence, especially against women and minors. Cholera spreads as healthcare collapses. Aid is blocked by insecurity, lack of funds, and weak governance. This exhibition gives voice to Haiti’s people and a crisis too often ignored.
Haiti: Forgotten Humanitarian Crisis
Stories of Resistance and Survival from a Forgotten NationJune 27, 2025 – May 30, 2026
Farm Cultural Park Favara – Sette Cortili, Farm XL
Curator: Carla Bartoli – RINGFeatured Work: Haiti: Words against Bullets by Charles Emptaz & Olivier Jobard (ARTE, 2024)
Design: Carla & Andrea Bartoli | Installations: La Bella team | Graphics: Lorenzo Romano
With support from the Italian Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Favara, and more. -
The Congo Wars
The Democratic Republic of Congo has faced decades of conflict driven by ethnic tensions and competition over natural resources. The Congo Wars, intensified by foreign interventions—particularly from Rwanda—left deep scars. The 1994 Rwandan genocide and the rise of M23 further fragmented North and South Kivu, worsening violence. Despite UN involvement and peace efforts, conflict persists. This exhibition explores how genocide and M23 fueled ethnic division, why peace remains elusive, and the state of current humanitarian interventions.
The Congo Wars
The Persistence of Ethnic Divisions and ViolenceJune 27, 2025 – May 30, 2026
Farm Cultural Park Favara – Sette Cortili, Farm XL
Curator: Carla Bartoli – RINGFeatured Work: Beni Files – Het Peloton, Congo 2017 – JourneymanTV
Design: Carla & Andrea Bartoli | Installations: La Bella team | Graphics: Lorenzo Romano
With support from the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Favara. -
“I will never leave my home ALIVE” Nazareth Pavilion
Within the Zionist settler-colonial project to create a Jewish state—where Jews were 3% of the population in 1917 and 30% by 1948 through illegal immigration under British rule—mass atrocities were inevitable. Over 500 Palestinian towns and villages were ethnically cleansed and 750,000 people displaced to enable a "pure democratic Jewish state." This is the Nakba.
Entire villages were erased, masked by pine forests to eliminate traces of Palestinian life. Only cacti remained—rooted witnesses. In Nazareth, under “Israeli occupation” control, the slow erasure of '48 Palestinians continues through hidden displacement. Architecture conceals this disappearance, as heritage homes are abandoned, stigmatized, or forgotten. Yet in this invisibility lies resistance. The Pavilion explores how Palestinian presence persists through spatial resistance, memory, and the enduring bond to home: to live is to stay. Curated by Razan Zoubi Zeidan.
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Medellin Pavilion
In the late 1990s, Medellín was on the brink of collapse: uncontrolled urbanization, poverty, violence, and inequality defined the city. Yet, nestled in a breathtaking Andean valley, Medellín began a remarkable transformation. Through strategic urban planning, architecture, and public policy, alongside academic collaboration, the city became a "laboratory of urbanism" focused on creating a city for life. This exhibition explores the catalytic projects that reshaped Medellín, highlighting its journey from violence and decay to renewal through public spaces, civic facilities, and social change.
Medellín, a Case Study
Topography of Life: Urban Transformation through Collective ProcessesJune 27, 2025 – May 30, 2026
Farm Cultural Park Favara – Sette Cortili, Farm XL
Curators: Giovanna Spera Velásquez, Luca Bullaro, Jorge Pérez Jaramillo -
Bordeaux Pavilion
The Bordeaux Pavilion investigates the relationship between the city and its river, the Garonne, which has always been a vital resource and a shared space between humans and non-humans. The project, the result of collaboration between the School of Architecture and Landscape and the Institute of Political Studies of Bordeaux, explores the river through memory, logistics, imagination, and sustainable future.
The pavilion project is the outcome of a collaboration between the Bordeaux School of Architecture and Landscape and the Institute of Political Studies of Bordeaux.