Bovisa al plurale: Voices, Spaces, Stories RUFA, Saint Louis, and SPD are bringing Milan to life. On September 13, 2026, Milan’s Bovisa district will be transformed into a “living archive.”
The event “Bovisa al plurale: voci, spazi, narrazioni”, promoted by the “Luca Rossi” Association for Education for Peace and Friendship among Peoples and by the PLENA Education group through RUFA, Saint Louis College of Music, will bring Piazza Schiavone and the surrounding area to life. Supported by Municipality 9 of the City of Milan, the initiative is conceived as an interdisciplinary cultural platform dedicated to urban regeneration and neighbourhood participation. Admission to all activities will be completely free
“The Wounds of Bovisa”
Far removed from the logic of purely aesthetic or commercial redevelopment, the project, conceived by Graphic Design lecturer Enrico Parisio, aims to reveal the area’s historical and social “wounds” in order to give new meaning to public space. The aim is to highlight Bovisa’s contradictions: the divisions created by the railway lines, abandoned industrial spaces and the invisible walls between different communities. Through the languages of art, design and music, the schools embrace the idea of the “commons”, encouraging grassroots cultural production.
BOVISA OCCUPY: The Wounds of urban space
An open-air exhibition by RUFA Graphic Design students.
Bovisa is not just a neighbourhood; it is a living archive of Milan’s contradictions. This symbolic research project does not seek to “beautify” the suburbs to make them appealing to the market, but instead chooses to courageously expose their wounds. Thirteen posters, installed in the square by students from the RUFA Exhibition Design program, illustrate the historical, social, and architectural fractures of the area: from its industrial past to the new invisible barriers between cultures, and on to the search for a third way based on the commons (the commons). “Bovisa Occupy” is an invitation to stop, look at the city’s scars and begin to give new meaning to public space together.
Coordinated by lecturers Enrico Parisio and Giuseppe Ragosta.
Bovisa 24: A Neighborhood Guerrilla Movie
A project curated by RUFA Cinema students: a full 24-hour marathon, from morning to evening, to conceive, write, shoot and edit a short film in the heart of Bovisa. The creative process will be completely visible, bringing both writing and editing directly before the eyes of those who live in the neighbourhood.
The teams will work according to specific rules:
– the short films must be between 3 and 5 minutes long;
– at least one local resident or shopkeeper must be involved in a clearly recognisable role in the film;
– filming must take place exclusively within the boundaries of Bovisa;
– each group must visibly include a specific “prop” linked to the identity of the neighbourhood, assigned at the beginning of the day.
Coordinated by lecturers Amos Bianchi and Alessio Calabresi.
Asphalt as a Canvas: Fernando Cobelo and the “Contemporary Madonnari”
What happens when art steps down from its pedestal and takes over the street? In Piazza Schiavone, the answer will take shape through the “Contemporary Madonnari” public art workshop. Under the guidance of internationally renowned illustrator Fernando Cobelo, together with students from RUFA’s GD-Comics and Illustration course, the neighbourhood pavement will be transformed into a huge collective open-air canvas.
The initiative is designed to be radically accessible and inclusive: participation will be open to all children and young people from Bovisa. Together, armed with chalk and colour, participants will bring a shared and ephemeral work of art to life. A symbolic and powerful gesture: not a monument intended to last forever, but a temporary creation that lives in the very moment it is made, colouring the “wounds” of urban space and encouraging intergenerational dialogue. A return to the origins of street art, demonstrating that public space belongs to those who live in it, move through it and, even for just one day, bring colour to it.
Coordinated by lectures Amos Bianchi.
