Free admission | RUFA Campus – Via Libetta 7, Rome | Registration required for free workshops only.
SPACE FOR CREATIVE CONNECTION
In 2026, art, design and creativity are living languages, designed to engage constantly with the world around us. They are not meant to remain confined within the classrooms of an academy, but to be experienced, explored and shared with people.
This is the essence of RUFA Culture Fest: a moment of pure artistic sharing.
From 15 to 19 June 2026, RUFA opens the doors of Campus Libetta to the public with RUFA Culture Fest: five days of exhibitions, talks and workshops dedicated to the Academy’s cultural production.
RUFA Culture Fest is an invitation to the city to step directly into the heart of the creative process. A valuable opportunity to discover up close the energy and visions of young talents through exhibitions, immersive installations, performances and prototypes, experiencing first-hand the ideas that will shape the art of tomorrow. For five days, the campus will become a place for enjoying special events conceived and created by students with the support of RUFA lecturers. A collective narrative spanning art, design, cinema, fashion, photography, game and contemporary languages, conveying to the public the creative energy that animates the Academy every day.
A central element of the festival will be interdisciplinarity, a founding value of RUFA’s educational approach and a direct reflection of the constant creative cross-pollination between the Academy’s different departments. Fashion, game, design, comics, visual arts and multimedia design intertwine: fashion dialogues with comics and performance, game translates design into virtual and augmented environments, while multimedia languages open up new possibilities for experience and storytelling. RUFA Culture Fest thus becomes a space in which the boundaries between practices and disciplines intersect, generating new creative and design possibilities.
For students, the festival also represents an important opportunity for professional and educational growth: from design to production, through to communication and the exhibition of works, each project becomes a concrete experience of dialogue with the public and with the contemporary cultural system.
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME ↓
PROJECTS ON SHOW
GAME + DESIGN: Augmented Exhibition
A study on the dialogue between physical and digital design, in which new technologies amplify expressive possibilities. Multimedia and Game Art designers translate the vision of Design into a three-dimensional and interactive language.
VR Experience – Virtual Exhibit
VR Experience (Virtual Exhibit): Allows visitors to explore an immersive digital environment in 360° virtual reality of an exhibition designed within the RUFA campus in Via Libetta. The virtual exhibition also includes Christopher Herwig’s photographic reportage on bus stops in the former Soviet Union.
AR Experience – AtHand
AR Experience (AtHand): An Augmented Reality application dedicated to the furnishings prototyped for the Salone del Mobile. It acts as an interactive configurator, allowing users to place and view the design projects in real time within any real physical environment.
Multimedia projects curated by Diletta Maria Nannini and Samuele Palmalupi.
Designers: Allegra Aghemo, Luca Campioni, Alessio Ciullo, Valerio Londei, Elisa D’Antonio, Victoria Heras, Zhouhui Jiang, Chiara Leonetti, Alara Celayir, Elisa Tiberi, Giulia Barbaliscia, Letizia Domilici, Mika Back, Yasmin Rafizadeh.
Coordinated by lecturers Raffaele Vella, Alessandro Ciancio, Paolo Parea and Giulio Pernice.
GRAPHIC DESIGN: VISIONS OF TOMORROW
A visual reflection on the impact of Artificial Intelligence, curated and developed by international graphic designers as part of the first-year Computer Graphics course. The project explores possible visions of the future and reflects on how technology and artificial intelligence are gradually transforming our lives and creative practices.
Using AI tools integrated into Adobe Photoshop, the designers created dystopian future scenarios by reworking existing images and developing visual reflections on the relationship between nature, technology and imagination.
These works were collected and published in the imAIgine magazine and shared through its Instagram page: the first issue was dedicated to the Environment, while the second focused on Bodies of the Future.
Graphic designers: Eva Abbas, Darina Averyanova, Athinà Avgitidou, Doris Begler, Benedicte Børtveit, Büşra Büyükyazı, Evgeniia Bychkova, Navin Joseph, Inna Kulynych, Aiya Mukazhanova, Malak Naamne, Cansu Nilüfer Zincir, Martyna Przybylak, Sana Rasouli, Zhaniya Sailaubay, Pavlo Tverdokhlib, Aleksandra Volodina, Cansu Eylul Yesilcimen, Selin Yıldız.
Coordinated by lecturers Roberta De Cristofaro and Francesco Paolo Incantalupo.
VISUAL AND INNOVATION DESIGN: TRACKS OF FREEDOM – MICRO-MACRO
An immersive exhibition route bringing together the design concepts developed during an intensive educational experience in the American metropolis, under the guidance of lecturers Emanuele Cappelli and Mario Rullo. The visual designers of the MA programme in Visual and Innovation Design transformed the stimuli and dialogue with New York’s cultural scene into original visual narratives, demonstrating the great power of experiential learning.
Design areas explored: brand identity, advertising, unconventional communication, motion graphics, interaction and multimedia design, photography and video.
Visual designers on show: Beatrice Cappi, Luca Carbone, Annamaria De Rosa, Flaminia Filigi, Miriam Lamorte, Livia Mercogliano, Gabriele Nassuato, Giorgia Natale, Eugenio Poli, Sara Ruffoni, Saverio Tozzi, Agnese Troncone, Alessandro Zingone.
Coordinated by lecturers Emanuele Cappelli and Mario Rullo.
FASHION + COMICS + SET DESIGN: RE-CIRCULAR FASHION ROMA
A transdisciplinary project dedicated to sustainable fashion and the circular economy, involving the entire three-year programme in Sustainable Fashion Design, Set Design, GD-Comics and Illustration, and the Balletto di Roma.
Unique-form
A photographic exhibition by first-year photographers on the theme of standardisation and originality, starting from the personalisation of an iconic pattern by Yohji Yamamoto. The interpretative key of each work is an untranslatable word, chosen individually, which has no equivalent in other languages.
The exhibition layout develops in two complementary parts: a shared section, in which all the suits are hung in a row, evoking a sense of belonging to a recognisable group — almost a small army — and a section dedicated to individual originality, with panels suspended by nylon thread showing, on one side, a creative photo collage and, on the other, the design process with keyword and moodboard.
Fashion Designers: Luca Gandini, Elisa Seguiti, Emin Can Ari, Gul Eylul Karakoc, Milana Kim Arturovna, Anna Melig, Emma Barbetta, Paolo Armando Tota, Gianluca Gandini, Helene Chomakdhidze.
Coordinated by lecturers Cinzia Capparelli and Vincenzo Verdesca.
Cambio di Trama – ReWave the Future
An original showcase born from the creative encounter between fashion and comics, displaying garments and comic strips on possible futures of sustainability. The showcase presents the process in its different phases: the comic strip through its various design stages, a photo shoot created by fashion designers featuring their own garments, and the physical display of the garments on cardboard silhouettes.
Fashion Designers: Ege Yucel, Tara Kartal, Aruzhan Uryspayeva, Diana Nikolayeva, Medina Sagayeva, Anna Monta Zalmane, Isabel Carrio, Jules Hoornaert, Khloé Raiko Oreto, Silvia Storari, Sooyeon Cho, Ilaria Petrazzi, Valerio Truci, Daiana Fierro, Sara Gianforte, Giulia Mungo.
Graphic Designers: Adami Francesco, Giulia Alessandroni, Domenico Alfano, Martina Andreis, Boccoli, Sara Cardone, Angelica Cavicchioli, Giulia Cecchini, Angelo Cirigliano, Tommaso De Nardo, Elisa Faè, Valerio Fogli, Maria Furlotti, Brando Giannotti, Giulia Locci, Tommaso Mancini, Alessio Mignogna, Leonardo Pace, Alessandro Pascucci, Elisa Pierro, Ellis Schilling, Giulio Tavormina, Amelie Chauvin.
Coordinated by lecturers Daniele Bonomo, Daniela Candeloro, Leonardo Valentini, Marta Frittelloni.
Buio Pesto
An immersive theatre-dance with balletto di Roma performance celebrating the aesthetics and culture of clubbing, staging a fragmented movement across three locations on campus. Third-year designers conceived their costumes as microcosms that converge and blend during the performance.
Fashion Designers: Antonio Tedeschi, Aiza Baiyshbekova, Margherita Beritognolo, Ilenia Genchi, Francesco Caruccio, Giulia De Luca, Rosita Pignataro, Gabriele Salzone, Mattia Siciliano, Erika Tripoli, Sara Venturi Visconti, Lourdes Alonso Pérez-Pēnas.
Creative Director Simone Botte. Con il coordinamento del docenti Gianluca Lera, Aleksandra Filipovitch, Maria Chiara Castelli. Styling Andrea Mennella.
Circular Fashion. Possible Scenarios.
Framing the exhibitions, a true festival atmosphere comes to life, designed to engage visitors. Among the scheduled events is the talk “Circular Fashion: Possible Scenarios”, organised by Guenda Cermel and Marco Guarna, and moderated by Valeria Oppenheimer. The event will be structured around three thematic sofas, designed to explore the focus areas of textiles, design and innovation in a dynamic and welcoming format.
To complete the Fashion world, the same day will also feature a free workshop to create recycled mini shoppers, a workstation by siamounmagazine,, an opening DJ set by Banco 57 and a live concert to close the event of Veilver.
Part of the day’s environmental impact will be offset through Sylva’s reforestation activities.
Concept and project management by the coordinator of BA Sustainable Fashion Design, Guenda Cermel. Event visual identity curated by the students of BA Graphic Design – Comics and Illustration course, with the supervizion of the lecturer Claudio Spuri.
We would like to thank ‘Siamo un magazine’ for their support as a media partner.
MULTIMEDIA DESIGN AND CREATIVE AI: COPPELIA RE_FRAMED
In collaboration with the Balletto di Roma and the director Caterina Crescini, Multimedia Design and Creative AI designers reinterpreted the masterpiece Coppélia, transforming it into an immersive digital experience. Moving beyond the frontal perspective of the classical stage, the exhibition offers visitors unprecedented viewpoints and innovative modes of experience. At the centre of the research is the film direction of Caterina Crescini, who documented the production throughout its entire development; working retrospectively on this footage, the designers brought six unreleased works to life. Viewers are invited to move through visual fragments, close-up perspectives and multimedia resonances, becoming active participants in a process of choreographic rewriting. Dance leaves the theatre to become an immersive experience, offering the public the opportunity to choose how, from where and through which lens to experience the magic of Coppelia.
6 refractions beyond the stage
Das Unheimliche by Rachele Cominella: an installation featuring a robotic doll to explore the Freudian uncanny and the relationship between the living and the artificial.
Il suono del movimento by Marta Zorzan: an exploration of the dancer’s heartbeat and inner movement.
Morphic Resonance by Cor Langerak: a kinetic installation with motorised pendulums that challenges the precision of the machine and the imperfection of perception.
Vector field by Angela D’Onghia: an investigation of movement as a force capable of generating and orienting the architecture of space.
Still there? by Simona Vacca: an interactive exploration of contact and adaptation between a living body and an artificial one.
Aletheia by Lorenzo Tomassucci: an immersive visual installation that translates into visual form the tension held in the moment before a metamorphosis.
Coordinated by lecturers Francesca Gollo and Emanuele Tarducci.
Film footage of Coppelia by Caterina Crescini
VISUAL ARTS: TRICKSTERS
An exhibition revolving around the archetype of the Trickster, the figure who destabilises and plays with rules in order to open new possibilities through irony and disobedience. The works by RUFA Visual Arts artists explore the body, identity, representation and language as mobile and unstable territories, capable of generating perceptual and critical shifts. In a time marked by increasingly rigid normative systems, the Trickster becomes a necessary figure: crossing boundaries, altering hierarchies and imagining new forms of existence, relationship and resistance.
The Major Arcana
The collection of the 22 Major Arcana stems from a project developed in the Illustration course, led by lecturers Alida Massari and Lucia Sforza. The artists randomly drew a card to reinterpret. Through collage, printmaking and graphic and pictorial interventions, each Arcana was transformed into a unique image, built from textures obtained using different materials such as fabrics, plastics and papers. The project features the participation of Gabriella Vélez Diaz, Pilar Gonzalez, Hannah Saunders, Alessandro Pagnani, Dorin Mogda, Chiara Cernieri, Andrea Francesca Penna, Juan Benitez Castagnino, Adriano Giustiniani, Raquel Calvoz Cordon, Erica Wang, Michelle Hyland, Ines Albanesi, Marta Di Florio, Heather Roach, Giulia Pia Inglese, Chiara Florido, Lise Lotte Sauer, Esztella Rostasi, Eva Bottoni, Adam Artis Derums, Ilaria Fortunato and Liwen Zang.
Imaginary Records
“Imaginary Records” stems from the idea of creating the visual identity of imaginary bands through vinyl covers made with painting, collage, photography and mixed media. The works evoke an ideal record shop, where covers became visual experiences capable of narrating and anticipating the music. The project aims to recover that direct relationship between image, music and visual memory. The pictorial installation was created by the artists of the three-year Painting programme.
Painting, engraving, sculpture and installations, video
The School of Sculpture presents a selection of installations and sculptures set up in the outdoor spaces, in an open route between matter, form and experimentation, created by the artists: Stevie Smylie, Carmen Palacios, Raquel Nache Lopez, Lorenzo Giorgio, Ana Carolina Duque Fung, Emily Buchner, Ana Purecel.
Visitors will be able to admire a pictorial polyptych, born from the experiments of the Techniques and Technology of Painting course. Alongside it is a selection of engraved works based on pictorial works by artists from the Visual Arts department. In many works, the presence of international artists emerges, in whom it is possible to recognise a strong connection with their cultural roots, identities and places of origin, transformed into contemporary visual languages and narratives.
The space also hosts audiovisual works with a strong emotional and immersive impact:
Impressione by Alisa Mattia: a video work that viscerally explores the flow of time and the passage of the “here and now”. Through the image of a dense fog that invades and then leaves the space, and through the use of an analogue aesthetic and sound, the artist gives form to those deep emotions that remain stuck to us. A visual journey that conveys the fascination, and at times the torment, of a past that continues to resonate in our present;
3m 42 cm by Simone Mostaccioli: an evocative installation that investigates the fragile distance between the idealisation of our desires and the raw truth of reality. The artist uses two polystyrene panels to define an exact vertical space of 3 metres and 42 centimetres. By throwing upwards disassembled Staedtler pens soaked in ink, the work records physical traces of rises and falls: the upward thrust represents aspiration, dreams and idealised relationships, while the descent to the ground embodies the necessary and inevitable encounter with the concreteness of our existential path.
Coordinated by lecturers Marta Jovanovic, Davide Dormino, Fabrizio dell’Arno, Simone Cametti, Andrea Aquilanti, Caterina Silva, Gianna Bentivenga, Devin Kovach, Guido D’Angelo.
CINEMA + FILM ARTS + PHOTOGRAPHY AND AUDIOVISUAL: RUFA ON SCREEN WINNERS
The festival also celebrates RUFA’s cinematic talent, giving centre stage to the winning works from the latest RUFA ON SCREEN showcase held at the Nuovo Cinema Aquila. An opportunity to discover the short films, documentaries, and visual experiments by the Academy’s young filmmakers, supported and awarded by a prestigious network of partners from the audiovisual industry.
Here are the young creators and the winning works of this edition:
Pioggia di marzo by Giacomo Salvatelli (Distribution prize by Esen Studios and Audience Award)
Una nuova famiglia by Serena Lazzaro (Distribution prize Esen Studios)
Cane di mannara by Baldassare Caradonna (Distribution prize Sayonara Film)
Stage of Flesh by Guibert Najarian (Distribution prize Lers Film)
La pistola di Čechov by Eleonora Maiolino (Visibility prize Rai Cinema Channel)
All’ultimo si contano le pecore by Swami Camilli (Innovation prize SCAI Comunicazione)
Piccolo mondo by Laura Balestieri, Dir. di Produzione Isabel Simonetti (Production prize One More Pictures)
Nadir by Michele Baldi (Prize JP Melville – Photography & Audiovisual)
TALK
LOG-OUT Four Comics to Escape… Creatively!
On 16 June, LOG-OUT will be presented: a comic book born from the valuable encounter between participants in a writing workshop, inmates at the Casa di Reclusione di Roma Rebibbia, and graphic designe from RUFA’s Graphic Design – Comics and Illustration course.
Starting from the original story idea Amore buio by Matteo Agliardi, four collectively written and illustrated stories were created: Patto al buio, Quando il buio chiama, Amore Insipido and Click la tua nuova vita. The project was created by a very large group of Graphic designers from the courses Creative Writing 2, Comic Art 2 and Elements of Editorial Graphics, with photographs by Aleksander Musa and layout by Irene Parrotta.
The authors
“Patto al buio”
Script: Francesco Adami, Sara Cardone, Maria Furlotti, Alessio Mignogna, Giulia Locci
Drawings: Francesca Rocchi, Lorenzo Luccioni, Carlo Sgriccia, Alessio Bagagli Bugatella, Devid Di Castro.
“Quando il buio chiama”
Script: Elisa Faè, Tommaso Mancini, Angelo Cirigliano, Angelica
Cavicchioli, Valerio Fogli
Drawings: Sara Martina, Leonardo Mancarella, Oriana Bandach Mena, Aleksander Musa, Asia Emanuelli.
“Amore Insipido”
Script: Giulia Cecchini, Alessandro Pascucci, Brando Giannotti, Elisa Pierro, Giulio Taormina, Leonardo Pace
Drawings: Lavinia Mancini, Thea Manneschi, Zeynep Oz, Aurora Ingegneri, Claudia Consales, Leonardo Codispoti.
“Click, la tua nuova vita”
Script: Giulia Alessandroni, Martina Andreis, Domenico Alfano, Aida
Boccoli, Tommaso de Nardo.
Drawings: Irene Parrotta, Giorgia Sorbo, Jiamian Hou, Sara Calvano, Nicoleta
Naval, Giacomo Virdis.
Coordinated by lecturers Claudio Spuri, Luigi Iacobelli, Giulio Antonio Gualtieri, Emilio Lecce.
HOW ARTISTS CREATE: THE HIDDEN STRUCTURE OF VISUAL IMAGINATION
On 18 June, the Academy will host the international seminar by Prof. Maria Kozhevnikov, a neuroscientist affiliated with the National University of Singapore and Harvard Medical School. The talk will present to the public the results of a scientific project involving over 500 RUFA students.
The research demonstrates how visualisation abilities are structured and specific to each artistic field, offering a concrete map of visual imagination and bringing together creative education and neuroscientific research.
Curated by René Angeramo, RUFA Head of Psychological Counselling, with the participation of Maria Kozhevnikov.
WORKSHOPS: shared experiences with PUNTO CLUB
The festival is not only something to observe, but something to experience first-hand. In collaboration with PUNTO CLUB — a vibrant organisation created with the mission of bringing people together, building community and creating emotions and shared experiences without stress — RUFA Culture Fest offers two workshops open to the public. An opportunity to explore one’s own wellbeing and creativity.
Sound Bath – The Vibrations of the Soul
When: Monday 15 June, from 19:00 (Limited places: 30)
Guided by qualified instructors, participants will be able to immerse themselves in a total and relaxing experience. The harmonic frequencies of Tibetan singing bowls and gongs will guide the listener into a deep meditative state, encouraging the release of all tension. A true inner journey to rediscover the wellbeing of the soul through the power of vibrations.
Lino Cut – Print yourself
When: Thursday 18 June, from 19:00 (Limited places: 20)
A creative workshop open to everyone, designed to rediscover the pleasure and power of manual skills. Under the guidance of PUNTO CLUB, each participant will be able to learn the art of linocut to create one or more customised ink stamps. The symbol created can then be printed on paper and adapted into bookmarks, postcards or business cards: a pure creative act to imprint and express one’s identity.
CLOSING PARTY: TRIBUTE TO CLAUDIO COCCOLUTO AND THE GOA CLUB
On 19 June, from 18:00, an urban closing event will take place in Via Giuseppe Libetta, open to citizens and completely free of charge, to celebrate the historic legacy of the Goa Club — the heart of Rome’s musical avant-garde for over twenty-six years — and to remember, five years after his passing, Claudio Coccoluto, an undisputed master of the international electronic scene.
Strongly championed by Alessandro Mongelli, the event is born from the synergy between RUFA — which today stands in the former spaces of the historic club —, Municipio Roma VIII, local associations and the historic venues of the street and district: Circolo degli Illuminati, Rashmon, Vinile, 45, Claudio’s son Gianmaria Coccoluto and GOA Club founder Giancarlino, with the aim of transforming the street into a space for free culture, shared memory and contemporary experimentation.
For the closing party, the festival will host an unmissable immersive performance curated by EchoCraft Collective, a multidisciplinary creative studio specialising in the creation of artistic performances, visual & multimedia design, and immersive and sensory experiences.
RUFA Culture Fest is an invitation to move through the Academy, be inspired by contemporary languages and experience the campus as an open, dynamic and constantly evolving place.
OPENING HOURS TO THE PUBLIC
Monday 15 June | 17:30 – 21:00
Tuesday 16 June | 17:30 – 20:00
Wednesday 17 June | 17:30 – 23:00
Thursday 18 June | 17:30 – 20:30
Friday 19 June | Tribute to Coccoluto from 18:00
RUFA Campus – Via Libetta 7, Roma