Project CIRCE

🏛️ CIRCE joins the Festival della Storia Ancona
On Sunday 6 September, join us for "Il patrimonio controverso" (The Controversial Heritage), a decolonial walk led by Claudio Bruschi. Festival della Storia Ancona

Every port city keeps a version of its own history in plain sight: in its monuments, its street names, the squares people cross every day. This walk revisits those sites in Ancona and asks a harder question: what do they commemorate, what do they leave unsaid, and how does a city reckon with its colonial past? It is the question at the centre of CIRCE, our research project on controversial cultural heritage in the ports of the Mediterranean and beyond.

The walk is part of the 8th Festival della Storia (this year's theme: "Follie"), held at the Mole Vanvitelliana from 3 to 6 September, and is organised in collaboration with the Università degli Studi di Macerata, Scienze della formazione, dei beni culturali e del turismo Università di Macerata Scienze della formazione, Beni Culturali e Turismo-UNIMC

📍 Piazza Roma (L'Edicola), Ancona
🗓️ Sunday 6 September 2026, 10.30
🔗 festivalstoriancona.it

🏛️ CIRCE joins the Festival della Storia Ancona

On Sunday 6 September, join us for "Il patrimonio controverso" (The Controversial Heritage), a decolonial walk led by Claudio Bruschi.

Every port city keeps a version of its own history in plain sight: in its monuments, its street names, the squares people cross every day. This walk revisits those sites in Ancona and asks a harder question: what do they commemorate, what do they leave unsaid, and how does a city reckon with its colonial past? It is the question at the centre of CIRCE, our research project on controversial cultural heritage in the ports of the Mediterranean and beyond.

The walk is part of the 8th Festival della Storia (this year's theme: "Follie"), held at the Mole Vanvitelliana from 3 to 6 September, and is organised in collaboration with the Unimc / Università degli Studi di Macerata, Scienze della formazione, dei beni culturali e del turismo / Unimc

📍 Piazza Roma (L'Edicola), Ancona
🗓️ Sunday 6 September 2026, 10.30
🔗 festivalstoriancona.it

THIS IS NOT A PHOTO DUMP! — vol. II in Macerata & Marche📍 · 20–22 July 2026 · week two

During the first week, we read the Marche's uncomfortable art and architecture. On week two, we turned the lens on ourselves — the people, the research and the community behind CIRCE, here's the short recap of it...

👇👇

We began the week on Monday, 20th of July, with a focus group with African and Afro-descendant community in Macerata on Unimc / Università degli Studi di Macerata. A project about who gets written out of the picture has to start by listening to the people living it — so that is where the second week began.

At Incontri dal direttore (Tue 21 July), CIRCE members presented the research we carried out in Tunis during previous months, both from UNIMC and Mdinti-مدينتي, and what those archives add to the story we had been tracing across the Marche.

The next day (Wed 22 July) we were participating on networking pitch event hosted by our CIRCE partner HULU Split, online and in person at once. We closed the day raising a glass to twenty years of the Scienze della formazione, dei beni culturali e del turismo / Unimc

Two weeks, one question — who does society choose to remember, and who does it leave out? The fieldwork is done; the questions aren't.

🇪🇺 Funded by the European Union.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA).

📍 Macerata & the Marche · 11–18 July 2026 ·
What does a society choose to remember in its churches, museums and streets — and what does it quietly leave out? We had two weeks in the Marche to find out — here's the recap of the first week. 👉

It began in Urbino (Sat 11 July), before Paolo Uccello's "Miracle of the Profaned Host" — an anti-Jewish legend staged as devotion.

Back in Macerata (Mon 13 July) we mapped the city with the people who live it, then went to Petriolo, where Mariano showed us paintings by De Magistris and Durante Nobili: the Holy League's victory at Lepanto, with Ottoman captives — slaves — beneath the triumph.

We pulled the same thread to Grottammare (Tue 14 July), to the Church of Pope Saint Pius V, with Mattia Guidetti — who, later that day back in UNIMC Università di Macerata gave a talk on the captured Ottoman banners, taken in battle and still kept in some Marche churches.
In Senigallia (Wed 15 July), Mr. Remo Morpurgo, of the city's Jewish community, traced its fate across the centuries through the former ghetto and the synagogue. Then Mauro Saracco (Thu 16 July) read Macerata's fascist architecture with us, before we took to the streets for a decolonial walk — and closed the week.

Contested history isn't far away — it's on the wall of the church next door, the next door's building. 👇

To be continued…

CIRCE representatives from Unimc / Università degli Studi di Macerata Scienze della formazione, Beni Culturali e Turismo-UNIMC, Pwani University of Mombasa Pwani University, Mdinti Mdinti-مدينتي
HULU Split hulu_split and University of Madrid have participated in these events.

Funded by the European Union🇪🇺 MSCA

📍 Macerata & the Marche · 11–18 July 2026 ·

What does a society choose to remember in its churches, museums and streets — and what does it quietly leave out? We had two weeks in the Marche to find out — here's the recap of the first week. 👉

It began in Urbino (Sat 11 July), before Paolo Uccello's "Miracle of the Profaned Host" — an anti-Jewish legend staged as devotion.

Back in Macerata (Mon 13 July) we mapped the city with the people who live it, then went to Petriolo, where Mariano showed us paintings by De Magistris and Durante Nobili: the Holy League's victory at Lepanto, with Ottoman captives — slaves — beneath the triumph.

We pulled the same thread to Grottammare (Tue 14 July), to the Church of Pope Saint Pius V, with Mattia Guidetti — who, later that day back in Unimc / Università degli Studi di Macerata, gave a talk on the captured Ottoman banners, taken in battle and still kept in some Marche churches.


In Senigallia (Wed 15 July), Mr. Remo Morpurgo, of the city's Jewish community, traced its fate across the centuries through the former ghetto and the synagogue. Then Mauro Saracco (Thu 16 July) read Macerata's fascist architecture with us, before we took to the streets for a decolonial walk — and closed the week.

Contested history isn't far away — it's on the wall of the church next door, the next door's building. 👇

To be continued…

CIRCE representatives from Unimc / Università degli Studi di Macerata, Pwani University of Mombasa, Mdinti-مدينتي
HULU Split and University of Madrid have participated in these events.

Funded by the European Union🇪🇺

𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 — 𝐇𝐔𝐋𝐔-𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭 & 𝐂𝐈𝐑𝐂𝐄
As part of our 𝐂𝐈𝐑𝐂𝐄 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions), HULU-Split invites you to an afternoon celebrating Split's contemporary visual-arts scene — and to building new connections across the CIRCE partnership. hulu_split

📅 𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝟐𝟐 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 · 𝟏𝟕:𝟎𝟎–𝟏𝟖:𝟒𝟓 (𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐓)
📍 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝟖, 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐨 𝐋𝐮𝐢𝐠𝐢 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢, 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐚 — Università degli Studi di Macerata Scienze della formazione, Beni Culturali e Turismo-UNIMC

🔗 Join online — link in bio

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞
17:00 — 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐔𝐋𝐔-𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭 & 𝐞𝐱𝐡𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞 / 𝐀𝐫𝐭-𝐆𝐨 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞-𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 · Ivor Igrec
17:20 — 𝟒𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧 (𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒): 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 · Jasmina Šarić
17:35 — 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝟐𝟏𝟎: 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭 · Božo Kesić
17:50 — 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 & 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐙𝐨𝐣𝐚 𝐃𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐣𝐢ć 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐊𝐁𝐂 𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭 — 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 · Dalibor Prančević, PhD
18:05 — 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭-𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 · Nina Kuzmić & Josip Šurlin
18:30 — Q&A
(Ends approx. 18:45)

See you there — online or in Macerata 🎨

—

Expect a close look at how we work: our exhibitions and audience-development projects, the historic Split Salon, our Venice Biennial programme, and the REPER project — a partnership with the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences and Gallery Zoja Dumengjić with KBC Split. Plus two of our artists in conversation about their practice and our artist-led workshops.
More than presentations — it's an invitation to get to know one another and imagine projects we can build together.
The event is 𝐡𝐲𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝: join us in Macerata or online via Microsoft Teams.

FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION

📍 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶 𝗱𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲 — 𝟭𝟳𝘁𝗵 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
We are pleased to announce that next week we will have an interdisciplinary conversation on the department's ongoing research. This session focuses on 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗜𝗥𝗖𝗘 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁.

🗣️ Speakers: Filippo Pistocchi, Patrizia Dragoni, Rosita Deluigi, Giuseppe Capriotti, Imen Wanen, Firas Khlifi and Aziz Sanhaji.

📅 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟮𝟭 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 · 𝟰:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠
📍 Director's Office, 2nd floor — Polo Bertelli, University of Unimc / Università degli Studi di Macerata
For the department's academic community.

Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism — UniMC | 🇪🇺 Funded by the European Union

🏛️ 𝗦𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 | 𝗔 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗘𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗲𝗼-𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺: 𝗖𝗲𝘀𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝘇𝘇𝗮𝗻𝗶 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗮

Join us for an afternoon with 𝗠𝗮𝘂𝗿𝗼 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼 (𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗮) as he traces the architecture of Cesare Bazzani through the city — a journey between eclectic detail and monumental ambition, and a chance to look closely at heritage that still shapes how Macerata looks and feels today.

🗓️ 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟱 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆, 𝟰:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠
📍 Aula Rossa 1 / Polo Didattico Pantaleoni, Unimc / Università degli Studi di Macerata

Then, that same evening, walk the city with us:

🚶 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗮
🗓️ 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟱 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆, 𝟲:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠

Both events are part of the 𝗠𝗦𝗖𝗔 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗳𝗳 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗖𝗜𝗥𝗖𝗘 — InClusive valorIsation model foR Controversial cultural hEritage in the Mediterranean Harbours and beyond — exploring how we understand, question, and give value to contested heritage.
Free and open to all. We'd love to see you there! 👇

🇪🇺 Funded by the European Union · University of Macerata — Dept. of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism

𝗖𝗜𝗥𝗖𝗘 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗱: 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 🇪🇸

Throughout June, the CIRCE project brought together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars from the University of Macerata Unimc / Università degli Studi di Macerata , the University of Genoa Università di Genova , the University of Tunis Université de Tunis, Pwani University Pwani University , Approdi Approdi , and Mdinti Mdinti-مدينتي to explore controversial heritage in Spain.

The programme included a focus group at the Museo Nacional de Antropología, a decolonial walk in Toledo organised by UNED UNED and Toledo Islámica, and the first CIRCE national conference at the Museo de América and UNED.

𝘈 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 🌍

✳️ Local research and activation at Africa Nomads Art Space in Mombasa, Kenya, a moment to gather, exchange perspectives, and reimagine our past as a way of shaping a more conscious future.

—- Benjamin Livoi