SOL INVICTUS: Sounds and performances for the winter solstice

Once again this year, Istituto Svizzero celebrates the winter solstice with a programme of performances and live sets in Milano, Palermo, and Roma.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice coincides with the longest night of the year. For thousands of years, this astronomical event has been celebrated by pagan and non-pagan cultures alike, who welcomed the gradual return of longer days as a symbolic passage from darkness to light. Sol Invictus situates itself within this long history of shared rituals and ceremonies, paying homage to the longest nights of the year with a programme of performances, music, and sonic experimentation unfolding across the three Italian cities where the Istituto Svizzero is active. The title draws on the Roman legacy of Sol Invictus (“the unconquered sun”) and reinterprets it through new gestures, practices, and memories, transforming it into a shared tradition to be re-imagined together.

The evenings are organized in collaboration with BASE Milano, Fondazione Sant’Elia, and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome

Curated by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti (Head Curator Istituto Svizzero)