23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition - Unknown Unknowns. An Introduction to Mysteries

Over 40 countries will be taking part in the 23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition Unknown Unknowns. An Introduction to Mysteries, with projects and works from a range of different disciplines, which question what we don’t know we don’t know. There will be great diversity in terms of themes, perspectives, contexts and sources, giving rise to a whole constellation of exhibitions, installations and special projects, involving all the spaces of Triennale.
In agreement with the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the 23rd International Exhibition will be held from July 15 to December 11, 2022, to ensure the broadest possible participation at an international level. Dimitri S. Kerkentzes, Secretary General of the BIE, commented: “As it takes place at a time when the future has never been more unpredictable, the 23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition will be an extraordinary new forum, pushing the boundaries in search of uncharted mysteries, new angles and unthinkable answers. With a theme that casts new perspectives over all that lies beyond the limits of our senses and knowledge, this edition of the International Exhibition will bring together countries from all over the world in a joint endeavour to reflect on the unknown.”
Stefano Boeri, President of Triennale Milano, states: “We are very happy with the participation requests we have received for the 23rd International Exhibition. The decision to postpone its opening to July has enabled us to increase the number of participating countries and to ensure a greater number of overseas visitors. At a dramatic moment such as the present one, we believe it is more important than ever to preserve and promote opportunities for dialogue between different countries, cultures, and peoples. This is indeed the aim of the 23rd International Exhibition: to create a space for debate in which curators, artists, designers, architects, scientists, school groups, and collectives from all around the world can meet and freely discuss how to extend the frontiers of our knowledge and reduce the grey areas that still extend across our planet.”
True to the tradition of the International Exhibitions, the 23rd edition includes the thematic exhibition curated by Ersilia Vaudo, astrophysicist and Chief Diversity Officer at the European Space Agency, and a section devoted to international participants, who have been invited under the auspices of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) through government channels.
Francis Kéré – the winner of the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most important international prize for architecture – will design the display installations in the common areas of Triennale and the installation Yesterday’s Tomorrow, which brings together the voices of Africa and its diaspora.
Together with the thematic display, the 23rd International Exhibition will also host another two major exhibitions – one conceived together with theFondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and the other curated by Marco Sammicheli, Director of Triennale’s Museo del Design Italiano. There will also be a series of special installations and projects involving the art historians Giovanni Agosti and Jacopo Stoppa, the musician and writer Francesco Bianconi, the philosopher Emanuele Coccia, who will write the introduction and edit the catalogue of the 23rd Exhibition, the artist and Grand Invité of Triennale 2021-2024 Romeo Castellucci, the professor at Politecnico di Milano University Ingrid Paoletti, and a cinematographic work by the master of architecture and  design Andrea Branzi. Triennale has commissioned them to create projects that will be an integral part of the event.
The collective nature of the 23rd International Exhibition has also been made possible by the Advisory Board, which is composed of Hervé Chandès, General Artistic Director, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain; Emanuele Coccia, philosopher and professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Joseph Grima, curator, architect and author; Sarah Ichioka, urban planner, curator and author; Mariana Siracusa, designer and researcher; and Weng Ling, curator and founder of Arts Innovation.

Vai alla guida d'arte di Milan