ARTDATE
November 12, 13, 14, 15, 2026
Bergamo
16th Edition – MAGIC

“…one can see in action—wherever humans have passed and delegated their activities to tools—a blocked unconscious, a hard unconscious: the technological unconscious.”
Franco Vaccari, *Photography and the Technological Unconscious*

The 16th edition of the ArtDate contemporary art festival, organized by The Blank, explores the concept of MAGIC.
Drawing on insights from thinkers across generations—from Marshall McLuhan to Franco Vaccari, from Vincenzo Susca to Domenico De Masi and Nadia Urbinati—it outlines a MAGIC of our time that ranges from the technological unconscious to the hypnotic allure of populist communication, and from creative idleness to the new communities and rituals of the global village.

The digital age has opened up a multisensory, intensely immersive cosmos: the era of ubiquity and connectivity has—thanks to new technologies—reactivated a form of magical shared perception.
What role does art play regarding the issues that traverse, affect, and define contemporary society?
What kind of well-being has progress bestowed upon us?
Are we possessed and steered by the very objects we believe we possess and control?