ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF MADRID · SPAIN
Italofonia – Corale
Participatory site-specific installation
October 14, 2025
XXV Week of the Italian Language in the World
Approximately 1,500 original fragments
The installation
Presented at the Italian Cultural Institute of Madrid on the occasion of the XXV Week of the Italian Language in the World, Italofonia Corale is a participatory installation conceived by Gianluca Lattuada as an investigation into language, collective identity and the relationship between artistic creation and public space.
The project transformed the façade of the historic Palacio de Abrantes into a collective composition of words and colours, establishing a dialogue between the institution and the city surrounding it.
Rather than treating language exclusively as a means of communication, the installation approached it as a shared cultural experience: a structure through which individual memories, identities and relationships become part of a broader collective narrative.
From canvas to collective work
The installation originated from large original canvases that Lattuada deliberately fragmented into approximately 1,500 unique elements, each completed by hand with a word associated with Italian language and culture.
Fragmentation becomes a generative act. The original composition ceases to exist as an indivisible object and is transformed into a multiplicity of individual works, each retaining a material connection to the whole.
The project draws upon the tradition of Italian ex-voto walls, where individual offerings coexist within a collective expression of memory, gratitude and belonging. Reinterpreted in a contemporary context, this structure allows language and visual matter to operate together, transforming a collection of separate elements into a shared artistic presence.
The city as part of the artwork
Participation was fundamental to the conception of Italofonia Corale. Visitors were invited to select a word and take its corresponding fragment with them, extending the work beyond its original location.
This gesture challenges the idea of the artwork as a fixed and self-contained object. Its meaning develops through circulation, individual appropriation and the relationships established between participants and the words they choose.
More than 400 students from the Italian Cultural Institute’s language courses actively participated in the installation. Its presence on Calle Mayor also invited engagement from Madrid’s wider public, allowing the work to move beyond the institutional setting and become part of the city’s cultural life.
In this process, Italian emerges not simply as a language shared by its speakers, but as a space of cultural encounter, continually redefined through participation and exchange.
Institutional documentation
Italofonia Corale was presented by the Italian Cultural Institute of Madrid as part of the XXV Week of the Italian Language in the World, dedicated to the theme Italofonia: lingua oltre i confini.
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