May 22–23, 2026 Castromediano Museum (Lecce) | Il Campo dei Giganti (Boncore, Nardò)

On May 22 and 23, 2026, two days will be dedicated to the act of mapping, featuring studies, workshops, and community meetings. The event aims to foster exchange between art and pedagogy, museums and hybrid cultural spaces, and conservation and digital innovation.

This transdisciplinary forum is part of the M.A.P. Project (Mapping, Awareness, Participation), an Erasmus Plus VET (Vocational Education and Training) initiative promoted by the Il Campo dei Giganti Cultural Association and Petra Patrimonia Cooperative (France). It is held under the Collaboration Pact with the Polo Bibliomuseale – Castromediano Museum and the Lacanian Studies Laboratory of the Department of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Salento.

Premise

Artistic and cultural sites have long been called upon to redefine their educational functions and their social and environmental impact. For pedagogical researchers, these sites offer valuable opportunities to experiment with transversal and transdisciplinary projects through the “artistic device,” questioning methodologies of “knowledge-making” and citizenship education.

The hybridization of methodologies and practices is evident in contemporary art spaces – from seeking new ways to relate to communities to the physical and symbolic regeneration of places –moving beyond the logic of cultural marketing. These contemporary hybrid forms can create a generative ground for dialogue: pedagogical research meets art spaces as crucial pieces of a territorial policy system that acts on citizenship and the social imaginary, activating opportunities for community participation and collaboration. The complexity of these proposals requires an ecological perspective that transcends the compartmentalization of knowledge and is rooted in the processes of subjectivation occurring within collectives.

Theoretically, the theme of urban and social regeneration stems from the “symbolic disinvestment” (Žižek, 2017) present in “global contemporary subjectivation” – the very process leading to the abandonment of places and bonds in the face of widespread fatalistic disenchantment. De Martino’s concept of “cultural apocalypse” is invoked on a symbolic level to rethink the stability of the relationship between the subject and cultural institutions.

The link proposed by this forum – both theoretically and through the investigation of practices –is between cultural heritage education and affectivity, core constructs of pedagogical research. Within this link lie the processes activated in “communities of desire,” in an exchange that values both ethical and aesthetic instances – symbolic processes as much as aesthetic products – capable of nourishing the imaginary and renewing the symbolic bond between social landscapes.

Contexts

This exchange originates from a specific “cultural apocalypse” – and not merely a phytosanitary one: the Xylella epidemic in Salento. It dialogues with the community of practice and research at Il Campo dei Giganti. Since 2020, the Campo has used community art as a tool to renew participatory desire, creating a new ecosystem of artists, local communities, and researchers. One output of the M.A.P. project is the prototype of a new cartography of desire: a cross-media digital and artistic mapping where each tree is brought back to life as a node of content, and where artists play a crucial role as activators of community and the transmutation of trauma.

The ecomuseum perspective, an active tool for change within communities, has developed innovative languages through the interaction between qualified professionals, institutions, the third sector, and citizens.

These themes will be explored at the Castromediano Museum and the Polo Bibliomuseale of Lecce on May 22. This public forum will offer a chance to engage with local museums and libraries as true, ever-changing social landscapes driven by renewed forms of participation. This applies equally to archives—such as the Carmelo Bene Archives and LAFLIS – Eugenio Barba Archive at the Bernardini Library – where conservation is paired with constant activation, promoting contemporary research on these legacies. These are spaces where displays and architecture enter a simultaneous dialogue with the environment, combining a focus on biodiversity with interculturality (e.g., the upcoming opening of the CNR DemoCenter).

Focus: Maps as…

• Symbolic spaces that regenerate community bonds, bridging memory and the future.
• Living archives and collective imaginaries, yielding both aesthetic and political results.
• Devices for memory and the reconstruction of meaning.
• Pedagogical acts that renew the bond between generations.
• Tools for social memory, making a collective’s identity layers visible and translating them into shared forms.
• Territories/landscapes viewed not as mere physical surfaces, but as cultural constructions.
• Devices of subjection/subjectivation.
• Tools of symbolic, relational, and participatory value from a transdisciplinary perspective.
• Inner geographies that transform geographical data into aesthetic and political experiences.

Guests, Program, Participation

Friday, May 22

Castromediano Museum, Lecce | 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Institutional Greetings:

Luigi De Luca, Director of the Polo Bibliomuseale of Lecce.

Mariano Longo, Director of the Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Salento.

Section One: Presentations

Chiara Agagiù, Ph.D., Research Fellow (M-PED/01), Adjunct Professor of Intercultural Pedagogy, Unisalento (Coordinator).

Mimmo Pesare, Associate Professor of General and Social Pedagogy, Director of the Lacanian Studies Laboratory – DISUS, Unisalento.

Luigi De Luca, Director of the Castromediano Museum and Polo Bibliomuseale of Lecce.

Anna Lucia Tempesta, Director of the Archaeological Section and Head of Education, Castromediano Museum.

Gaël Rennesson, Project Manager, Petra Patrimonia (Corsica).

Invited Speakers:

• Embodied Education/Museums: Maria D’Ambrosio, Full Professor of General and Social Pedagogy at Suor Orsola Benincasa University and Director of the “Embodied Education” Research Group, Morra Foundation, Naples.
• Heritage Education: Marianna Di Rosa, Ph.D., President of AIEM (Italian Association of Museum Educators).
• Heritage Education & History: Stefano Oliviero, Associate Professor of History of Pedagogy and Education and Coordinator of the Master’s program “Educating on Cultural Heritage through History and Memory” – FORLILPSI, University of Florence.
• Mapping for Ecomuseums: Piergiuseppe Ellerani, Full Professor of Didactics and Special Pedagogy – Alma Mater Studiorum, Bologna.
• Territorial/Landscape Mapping: Claudio Sopranzetti, Anthropologist, Associate Professor, University of Oxford.

Section Two: Practices

• Call for Participants: Submit your proposal for the “Practices” section by May 17, 2026.

Saturday, May 23

Il Campo dei Giganti (Boncore, Nardò) | 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

A day of workshops on affective mapping practices—digital, physical, and narrative—within the context of Il Campo dei Giganti, reserved for cultural operators. Participants (Italy, France) will receive training materials (toolkits, training modules) developed with Petra Patrimonia Cooperative (France).

• To propose a workshop: Submit proposal by May 17, 2026.
• Further information: ilcampodeigiganti@gmail.com
• Registration: Participation is free, but places are limited. Deadline: May 17.

Il Campo dei Giganti activities are held under the Collaboration Pact with the Polo Bibliomuseale of Lecce (2026-2029)

Collaborative Network:

Demostene Centro Studi

Studio Zero

Associazione Petrolio

Associazione Ser.Tessuto

Agricola Q

Vini Vaganti

Press & Info: ilcampodeigiganti@gmail.com

Coordination: chiara.agagiu@unisalento.it