Questionnaire for the Biennale dello Stretto
To mark the upcoming Biennale dello Stretto, which will take place in Reggio Calabria and Messina from 18 September 2026, the MIC-HUB mobility research lab is putting out a questionnaire to collect testimonies which reflect the hidden soul of the region.
We are inviting responses from people whose experience of the Strait and its surrounding area is as a complex ecosystem of relationships and landscapes, rather than just a place of transit. Our focus is not only on experiences of crossing the Strait, but also on moving around the neighbouring areas along the coasts of Sicily and Calabria. We will examine how the means and timescales of traversing this space have changed over time, influencing its character.
The key topics through which we will collect and analyse contributions are:
• The Experience of Movement: the perception of the journey between shores, coasts and the mountains intended as an experience, rather than simply as a movement.
• The Voice of Infrastructure tells the story of how roads, stations, ports and rivers shape the identity of places and the habits of those who pass through them.
• The Image of a ‘Thousand Mediterraneans’: exploring the projection of desires and visions onto a space that is simultaneously an international hub of culture and a laboratory of proximity.
• Tales from the People: who passes through the territory? What are their needs, and where are they going? This narrative seeks to understand the area from the perspective of its transient population, including children and young people going to school, older people who have seen modes of transport change over time, daily commuters, and innovators seeking new connections.
The scope of the questionnaire is to map collective needs and memories, focusing on the role of infrastructure as a ‘design signifier’: not just concrete and steel, but also social function and anthropological significance in the urban and territorial transformation processes between Calabria and Sicily.
The questionnaire responses will inform the Biennale’s workshop, helping to shape a narrative of the territories surrounding the Strait, and are key to revealing the complexity of this area.