Solastalgia. Sofia Melluso e Gianluca Concialdi.

Opening: May 21 2026, 6PM.

On 21 May 2026, Ar/Ge Kunst will open Solastalgia, an exhibition featuring Sofia Melluso and Gianluca Concialdi, which explores the transformations of places under the pressure of global tourism. Setting out from Palermo and resonating with the context of Bolzano, the project takes the form of a fried food bar conceived as an ambiguous device, midway between artificial construction and vernacular imagery, where sculptures, texts and installations prompt a reflection on the economics of valorization and their material and symbolic repercussions. Suspended between seduction and exploitation, folklore and branding, the exhibition navigates the space of ‘solastalgia’: that sense of loss that arises while remaining in the same place, when places continue to exist but slowly cease to coincide with themselves.

Sofia Melluso (Palermo, 1992) is a visual artist whose practice spans various media, shifting among ceramics, drawing, writing and photography. Her research also unfolds within a collective, process-oriented and transdisciplinary framework, questioning the systems of power and the dynamics of representation that influence subjectivities, languages and territories. She is part of the ৺ ෴ ර ∇ ❃ ̅ ̅ collective, founded in 2020, with whom she runs an independent space in Palermo.

Gianluca Concialdi (Palermo, 1981) lives and works in Palermo, primarily exploring abstract painting and experimental materials. His practice intertwines painting, writing and installation; he creates double paintings on paper, steeped in collage, gouache and spray paint, in which urban stories, wanderings, drifts and irony overlap in a visual language that challenges their contemplation. This duality is implicit in the work itself – a hidden side and a visible one – and in the titles of the pieces, which are often poetic and paradoxical.