Between art, literature and new languages, Brera reaffirms its role as a key reference point in Milan’s cultural life.
From 10 to 16 November 2025, Milan once again speaks the language of books with the 14th edition of BookCity, the citywide festival celebrating reading and ideas in all their forms.
This year’s theme, “The Power of Ideas / The Ideas of Power”, invites reflection on the role of words as tools for change, knowledge and freedom.
Promoted by the City of Milan and major cultural institutions, BookCity transforms the city into a collective laboratory of creativity, animated by talks, readings, performances and workshops featuring over one thousand authors, artists and thinkers.
The opening night will take place on 12 November at Teatro Dal Verme, with Colum McCann and Cecilia Sala discussing how storytelling can still create empathy and understanding in an increasingly complex world.
The Brera district, long recognised as the meeting point of art, design and culture, once again hosts a series of events that weave together word and image, memory and contemporaneity.
📍 Palazzo Brera – Pinacoteca di Brera
At the symbolic heart of the district, Palazzo Brera presents “The Images of Thought. Art, Philosophy and Vision in the Present Time”, a dialogue between artists, philosophers and art historians exploring the visual dimension of contemporary thought.
Alongside the talk, a guided tour through the museum connects artworks with literary texts that have shaped their interpretation over the centuries.
📍 Teatro Grassi
The prestigious stage of Milan’s Piccolo Teatro hosts “Writing the Theatre: Narrating the Scene”, featuring Stefano Massini, Letizia Russo and Federica Fracassi, moderated by Sergio Escobar.
A reflection on theatre as a narrative form capable of capturing the complexity of our time.
📍 Ex Chiesa di San Carpoforo – Brera Academy of Fine Arts
Within the evocative setting of the former church, students and lecturers from the Brera Academy present “Matter of Words”, a collective performance merging visual art and sound poetry, where written language becomes gesture, form and installation.
📍 Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation
A hub for contemporary thought, the Foundation hosts a series of discussions on politics, philosophy and current affairs, including “The Power of Knowledge: Democracy and Artificial Intelligence”, with Evgeny Morozov, Giuliano da Empoli and Marta Dassù, examining how information and power shape the future of democracy.
📍 Istituto Lombardo – Academy of Sciences and Letters
Inside Palazzo Brera, the Institute presents “The Listening Mind. Science, Language and Consciousness”, a roundtable bringing together neuroscientists, linguists and philosophers to explore the power of language as a cognitive tool, bridging science and humanism.
📍 Fondazione Sozzani (Corso Como)
With “Creativity + Collaboration in Fashion Education”, organised in collaboration with NABA, the Sozzani Foundation focuses on fashion as a cultural and social language. Andrea Cammarosano, Colomba Leddi and Sara Sozzani Maino discuss how to educate creativity through ethics and collaboration.
📍 Brera Academy – Cloister and Galleries
The exhibition “Botanical Sketchbooks” combines art and science through engravings and cyanotypes inspired by the natural world – a poetic and interdisciplinary exploration of form and observation.
Experiencing BookCity in Brera means immersing yourself in culture in its broadest sense: an intersection of literature, art, design, philosophy and innovation.
The district once again becomes a creative laboratory where words turn into projects and ideas into shared experiences.Discover the full programme of BookCity Milan 2025, including all the events in Brera and across the city, at www.bookcitymilano.it
