THE ART OF GESTURE: WRITING, MUSIC AND DRAWING AS LANGUAGES OF FREEDOM

After the success of the event “In the Heart of the Earth: the Embrace that Unites”, held at Fortezza Nuova in Livorno in June 2025, and after exhibitions in Pietrasanta, Elba Island, MAC Museum in Monsummano Terme and at the Florence Biennale, Cesare Catania, contemporary artist, sculptor, and pioneer of phygital art, returns to Livorno with a new cultural project of strong educational and social value, entirely dedicated to the world of school and collective art.

The project, titled “The Art of Gesture: writing, music, and drawing as languages of freedom”, will take place over two consecutive days, on January 21 and 22, 2026, involving students, teachers, institutions, and citizens in a path that places art at the center as a formative, inclusive, and universal tool.

A project for the school and the city

The initiative, sponsored by the Municipality of Livorno, the Tuscany Region, and the Chamber of Commerce of Maremma and Tirreno, aims to reaffirm the importance of traditional artistic disciplines – handwriting, drawing, and music – as fundamental languages for the development of creativity, critical thinking and expressive freedom in young people. All developed through skills in managing Artificial Intelligence.

In an era characterized by an increasingly early digitalization, the project proposes a conscious reflection on the value of the gesture, manual skills, and the direct relationship between body, mind, and sign, restoring centrality to human and sensory experience combined with technology and artificial intelligence.

The program

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

The first day will be dedicated to a workshop at the Comprehensive Institute Giuseppe Mazzini of Livorno, involving students from the Comprehensive Institute Giuseppe Mazzini and the Comprehensive Institute G. Bartolena. The students will participate in drawing and creative use of colors workshops, led by Cesare Catania and teachers, in a collective experience of expression and reflection. During the morning, 140 students will create 14 collective artworks, co-signed by students and the artist, giving life to a shared creative experience of strong symbolic value. A creative and ethical path to underline the importance of art as a social bond and an educational means, exactly the values that Cesare Catania and his Embrace project want to promote, officially presented to the public in 2022.

Thursday, January 22, 2026

The second day will take place at the Chamber of Commerce of Maremma and Tirreno, where classes and the public will be involved in a cultural dialogue on the topics emerged during the workshop as well as in explaining to the children how AI helps the artist in the multi-perspective expression of an art that is not only physical but also phygital and digital. This will give children the opportunity to appreciate the value of artificial intelligence used for ethical and artistic purposes.
The program includes institutional interventions, with active contributions, in addition to the artist Cesare Catania, also from Dr. Elisabetta Bini, opera singer Natalia Valli, and the managers of their respective institutes Dr. Elena Rossi and Dr. Maria Salvatrice Oriti.

The Embrace Project and Democratic Art

“The Art of Gesture” is part of the broader path of the Embrace Project, conceived by Cesare Catania and already sponsored by numerous public and private institutions, which earned him the appointment as the unique Ambassador worldwide for the International Hugging Day (National Hugging Day) in 2023. A celebration that falls on January 21 of each year, since 1986.

The project is consistent with the Manifesto of Democratic Art, written by artist Cesare Catania in 2024, which promotes accessible, inclusive, public, and participatory art, capable of generating social and cultural value.

With this new stage, Livorno confirms itself as a privileged place for experimentation and dialogue between contemporary art, school, and community, strengthening a path that looks to the future of new generations.

Event Partners

The event is promoted by FBC (Canelli – AT), a company specializing in industrial coatings that assisted artist Cesare Catania in the coating of his monumental works created in 2025 and by the hospitality company La Bohème in Livorno, always sensitive to social and cultural issues.