Coinciding with the Nuit Européenne Des Musées, the 15th edition of the Night of the Museums of Rome, the customary spring celebration of the encounter between the arts promoted by Roma Capitale, Assessorato alla Cultura, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali and organized by Zètema Progetto Cultura, will take place on Saturday, May 17.
Starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, and until 2 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, the spaces of the Sistema Musei di Roma Capitale and many other cultural venues in the City will open extraordinarily to the public in the evening hours at the symbolic cost of €1 (except where free or different pricing is provided). More than 60 spaces will be available for a cultural offer that will be dedicated to entertainment – with about 100 shows of all kinds – but will not neglect in-depth study with a wide range of exhibitions, guided tours and workshops.
Special guest of this 15th edition will be Spanish dancer SERGIO BERNAL, an artist of international stature, formerly principal dancer with the Ballet Nacional de España and now director of his own Sergio Bernal Dance Company. Back from a successful tour, Bernal returns to Rome to offer audiences at the ARA PACIS MUSEUM the performance PAX, an evening of dance and song for peace conceived by Daniele Cipriani Entertainment. Performed in front of the monument honoring the pax augustea, the Madrid-based bailaor’s performance aims to send a message of peace through the re-enactment of ancient rituals in which religiosity was expressed through dance and song. His unmistakable style, born out of the encounter between the vigor of flamenco and the refinement of classical ballet, will be expressed on this occasion through a solo inspired by one of Auguste Rodin’s most emblematic sculptures: The Thinker, a figure that represents the depth of human thought and which, in this case, thanks to Bernal, becomes a choreographic gesture of reflection and hope. Alongside him, in an intimate dialogue between body and voice, between dance and music of the soul, will be Andalusian cantaora Paz de Manuel. The vibration of her flamenco voice will make a fundamental contribution to shaping that individual inner harmony toward which the performance aims to lead the audience. Scheduled at 8:30 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11:15 p.m.
With a strong message of peace, will also be another initiative of the 2025 edition. Beginning at 8:30 p.m. and ending at 1 a.m., on the façade of the CASINA DEL SALVI in the CELIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK, a recently inaugurated structure that houses a coffee house and a study room, the videomapping performance NO BORDERS, created by the FLxER collective with original music by Agostino Maria Ticino, will come to life. In a time marked by divisions and conflicts, the performance imagines a world without borders thanks to an abstract choreography of visual and sound particles that cross, bump into and finally harmonize with architecture, thus evoking the transition from constraint to freedom (Free admission. Performance every 7′).
The opening moment this year will be entrusted to the Musical Band of the Roma Capitale Local Police Corps. Its orchestra of 80 wind instruments will symbolically open Museum Night 2025 by welcoming visitors to PIAZZA DEL CAMPIDOGLIO starting at 7:30 pm. These will be just the first notes of a long evening, doubled shortly after, in Montecitorio Square, by those performed by the Band of the Guardia di Finanza, which, from 8 to 8:15 p.m., will entertain the public before the extraordinary opening of the CAMERA DEI DEPUTATI (from 8 to 1 a.m., last admission at 12:30 a.m.), an institution that has joined the Night of Museums by offering a calendar of guided tours among the most important and representative rooms of Montecitorio Palace (Free admission with mandatory reservation on the website of the Chamber of Deputies). Another special occasion is represented by the adherence of the SENATE OF THE REPUBLIC (from 8 p.m. to midnight, last entry 11:30 p.m.), which will participate in the initiative by allowing an exceptional and free visit to Palazzo Madama upon collection of tickets on site starting at 7 p.m.