Genius Loci, the cultural festival back in Santa Croce

From 28 to 30 September, the rediscovery of an extraordinary place with exceptional protagonists and original performances

From 28 to 30 September, the sixth edition of Genius Loci: discovering Santa Croce returns. Concerts, talks and performances offer an original way to discover the identity of the famous Florentine monumental complex.

A bridge to be crossed together between memory and the future through the languages of music and culture, which sees the protagonists - from rapper Ghemon to geologist and populariser Mario Tozzi, from the Japanese band Taiko Drummers to writer Marco Balzano, from Russian-American singer-songwriter Zola Jesus to demographer Massimo Livi Bacci - accompany the public in an unprecedented experience, in search of an exclusive synthesis between spirituality and beauty.

Welcoming and hospitality: these are the themes that will run through the programme, connecting it with a double thread - also through the Franciscan origin of Santa Croce - to the historical moment we are living. Welcoming and being welcomed in a foreign land, inhabiting a place and, at the same time, never ceasing to be on a journey. This is the setting for the festival.

Between the Cenacolo, the Pazzi Chapel and the two Cloisters, artists, intellectuals, writers and musicians will dialogue in the course of events specially designed for the spaces of Santa Croce. Don't miss Una cosetta così, a live show combining music, storytelling and stand-up comedy by Ghemon (29/09). Ahead with Mario Tozzi, scientist and television face who takes on the role of narrator in a compelling musical event, accompanied by jazz saxophonist Enzo Favata (29/09). And then the reading with Campiello Prize-winning author Marco Balzano, entitled Destini incrociati: ospitalità, ascolto e cura, accompanied by Fabrizio Mocata on the piano and Giulia Galliani on the voice (28/09) and the talk Non per me solo - Per terre e per mari with migration expert Massimo Livi Bacci and Don Virgilio Colmegna and Maria Grazia Guida, from the Casa della Carità reception centre in Milan (29/09). Also: actor, writer and youtuber Roberto Mercadini explains in Little boy. Storia incredibile e vera della bomba atomica the story of a weapon that since 6 August 1945, the day it was dropped on Hiroshima, has never ceased to occupy the public debate (28/09).

There will be many concerts, with Taiko Drummers (28/09), Furio Di Castri (28/09) and Rob Mazurek (29/09) for solos that promise to be truly unique and unrepeatable. Closing as per tradition at dawn, entrusted to the talented Zola Jesus who will present her latest album Arkhon: darkwave, dream and gothic atmospheres fused with her unmistakable voice (30/09).