Germinale — Monferrato Art Fest
A month of diffuse contemporary art across the Basso Monferrato each autumn — some 60 artists in 29 venues over 18 comuni, with Castagnole Monferrato hosting the final show of the Selva Art Prize for under-40 artists.
Why it's special
It turns the whole Basso Monferrato into one open-air gallery for a month: contemporary works and site-specific installations threaded through hilltop villages, cellars and the underground Infernot, rather than shut inside a single museum. Castagnole's ex Asilo Regina Elena becomes one of its rooms.
Programme · 2026
Third edition, themed "Di marne feconde, un mare" ("Of fertile marls, a sea"), curated by Francesca Canfora — a diffuse contemporary-art show across 18 comuni of the Basso Monferrato, drawing on the region's geology, its underground Infernot cellars and its cultural memory. Around 60 artists across 29 venues: 24 invited artists, 10 in residence, the 15 finalists of the Selva Art Prize and the 12 of "The Monferriner" project.
- It's a diffuse festival — pick a weekend and a cluster of comuni rather than trying to see all 29 venues.
- In Castagnole Monferrato the stop is the Selva Art Prize final collective show at the ex Asilo Regina Elena.
- The official opening is on 11 September at 17:00 at the Quasi Fondazione in Rinco di Montiglio Monferrato.
- Check the festival site for each venue's opening hours.
For a month each autumn the Basso Monferrato is turned into a single scattered gallery. Germinale — the Monferrato Art Fest, now in its third edition — hangs contemporary art and site-specific installations across 18 comuni, some 60 artists in 29 venues, from hilltop churches and piazzas down into the underground Infernot cellars that the 2026 theme ("Di marne feconde, un mare" — of fertile marls, a sea) takes as its starting point.
Castagnole Monferrato is one of its rooms: the ex Asilo Regina Elena hosts the final collective show of the Selva Art Prize, the festival's award for artists under 40. The wider programme runs from the official opening on 11 September at the Quasi Fondazione in Rinco di Montiglio Monferrato through to early October, with invited artists, artists in residence and, this year, two new permanent works unveiled for the festival.
It's a festival to graze rather than gulp — pick a weekend and a handful of neighbouring villages. Dates above; venue-by-venue hours are on the festival's own site.