On the occasion of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the Mart presents Le sfide del corpo [Challenging the Body], an exhibition curated by Antonio Calbi, director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris, and Daniela Ferrari, Mart curator. 

In a thematic itinerary, over 200 works of ancient, modern and contemporary art celebrate the most extraordinary aspect of the human body along with the ideas of strength and beauty, energy and power.

Following the multidisciplinary approach that has always characterised the Mart, paintings, sculptures, photographs, posters, illustrations, comics, publications, fashion, objects, tools, trophies and memorabilia will be on exhibit. Prestigious loans from public and private collections will interact with masterpieces from the museum’s collections.

Le sfide del corpo is a journey through the way in which the arts have represented the body for over two and a half millennia. In fact, since antiquity, the visual and plastic arts have glorified the male and female bodies, elevating them to symbols of perfection, somewhere between nature and culture. Starting with ancient art, and important references to Greco-Roman representation, the exhibition will trace the theme of sports in its vast range and many forms, arriving at the theme of the body interpreted by modern and contemporary artists.

Once again, the Mart creates an interplay between different art-historical periods, crossing the centuries and transcending the boundaries of time. The very structure of the museum, designed by star architect Mario Botta, celebrates classicism. The Pantheon is echoed in the form and proportions of the dome, while the Roman impluvium is the inspiration for the fountain in the centre of the square, and the yellow Vicenza stone that covers the structure.

The curators anticipate the chance for visitors to Rovereto to admire, “Bodies launched into competitive sports narrated by painting, sculpture, literature, poetry, cinema and advertising, in virtuous dialogue with dancing bodies with the intention of broadening the disciplinary scope to the various manifestations in which the human body is magnified through movement, challenging itself beyond its limits, and the search for grace and expressiveness."

Examples are the famous series of photographs that Mimmo Jodice dedicated to athletes, but also the ‘pugili [boxers]’ by Marini Marini, Carlo Carrà or Piero Pompili, the footballers by Maurizio Cattelan, and the wrestlers by Tullio Crali. Also featured in the exhibition alongside these extraordinary works from the Mart's collections are those by Fortunato Depero, Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Adalberto Libera, Fausto Pirandello, Massimo Campigli, Mario Sironi, Giulio Paolini and many others.