Cortile di Francesco
Bullone Foundation brings the CICATR/CI experience to the Cortile di Francesco 2025 in Assisi.
CICATR/CI is an artistic, perceptive and immersive experience, an active encounter to investigate ourselves and the world around us.
The CICATR/CI experience
CICATR/CI is an artistic, perceptive and immersive experience, an active encounter to investigate ourselves and the world around us. A space in which fragility and resources coexist and dialogue to generate a new beauty. The aim is to promote a transformation and a paradigm shift to go beyond prejudice and taboos, towards sustainable social and human development.
Bullone Foundation
Bullone Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded by Milan-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Niada in 2012. Its mission is to support teens and young adults with major illness experiences in rediscovering their identity beyond the illness, building together paths to reintegration into social and professional life. The goal is to bring a change of perspective in society in order to build a world in which illness is not an insuperable obstacle, but an experience that can be welcomed, faced, shared and transformed.
The agenda
For the 2025 edition of the Cortile di Francesco, the CICATR/CI experience – entirely developed by the Bullone Foundation – is composed of various elements: an exhibition, a collective artwork, workshops and supports the Foundation’s commitment to promoting a new perspective in society that recognises fragility and welcomes it as a new resource.
The artistic exhibition
The artistic exhibition aims to transform scars, both physical and emotional, into symbols of beauty and identity. All those who participated in the CICATR/CI exhibition project have artistically reinterpreted their wounds by symbolically sculpting them into Venus of Milo and Michelangelo’s David, two icons of classical beauty that become symbols of human narratives. Thanks to Giuditta Ravalli, artist and designer specialising in digital sculpture and 3D printing, these statues now become tangible testimonies of resilience and transformation, offering those who observe them a space to reflect on their own fragility.
Opening
September, 14th, 3pm
Opening hours
From September 14th to 21st: every day 10am – 6pm.
At the portico of the Piazza Inferiore di San Francesco and inside the Sala Lorenzetti.
Collective art installation
The experience proposed in Assisi by Bullone Foundation is also an invitation to action and participation. In fact, during the exhibition period, it is possible to participate in a collective work, an artistic and educational experience conceived by the Foundation and dedicated to visitors. Participants in the Cortile di Francesco become authors of an installation by creating their own sketch and transforming their own fragility into an artistic sign. Each work, unique and personal, will join the others, constructing the choral work, a place where individual expression is strengthened in a collective space.
Take part in the collective work!
From September 14th to 21st, every day 10am – 6pm
Pick up and make your sketch, join the exhibition, share on social media and tag the Bullone Foundation! We look forward to seeing you at our desk at the Piazza Inferiore di San Francesco.
Download the audio guide
Fill in the form and download the audio guide that will walk you in creating your sketch.
Meeting and workshops
The Bullone Foundation’s programme for the Cortile di Francesco also includes a series of events dedicated to students and companies. The workshops dedicated to young people include moments of confrontation and the participation of the beneficiaries of Bullone Foundation, the community of young people – called B.Liver – with experiences of serious or chronic pathologies. Their experience and testimony aims to generate a paradigm shift among the new generations that goes beyond prejudice and taboos towards sustainable social, environmental and economic development. Lastly, in order to create a virtuous connection between profit and non-profit, a panel discussion will be held to give voice to the companies that support CICATR/CI’s experience in the working world with the aim of supporting them in giving work its human face back and promoting a perspective on society where the transformation of fragility is a value.
Meeting with companies
A unique event, divided into two panels, testifying to the birth of a new community that shares values and new intentions.
This event focuses on the testimonies of those who put humanity at the center every day, an inspirational opening that connects the message of St. Francis with the challenges and opportunities of contemporary humanity, positioning CICATR/CI as a contemporary proposal in this direction.
With the involvement of social journalists from Il Bullone.
Panel | Contemporary Canticle: Praise to the Human Being – Scars and Beauty in Our Time
September 19th from 6pm to 7.30pm, at Basilica Inferiore
Speakers:
- Bill Niada, President, Bullone Foundation
- Fra Giulio Cesareo, Fraternità of San Francesco di Assisi
- Andrea Belli, Responsabile Media e Relazioni Esterne Italia, Charity e Donations, Gruppo Barilla
- Roberto Cairoli, President, Fondazione Malattie del Sangue
- Luigi Rossi, Advisor, Pane Quotidiano
- Rita Santaniello, Lawyer, partner e co-responsabile Dipartimento di Diritto del Lavoro e Practice di Sostenibilità, Rödl & Partner
- Sarah Varetto, Executive Vice President Communications, Inclusion & Bigger Picture, Sky Italia
- Francesca Manili Pessina, Executive Vice President People, Organization & Facility Management, Sky Italia
September 20th from 4pm to 5pm, at Press Room Sacro Convento Assisi
Speakers:
- Bill Niada, President, Bullone Foundation
- Fra Giulio Cesareo, Fraternità of San Francesco di Assisi
- Dario Bolis, Direttore Comunicazione, Ufficio Stampa e Relazioni Esterne, Fondazione Cariplo
- Natalia Anguas, Amministratore Delegato, EF Education Italia
- Marinella Levi, Professore di Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali e Direttore del Dipartimento di Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano
- Giada Lonati, Medico e Direttrice Sociosanitaria, VIDAS
Workshop for students
September 15th and 16th at 10am, Sala Lorenzetti, Colle del Paradiso Conference Centre
The workshops designed by Bullone Foundation invite students to a transformative experience. They will meet the B.Livers, young people who will share their stories of fragility related to serious or chronic illnesses, challenging prejudices and taboos. The students will then be guided to express themselves through an artistic activity, contributing to the creation of a collective work that celebrates the beauty of fragility. A simple yet powerful gesture, to give shape to a new beauty: the Human Being.
Sponsors:
