Jubilee of Artists: Art as a Threshold of Hope

The Catholic Church is celebrating the 25th Jubilee in its history, an event that Pope Francis has dedicated to the theme of Hope. Among the key moments of this Holy Year, the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture represents a unique opportunity to reflect on the transformative power of art and its ability to generate new perspectives of meaning. This gathering, to be held in Rome from February 15 to 18, 2025, is inspired by the Pope’s vision that the arts possess the gift of "dreaming new versions of the world, introducing innovation into history, and bringing forth something never seen before."

The Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See therefore invites artists, intellectuals, and cultural figures to take part in this experience of sharing and spiritual renewal. The Jubilee of Artists will open with the international conference Sharing Hope – Horizons for Cultural Heritage, organized in collaboration with the Vatican Museums. This assembly will bring together leaders from some of the world’s most prestigious artistic and museum institutions to explore new languages and strategies for transmitting religious and cultural heritage. The outcome of this discussion will be a shared Educational Manifesto, a code of values for safeguarding and reinterpreting collective memory.

Art as an Utopia of Slowness

On Saturday, February 15, at 6:00 PM, the exhibition space Conciliazione 5 will be inaugurated along the street that leads pilgrims to St. Peter’s Basilica. This venue, curated for 2025 by Cristiana Perrella, will serve as a laboratory for artistic experimentation centered on the theme of Hope. The first exhibition will feature the work of Yan Pei-Ming, an artist known for interrogating history through portraiture. His project focuses on the prison community of Regina Coeli: portraits of inmates, guards, doctors, and chaplains will be exhibited in Conciliazione 5 and projected onto the façade of the prison exclusively on the evenings of February 15, 16, and 17, from 6:00 PM to midnight.

As Virginia Woolf wrote, "The lighthouse is an alternation of darkness and light… a house of wonder." This project stands as a threshold of revelation, a passage between the invisible and the visible. The gallery is not merely a physical space but an utopia where slowness allows us to rediscover what the speed of oblivion erases. Kundera reminds us that the secret connection between slowness and memory is an act of resistance against the consuming force of time, and Conciliazione 5 thus becomes an homage to memory and a safeguard against invisibility.

An Epiphany of the Face: Portraying Hope

The art of portraiture has always engaged with power: from popes to heads of state, the represented face often serves as a symbol of authority. Yan Pei-Ming subverts this narrative: in his paintings, the faces of those who do not hold power—but rather endure it—come to light. The strength of his work lies precisely in this reversal: portraiture restores dignity, and there can be no hope where dignity is denied.

Initially commissioned to create 12 portraits, the artist was so moved by the images before him that he decided to paint 27. His technique, characterized by the use of long brushes and rapid movements, draws from the tradition of Chinese painting, giving the work an expressive immediacy and intense gestural quality.

A Living Space, a Community Gallery

Conciliazione 5 is a deliberately modest space: a 3-by-4-meter room, in front of which approximately 150,000 people pass each day. A democratic exhibition space, conceived as a catalyst for new perspectives, a threshold inviting a different perception of the city.

Each year, a curator will be invited to design a new artistic journey. The community has built this project collectively, transforming art into an act of sharing—an opportunity to restore visibility to those who live on the margins.

The projection of the portraits onto the façade of Regina Coeli is an act of restitution: giving a face to those inside, symbolically bringing them back into society. Here, hope is not merely a theme but an ethical and social tension. As Pope Francis affirms, artists have the ability to "dream new versions of the world." And this street gallery aspires to be a place where dreams meet space.