In conversation with Triennale Milano president and architect Stefano Boeri on the power of culture to challenge norms and shape a better society.

Inequalities is the timely and provocative anchor for this year’s Triennale Milano – a theme that reframes our cultural, social and environmental moment and invites deeper, global reflection. Opening in May and running through November 2025, the 24th edition explores the subject through a layered programme of exhibitions, installations, theatre, film and performance, inviting a global and interdisciplinary conversation.

The line-up is impressive, spanning 43 countries and featuring voices from across the creative and academic spectrum. These include artists Theaster Gates, Steve McQueen and Filippo Teoldi, architects Norman Foster and Elizabeth Diller, and curators such as Hans Ulrich Obrist and the Serpentine Galleries. Scientists, educators and thinkers also play a vital role in shaping this space for collective reflection and new ideas. The Triennale’s vision is bold. It doesn’t only see its role as a vehicle for widening the cultural lens, but rather as using culture as a catalyst for reimagining future models and possibilities.

We spoke with the architect Stefano Boeri, president of Triennale Milano, on why now is the time to confront inequality – and how design and architecture, through critical inquiry and bold imagination, can help shape the dialogue.

The Triennale title Inequalities invites a wide range of conversations. Can you delve into some of the key themes you decided to explore?

We’ve tried to select what we believe are the right perspectives to describe Inequalities and from different points of views. We talk about cities and spaces, but also bodies and lives. We will do so through a series of exhibitions that will show how immense riches are today in the hands of a minute handful of individuals.

And how, today, being born poor has become an irreversible condition for millions. We will do this by showing how inequalities – the ones we are born with and the ones we encounter or even create over time – affect the life and health expectations of each of us. We will talk about ghettos and wars, the ultimate expression of inequality – so rigid, so profoundly unjust – that it turns into a cruel device of death.

Is it correct to sense that the Triennale is also an opportunity for collective action in offering both ideological and tangible solutions?

We don’t pretend to exhaust the theme but rather to encourage reflection and propose some solutions. Throughout the exhibitions, you will encounter good ideas, thoughtful policies, and the best projects that sometimes know how to transform inequalities into futile differences, into shared qualities that allow individuals, though different, to exchange values and mutually enrich each other.

How central is the Arksen Foundation, which encourages yacht owners to commit a percentage of their vessel’s sea time to marine research and conservation efforts?

I believe there is a tremendous need for dialogue, as well as for cultural diplomacy. This is very important. How can we connect with institutions working on the same issues in other parts of the world? And this is a way to jump all the geopolitical barriers that we now have. And from this perspective, what we see now is completely different from what we were used to.

When we produced these international exhibitions 10 or 20 years ago, the goal wasn’t to overcome barriers but simply to establish connections. Everything was easier, and the world felt smaller. The dialogues were sometimes stronger, but in terms of numbers, they were absolutely fewer.

These are complex subjects, some highly charged and political, while others tackle more universal themes of aging, health, disabilities, education, poverty. How do you see the Triennale communicating these ideas to outside these walls and to a global audience?

One aspect is through the visualisation. Federica Fragapane (information designer) has been transforming complex data into visually engaging narratives with Shapes of Inequalities with her drawings translated into three-dimensional models.

For the next six months, we will be hosting daily exhibitions alongside our theatre program and a sequence of shows and performances, all of which will have Inequality as their focus. We will also spread these ideas through newspapers and our social media channels. Starting in May, we are working with the New York Times and Artforum, as well as five local universities involved in the projects.

The Triennale lineup is largely stating the difficulties yet seeing the opportunities to help widen the lens and to explore better futures.

Yes, I’m looking forward to seeing what Bocconi University, for example, is going to do with a group of local Black artists about the paradox of Milano. This city is attractive from certain points of view, but it is not at all inclusive. We attract young researchers, designers and students from all over the world, but we don’t provide them with the right expectations in terms of where to stay, how to survive the crazy costs of living, and so on. That’s a typical paradox of the city. Milano is now competing as a global city but still has steps to take.

What is your hope with the 24th Triennale?

We hope to confirm our role as a hub for cultural dialogues. Then maybe give some very simple, but at the same time profound suggestions of how to survive in different ways and through different lenses.

Do you see Milan as the perfect city to host the Triennale, this being such a dynamic and unique space of so many contradictions as we discussed earlier?

Yes, Milano is a laboratory because it’s a small metropolis. It’s very small, but it has an amazing density of institutions, universities and public hospitals. Milano is a unique city compared to others of the same size. And due to its size, it’s not complicated to see what’s happening.

The 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition will be held at Triennale Milano from May 13 to November 9, 2025. Images, architect and Triennale Milano president Stefano Boeri ©Alessandro Saletta. Sebastiano Pellion di Persano for ‘The Republic of Longevity’ at Triennale Milano 2025 ©Sebastiano Pellion di Persano/Galleria Franco Noero