OUTCAST HUG

19 02 2026

Concept by Mara Cipriano Senior Art Curator

This exhibition is an embrace, an embrace between outsiders. The art world is full of people who feel outside society and social groups, yet the reality is that we are many. This exhibition is a great embrace among creatives: we are not alone, we are in excellent company.

The concept, the title, and the poster design are inspired by a series that has forever changed the way the world sees nerds and outcasts: Stranger Things. A group of marginalized figures comes together against a common enemy. The protagonists are marked by something that makes them different: shyness, extraordinary intelligence, sensitivity, or a difficult past. At first, they are alone, misunderstood, often excluded by their peers. But it is precisely this condition of marginality that drives them to unite and create an alternative community, founded on authentic values such as loyalty, trust, and love.

The series shows how diversity can become a collective strength: those who are fragile, different, or wounded find meaning in the bond with those who understand them. The embrace between outsiders is not a simple physical gesture: it is a mutual recognition of the condition of those who perceive the world differently from others. In it lies a form of existential truth: those who are different know that society often does not accept, judges, or ignores them. Yet in the encounter between two or more outsiders, that diversity is no longer a reason for isolation, but the source of a new possible community.

The embrace between outcasts is also an ethical gesture: it recognizes the other in their fragility and strength, creating bonds of solidarity that defy the marginality imposed by the outside world. Thinkers such as Deleuze and Guattari emphasize that difference is not a lack, but a generative strength. In the embrace between outsiders, each person’s diversity is not flattened, but valued and celebrated. The encounter becomes a creative act: together, new possible worlds are drawn, new narratives and new meanings emerge.

M.A.D.S. invites artists to bring their artistic vision, both wild and ordinary at the same time, to this collective exhibition: a virtual embrace that unites all participants and celebrates the creative power of diversity.