Art and Sport meet in Museion
Museion presents an exhibition project that interweaves contemporary art with sport, historical memory and social values.
The exhibition is part of the Milan Cortina Cultural Olympiad 2026, an Italy-wide program that places art and culture at the heart of the Olympic idea.
The aim is to carry the Olympic values beyond sport into society and to strengthen the dialog between art, culture and sport in the long term. Italy will host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games from Feb. 6 to 22 and March 6 to 15, 2026, respectively.
From November 13th, 2025, a large site-specific installation by artists Sonia Leimer and Christian Kosmas Mayer will transform the museum’s second floor into a space for dialogue between past, present and future, design and collective reflection, through a major collection of Olympic torches.
The 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games are based on the core values of inclusion, sustainability and legacy. They include a rich program of cultural events aimed at a wide and diverse audience. As part of this Cultural Olympiad, Museion in Bolzano has been invited by the Provincial Coordination Committee for the Games to curate a special exhibition dedicated to one of the world’s three complete collections of Olympic torches, that extends from the very first relay to the present day. This remarkable collection will serve as the starting point for an artistic and cultural journey that opens in early November 2025 and runs until the end of March 2026.
The artists Sonia Leimer and Christian Kosmas Mayer have been chosen to explore the design, history and symbolic meaning of the Olympic torch. Their large-scale installation, which will cover the entire second floor of the museum, is the result of an invitational art competition launched in March 2025, with the final selection made by the jury on June 11th 2025.
Five internationally active South Tyrolean artists, already featured in the Museion collection, were invited to participate in the competition. Their art spans a wide range of media, including sculpture, sound, multimedia languages, participatory formats and conceptual research. Alongside the selected artist Sonia Leimer—who then brought Christian Kosmas Mayer into the project—the artists invited included Stefano Bernardi, Silvia Hell, Ingrid Hora and Philipp Messner. All of these based their contributions on the historical-cultural collection of 40 Olympic torches, using it as a springboard for individual artistic reflection.
The competition jury included representatives from Museion—Director Bart van der Heide and President Marion Piffer Damiani—along with experts from a range of fields, such as Manfred Alois Mayr (artist), Thomas Kronbichler (graphic designer), Angelika Gasser (Cultural Office of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol), Susanna Salvaterra (Provincial Coordination Committee for the Olympic Games), Stefano Podini (Olympic Aid and Sports Promotion Project Onlus, lender of the Olympic torch collection) and Marco Fontanesi (Lifecircus communication agency). The selection process was supported by consultants, including former Olympic skier Isolde Kostner and world champion snowboarder Roland Fischnaller, a six-time Olympian. The diverse makeup of the jury reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the project, which fosters interaction between art, culture and sport. The competition was coordinated by architect Elisabeth Schatzer, who will also oversee the implementation of the entire project.
At the end of the selection process, the jury praised the exceptional quality and originality of the proposals. All the artists who took part engaged deeply with the historical-cultural collection and, despite their different approaches, succeeded in creating meaningful connections between past and present. The proposals ranged from sculptural installations and sound works to ironic interventions and complex historical research, reflecting the richness and diversity of contemporary art. Key evaluation criteria included the proposal’s ability to engage artistically with the collection and to explicitly address the Olympic values of Inclusion, Sustainability and Legacy. There was also a particular focus on ensuring the proposals exist as independent, recognizable artistic positions, rather than mere curatorial display elements, and genuinely express individual interaction with the museum collection.
The jury unanimously selected the project created by Sonia Leimer with Christian Kosmas Mayer, which stood out for its analytical depth and formal precision in navigating the tension between exhibition and artistic installation. The installation creates a space that contextualizes the historical collection and at the same time opens up new perspectives on the cultural significance of the Olympic relay race. The artists also succeed in building a thematic bridge to the next venue for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
With this exhibition, Museion embarks on a unique project based on the close collaboration between a contemporary art museum and the world of sport—a first for the institution. Just as the Olympic Games bring together people from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines, this exhibition seeks to unite art and sport in a meaningful way. During the Olympic Games, it will offer a space for cultural interaction, reflection and new, past and present, local and global perspectives.
Exhibition dates: 13 November 2025 – 29 March 2026
Sonia Leimer
born in 1977 in Merano, lives in Vienna.
Leimer works with sculpture, installation and video. Her work focuses on urban spaces, memory and social narratives. She has participated in Manifesta 7 and the Venice Architecture Biennale and has received the MAK Schindler Prize and the Paul Flora Prize.
Christian Kosmas Mayer
born in 1976 in Sigmaringen, lives in Vienna.
Mayer’s art combines historical research with multimedia forms of expression. His works examine cultural memory and future visions. He has received various prizes, including the Outstanding Artist Award.
