THE opening the call for its eighth edition EDIT Napoli 2026 it marks a precise moment within the contemporary design landscape where the act of application is no longer a procedural step, but becomes part of a larger positioning, reflecting a shared urgency around editorial design as a space of production, writing and critical thinking.
In this sense, the open call acts as a first threshold, a filter that selects works and also begins to define a field, tracing the contours of a practice based on research, the persistence of creation, and a renewed attention to the relationship between material and narrative, where objects are considered carriers of meaning rather than isolated results.
EDIT Naples 2025 – La Santissima ©Ph.EllerStudio
EDIT Naples 2025 – Seminar, La Santissima ©Ph.EllerStudio
EDIT Naples 2025 – La Santissima ©Ph.EllerStudio
EDIT Napoli 2025 – La Santissima © courtesy of La Santissima
EDIT Naples 2025 – La Santissima ©Ph. A. Mustili
In this context, the invitation is expressly addressed to designers, studios, artisans, manufacturers and publishers who operate through processes that are both rigorous and situated and present pieces ready for the market without losing the density of their development, insisting on a form of serialized craftsmanship where repetition does not neutralize identity, but reinforces a specific voice.
What emerges is a landscape of publishing design understood in an expanded sense, where design is inseparable from its narrative and where the construction of meaning unfolds through the careful articulation of materials, techniques and contexts.
It is scheduled to take place from 9 to 11 October 2026, again at La Santissima, the cultural hub that overlooks the city skylineEDIT Napoli 2026 builds its eighth edition starting precisely from this selection phase, which becomes a curatorial act in itself, aligned with the direction outlined by the “Where Design Shapes” campaign. This open call already embodies this, translating its principles into criteria that privilege process over immediacy, depth over visibility, and accountability over formal analysis, suggesting that design cannot be reduced to image or trend, but must be read through the conditions that produce it and sustain it over time.
The relevance of the call is further enhanced by the position that the editorial report it has built incrementally, acting as both a cultural and business platform capable of enabling connections that extend beyond the temporal boundaries of the event. Entry through the open call means access to a network that connects companies, institutions and adjacent sectors, allowing projects to circulate within a system of exchanges that creates continuity and opportunity.
This dimension is not accidental but structural and is strengthened by long-standing collaborations with international organizations and institutions, including renewed collaboration with Cervantes Institute of Naples and the continuous dialogue with design academies and schools, which together contribute to shaping paths of professional development and internationalization.
As Naples moves towards a phase of increasing international attention, the special weight of the invitation places the participants in a context that is not only receptive but actively in transformation and where design functions as both a cultural agent and an economic driver.
“EDIT Napoli 2026 is shaping up as a transitional and anticipated edition, a prelude to 2027, which will be a key year for the city, already at the center of growing international attention and momentum. As sectors such as hospitality and retail enter an expansion phase, EDIT is positioned as a platform capable of catalyzing and enabling connections between design culture and market opportunities. To be in Naples right now is to be present as the city becomes an increasingly strategic point of reference for those working in the design, manufacturing, hospitality and creative industries. EDIT Napoli 2026 aims to accompany this shift through a program that brings together fair, cultural content and new opportunities for exchange». Emilia Petruccelli, Co-Founder and CEO, EDIT Napoli.
At the same time, the open invitation implicitly reflects the transversal nature of the exhibition, which deals with sectors such as hospitality, retail, fashion and food as active environments in which design works and becomes relevant. Projects selected through this process are thus placed in a network that crosses disciplinary boundaries, initiating a dialogue with stakeholders capable of amplifying their impact and turning research into concrete applications. The presence, as always, of an international jury, with the addiction of new profiles, spanning from communication, to design and hospitality, further articulates this perspective, ensuring that the evaluation process remains aligned with a vision that is both critical and functional.
Within the structure of the invitation, the Seminario returns as a parallel section dedicated to designers under 30 and newly founded companies, maintaining its role as a space to recognize and support emerging practices, while framing them in a curatorial framework that avoids isolation and instead places them in a wider discourse. Here, the open call becomes not only a selection tool but also a recognition mechanism, able to intercept trajectories still in formation and integrate them into a system that values continuity and exchange.
“For the 2026 edition, EDIT Napoli is expanding its program of talks, workshops and roundtables, opening a horizontal discussion on topics such as hospitality and the relationship between design, regions and professional communities. It is a mutual process, in which a work is shaped through the dialogue with the cultural, productive and social context in which it is included. It’s an invitation to slow down and measure value not in aesthetics, but in responsibility». Domitilla Dardi, Co-Founder and Curator, EDIT Napoli.
If the exhibition resists the form of a conventional exhibition, the open call can be read as its first curatorial layer, a device that brings together and organizes multiple languages before they take spatial form, and which already anticipates the structure of the exhibition, where exhibitions, talks and special projects coexist in a rhythm that encourages dialogue and critical reflection.
THE EDIT CULT The programme, together with its expanded schedule of discussions, workshops and roundtables, extends this logic, reinforcing the idea that design should not only be presented but also debated, challenged and contextualised.
In this perspective, the invitation to EDIT Napoli 2026 becomes more than a point of entry, acting as a critical moment in which the values of the exhibition are translated into practice and where editorial design, in its expanded and material dimension, is positioned as a tool to interpret and construct the present.
