Exhibitions, Pizzi (director of Atelier Mitoraj): "The locations made the difference."

A myth confronting another myth, this concept embodied in its name. Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj, the protagonist with his sculptures in a special exhibition held in Syracuse between Neapolis and Ortygia, and on Mount Etna, fascinates and inspires reflection on man and his quest for freedom. "Mitoraj had to confront myths," comments Luca Pizzi, director of Atelier Mitoraj and curator of the exhibition. "I believe Mitoraj has accompanied the myth of Sicily. For ten years, perhaps even longer, we've been staging exhibitions in spectacular locations, but we've never managed to do something like this. An exhibition that stands out from all the others, especially in terms of its locations. There are four elements I wanted to evoke, starting with Etna, three symbolic places of Sicily: Etna, Ortygia, and the Neapolis archaeological park. I don't even know how it happened."

"I thought a chapter had closed with this region," he adds, "and instead, after they made me this proposal and after inspecting the park, I realized that something truly different could be done. I think I succeeded. The places made the difference. I built the exhibition around the four elements—Fire, Air, Water, and Earth—and I arranged them in the order best suited to the cultural and narrative journey I wanted to create. This park is different from the others. There's nature, there's Physis, there's humanitas, there are so many things. And then there are the Latomie, which is what really struck me: these caves, these quarries from which the materials used to build the various temples and monuments were extracted. But who created all this? It was man: the prisoners, the slaves, who worked inside and lived in these places. And all this pathos convinced me."

For six months, Pizzi conducted site visits to identify the most suitable locations for each of the 29 monumental works by the master Mitoraj, which are located between the Neapolis Archaeological Park, the Maniace Castle in Ortigia, and the Ragalna area on Mount Etna. These works have given rise to the exhibition 'Lo sguardo – Humanitas Physis', which will close on October 31st.