Agrigento

Once more in the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento, the gigantic sculptures of Igor Mitoraj stand among the ancient remains of classical civilization, a setting with an aesthetic and emotional impact. A fascinating dialogue between past and present with new disquieting impressions of estrangement. Along the Via Sacra, the route that leads from one temple to another, in carefully measured, oriented, and consecrated spaces, the sculptures of Mitoraj emerge like modern votive offerings to ancient gods. Travertine and bronze stand out in stark contrast to the stone of the crumbling temples. In the silence of this timeless place, a voiceless dialogue between the fragmented sculptures of Mitoraj and the temples of the ancient Akragas/Agrigentum create a blank page of history where each visitor marks his own reactions and emotions. The reference to great Greek mythology in Sicily sets the scene to recall the legend of the ""ingenious"" Daedalus, the first artist in history whose name has reached us through the centuries, the very archetype of the creator of images. Daedalus, the father, is ideally reunited here with his son Icarus; the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento becomes the background to the myth which made Daedalus, the great sculptor, famous in ancient times for the beauty and ingenuity of his inventions, and of Icarus the symbol of the search for liberty even at the cost of life itself. These are the concepts that Mitoraj proposes for our attention and reflection in an exhibtion with endless inspiration and food for thought. These are the concepts that Mario Ciampi, also, shows us with his astonishing photographs, that take the reader on this romantic journey.