Agrigento, works by Gianfranco Meggiato arrive at the Valley of the Temples

The works of Venetian artist Gianfranco Meggiato (Venice, 1963) arrive at the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento: sculptures of today meet the architecture of yesterday. Gianfranco Meggiato’s exhibition, titled Quantum Man, No Future Without Memory, curated by Daniela Brignone, is hosted until Jan. 4 at the Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park in Agrigento. Organized by MondoMostre, the solo show also includes an installation at the entrance to the Pietro Griffo Archaeological Museum.

Thirteen monumental works are on display, four of which were conceived for the Valley of the Temples and exhibited to the public for the first time: The Mirror of the Absolute, which opens the entire path in front of the Temple of Juno; Quantum Man, which gives the title to the solo show and is located in front of the Temple of Concordia; Sfera Aquarius and How Much Light both in front of the Temple of Zeus.

The exhibition itinerary is meant to be a journey through images and assonances: Gianfranco Meggiato sets out in search of his Quantum Man who is master of his future, made of perfect presences and voids. Meggiato intends to trace a path, reflecting his own image in spheres, shiny folds and soft swirls, non-noble materials that are assembled: Thus was born The Quantum Man (cast in painted aluminum, with stainless steel spheres) assembled by the artist without a preparatory drawing, in front of the Temple of Concord; or The Breath of Life (cast in painted aluminum, with chromium-plated brass spheres) stretching Heracles’ bow, and again Sfera Acquarius (cast in painted aluminum, with stainless steel spheres). Thus the brothers Càstore and Pollux are transformed into works suspended between the living and the dead, and with Taurus one gets in touch with Zeus, from whom everything began.

“’Quantum Man’ by Gianfranco Meggiato invites us on a journey within ourselves,” says Regional Councillor for Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity, Alberto Samonà,“which is also an encounter through the four elements, to discover a universe that goes beyond the rational to embed man in a cosmic dimension. The dialogue between contemporary and ancient is filled in the Valley of the Temples, with a new meaning that crosses the centuries to rediscover the roots of the relationship between man and his own deepest essence, in an existential dynamic that goes beyond time.”

“Gianfranco Meggiato easily succeeds in such a difficult undertaking as it is to enter into a ’sentimental relationship’ with the site of the Valley of the Temples, without being overwhelmed by its grandeur,” emphasizes the director of the Archaeological Park, Roberto Sciarratta. “We are happy to host this conversation and exchange between ancient and contemporary, bringing Meggiato’s works closer to those of other great artists already present of this our today.”

“Meggiato,” says curator Daniela Brignone, “composes an ideal journey within one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, confronting the memory of the past and the enigmatic prospects of the future, reflecting on man in search of self. The works on display unveil an inner world around which revolves a repertoire of mythological characters and symbols that become allegories of man’s living space. The quantum science from which the artist is inspired reveals the mystery and cosmic connections.”

Gianfranco Meggiato was born on August 26, 1963, in Venice, where he attended the State Institute of Art, studying sculpture in stone, bronze, wood and ceramics. He made his debut at age 16 when the city invited him to exhibit at the Bevilacqua La Masa Municipal Gallery in St. Mark’s Square. In his work, Meggiato looks to the great masters of the 20th century: Brancusi for his search for essentiality, Moore for the interior-exterior relationship of his motherhoods, and Calder for the openness to space of his works. Space, in fact, enters the works and emptiness becomes as important as fullness. Meggiato invents the concept of “introsculpture” in which the viewer’s gaze is drawn to the interiority of the work, not limited to the external surfaces alone. Since 1998 he has participated in exhibitions and fairs in Italy and abroad; in 2010 he installed a monumental sphere on the Breath Building Geox in Milan, in 2011 and 2013 he participated in the Venice Biennale. In 2017, from the collaboration with the MARCA in Catanzaro, The Garden of the Silent Muses was born, a labyrinth of 20 meters in diameter composed of 4 thousand jute bags. The Silent Muses travels around the world, but Meggiato stops in Palermo where Manifesta12 invites him to exhibit The Spiral of Life, a 12-meter-diameter work dedicated to the 878 mafia victims with their names imprinted on jute sacks. He is awarded the prestigious ICOMOS-UNESCO PRIZE “for having masterfully combined the ancient and the contemporary in sculptural installations of great evocative power and aesthetic value.” In 2019 he is invited to Matera, Capital of Culture, with his The Garden of Zyz.

For all information, you can visit the official website of the Valley of the Temples Park.

Agrigento, works by Gianfranco Meggiato arrive at the Valley of the Temples

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