When statues dream. At the Salinas Museum, the contemporary is in dialogue with archaeology

Quando le statue sognano (When statues dream ) is the exhibition that from November 28, 2019 will be staged in two chapters at the Salinas Museum in Palermo, a museum that brings together one of the most prestigious archaeological collections in Italy and in the world: from the metopes of the Temples of Selinunte to the Stone of Palermo, from the Etruscan vases of the Bonci Casuccini Collection to the bronze Aries of Syracuse.

Thanks to this review, curated by Caterina Greco and Helga Marsala, and a series of collateral events, which are part of the Frammenti di un museo in transito initiative, some of the museum’s spaces, which are still undergoing complex restoration and refurbishment, will be temporarily returned to the public. The projects for the exhibition have been conceived precisely among the deposits, corridors and empty rooms: environments that will host contemporary works in dialogue with archaeological works and artifacts on this occasion.

The Salinas Museum has entrusted Mimmo Rubino with the role of art director, an artist active mainly in the field of public art and urban art, but with a parallel research related to graphic design; Rubino conceived the creative campaign to promote the exhibitions.

The exhibition will begin with a series of shots by Ferdinando Scianna. The photographs, taken by the photographer specifically at the Salinas Museum in 1984, depict Jorge Luis Borges, elderly and already blind, as he brushes against some of the statues in the collection in an attempt to “see” them with his hands. An intimate dialogue is thus established between the great poet and the marble statues: a mute conversation, an ideal “mutual listening.”

The contemporary works by Alessandro Roma, 108/Guido Bisagni and Fabio Sandri, placed in dialogue with some artifacts from the archaeological collections, will alternate continuing: all materials recovered, rediscovered and identified by the curators, in agreement with the artists themselves. A selection will focus on ancient Rome and the legacy of Greek culture, reflecting on the complex process of the formation of the modern museum.

The exhibition will also already feature two important previews of the future display: the Mosaic Room will house the Farnese Maenad, which has been exhibited on rare occasions, while the extension to the Hypostyle Hall will feature the majestic bronze Aries from Syracuse, donated to the museum by King Victor Emmanuel II. Debuting instead are votive heads from Cales, from a series of terracotta votive offerings: acquired in the mid-19th century from the Museum of the Royal University of Palermo, they had never been exhibited in the Salinas Museum.

The exhibition will be on view until March 29, 2020.

For info: www.regione.sicilia.it/beniculturali/salinas

When statues dream. At the Salinas Museum, the contemporary is in dialogue with archaeology

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