Societas Siciliae 2024
curated by Mario Bronzino

Artists: Francesca Baglieri, Francesco Balsamo, Federico Baronello, Barbara Cammarata, Mauro Cappotto, Francesco De Grandi, Francesco Di Giovanni, Daniele Franzella, Francesco Lauretta, Filippo La Vaccara, Andrea Mangione, Gabriele Massaro, Marco Mangione, Carmelo Nicosia, Rossella Poidomani, Francesca Polizzi, Laura Scalia, Michele Spadaro, Sasha Vinci, Piero Zuccaro

In truth, we are nothing more than stray dogs: masters of every territory and of none. Yet, in the end, we find this unusual condition both appealing and fulfilling—why deny it? Human beings may indeed be social animals, but no sooner do we begin to feel part of a group than we find ourselves under attack from one of its members. We seem to thrive on this perpetual state of alertness; it makes us feel present, alive, and involved. And perhaps history is ultimately responsible for this disposition.
After the Sicanians and Phoenicians came the Greeks and Romans; later, the Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. We became Spanish, Austrian, and only subsequently Italian. These are but a few of the dominations that have, over time, shaped and transformed the identity of the Sicilian population. Why, then, should we speak today of a Sicilian society? Because societas is, at its core, the sharing of something held in common: an activity undertaken for the collective good and, ultimately, a shared need for belonging.
It is therefore stimulating to reflect on the idea of a space of belonging because, according to Hannah Arendt, such a space emerges wherever people come together to bring something new into being, wherever they engage in a collective poiesis. How, then, can one feel a sense of belonging to a place when, almost invariably—as if to reiterate an offence—one’s city of origin is specified rather than one’s region? Perhaps this land contains too many places to belong to, and too many sociological and geographical nuances. Here, mountains kiss the sea along lava-stone shores, while rivers disappear beneath the earth and wind through the hills.
Sicilian diversity is a proximity of differences, extraordinarily dense and compact, and this condition is reflected in the work of its artists. To trace this diversity within artistic production and research means confronting the duality of a peculiar form of isolation, one that is not simply a consequence of being an islander. On the one hand, this isolation is internal: it belongs to the territory itself and is produced by individuals who fail to establish dialogue and intellectual exchange around contemporary culture and art, allowing the latter to become little more than a superficial means of asserting difference.
On the other hand, the failure to recognise and positively value this diversity produces an external isolation directed inward: an art system that fails to perceive the potential inherent in such differentiation consequently marginalises Sicily’s artistic micro-system. Contrary to what might be expected, there is no need to construct a homogeneous corpus capable of scientifically defining Sicilian artistic production. What is essential is to identify and critically examine the spirit of diversity that characterises contemporary art in Sicily.
Engaging with each individual artist makes it possible to understand how deeply they experience—even when they conceal it—the weight of an absent or insufficient dialogue. If, as Giorgio Agamben argues, the contemporary artist is truly one who perceives the darkness of their own time as something that concerns them, then criticism has a responsibility to initiate this dialogue. It must support that spirit which, according to Kant, art should embody in order to present aesthetic ideas accessible through the senses—a spirit that is unmistakably present in Sicilian art today.
It is precisely through the multiplicity of individual practices and plurality of forms of representation that new arguments and perspectives can emerge, enabling artists and audiences alike to construct new meanings in relation to their own time.
"Societas Siciliae" is an opportunity to initiate this dialogue and to acknowledge the spirit of Sicilian diversity, affirming its undeniable value within art and throughout the system that sustains and represents it. Its purpose is not to consolidate or direct artistic research towards a common trajectory, but rather to recognise the potential of the individual stray dogs within a group to which, perhaps, they do not yet realise they belong.