Renato Leotta
EROS E PSYCHE
Il progetto non è motivato da una semplice rivendicazione territoriale di questi reperti, ma vuole interrogare i modi in cui l’archeologia e il patrimonio culturale entrano a fare parte di meccanismi identitari
Renato Leotta, EROS E PSYCHE, 2021, Carcaci, Centuripe (EN), Sicilia. Ph. Luca Guarnieri
The works of Renato Leotta (Turin, 1982) come from a careful and prolonged observation of a place or a landscape. In his search for the boundaries and limits of the two-dimensionality of the image, he often refers to literature in the choice of the titles of his works and in the texts that accompany his exhibitions. Among his most recent solo exhibitions are: ‘Sole’, Castello di Rivoli, in 2020 and in 2019, at the Magazzino Italian Art Foundation and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò in New York. In 2019, he won the Italian Fellows American Academy Award in Rome.
Centuripe is a Sicilian village of 5,172 residents in the province of Enna, which is 63 km away. The origins of «Centuorbi» as it is known in Sicilian dialect, go back to prehistoric times. The Archaeological Museum presents the city’s history and topography, its inhabited sites and economic activities; it also preserves local terracotta works from the Hellenistic period, with masks and statues that showcase the high technical levels that were already being reached at that time. The territory still has many sulfur mines, which were actively used until the 1920s. The economy is mainly agricultural and livestock-oriented, and citrus fruits from the surrounding valley are abundant.