Agata on the road 2023

After two years, the most attended religious festival in the world, S. Agata, returns to the scene. The OELLE Mediterraneo Antico ETS Foundation proposes for the third consecutive year the Agata on the road project, which aims to contribute to the story of the uniqueness of this religious and popular festival based on a transversal and contagious devotion. The devotion for Agata has become an artistic and scientific project of the Foundation, full of exhibitions and events spread under the banner of contemporary, produced and shared with institutions, organizations, and businesses in the area. This year, several places in Catania are involved, from the church of San Nicolò l’Arena to the central building of the University, from Isola and Libreria Prampolini to the fOn Art Gallery in Aci Castello.

The central nave of the church of S. Nicolò l'Arena hosted the photographic work “Agata on the road” (2017) by Carmelo Nicosia, printed in a circular shape on canvas applied to wood with a diameter of 6 meters and two giant photographs by photographer Phil Stern on the war in Sicily in 1943. The exhibition From the Christian icon to the contemporary myth took place at the central building of the University of Catania, which welcomed some representations of Agata linked to different cultures and artistic fields. At the fOn Art Gallery of the Oelle Foundation, the exhibition of 18 photographs by the great Swiss contemporary artist Urs Lüthi, taken in Catania in previous years during the feast of St. Agatha and works by national and international artists, students and amateur photographers, selected from the Foundation's archive and from the new contributions of the Call for entries Agata on the road 2023. In addition, two other exhibitions, Words and sounds for Agata (with a sound installation by Michele Spdaro), took place at Isola, and Agata Off, at the historic Prampolini bookshop where works by Gabriele Diego Bonsangue were exhibited.

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