“Agata on the road” is an annual event, now in its fifth edition, focused on the Patron Saint of Catania, narrated and interpreted by the multifaceted expressions of contemporary art and is an event that follows the Catania celebrations of the very popular Feast of Sant’Agata. This year too, the project takes shape in an exhibition, conceived by the Fondazione OELLE Mediterraneo Antico ETS in the spaces of the fON Art Gallery, in the Sicilian town of Aci Castello, known for its mythological legends that link it to Polyphemus. It is an experimental project with underground characteristics, which intends to focus not only on the pagan and cultural dimension of the festivity, but also to investigate the relationship between Agata and the streets, Agata and the sounds, Agata and her devotees.
Erika Allia, “Carne”, 2024, series of 4 photographic prints, courtesy of the artist and Fondazione OELLE – fON Art Gallery
Although the idea was born during the Covid emergency with the intent of giving voice to the population forced by the pandemic to a silent devotion, its mission has grown and diversified over the years in the constant search for languages within the many visual arts from our time. The exhibition itinerary, created with the support of curators Gianluca Collica and Patrizia Monterosso, is divided into four sections (State Changes, A Year with Agata, The Archive and Unplugged) and develops across all five floors of the Fon Art Gallery, involving, for the first time, artists from all over Europe.
Marta Ciolkowska, “Clones”, 2024, installation, 300 x 300 x 300 cm, courtesy the artist and Fondazione OELLE – fON Art Gallery
The Contest section with the focus State Changes was conceived by curator Mario Bronzino, who explained that he chose the sense of process to focus on the «instants of transformation, those subtle but decisive moments that influence the course of things, from physics to human experience, from society to art». In fact, the twenty selected artists proposed heterogeneous works in which the cult of Saint Agatha is seen as a mutant body. This is evidenced by the photographic work Carne by Erika Allia with the blood stains on the epidermis, while with Marta Ciolkowska the metamorphosis is expressed in the seriality that becomes Clone, an installation of profiles of anonymous devotees suspended and light.
Laura Daddabbo, “Ellenica”, 2023, photographic print, 40 x 60 cm, courtesy the artist and Fondazione OELLE – fON Art Gallery
On the contrary, the well-known Catanian cake – “minnuzza” di Sant’Agata – stands out for its sense of weight and materiality at the beginning of the route, presented by Salvatore Pulvirenti with a powerful minimalism and hyper-realistic tones next to a pair of pliers as a reference to tradition and to the torturers who cut off the breast of the patron saint with pliers. Instead, with Laura Dabbaddo there is a female figure, a fleeting apparition between real and unreal in a dreamlike dimension. In the section A year with Agata we find the works of the two Sicilian artists Gaetano Gambino and Luisa Gentile. The latter stood out with the only stringart work exhibited: an unusual and three-dimensional version of the saint’s breast that becomes an enormous geometric motif with the tension of the strings. Both are the winners of last year’s contest, as evidence of a fruitful long-term research and production work that falls within the objectives of the Foundation.
Salvatore Pulvirenti, “Torci”, 2024, plywood sheet: 20 x 20 cm, objects 4.5 x 20 cm, oil on plywood and pliers, courtesy the artist and Fondazione OELLE – fON Art Gallery
Finally, The archive is made up of a collection of works from the Agata on the road Archive: a heritage built through acquisitions, donations and loans during the previous editions of the project. It is no coincidence, in this regard, that Ornella Laneri, president of the Foundation, declared that «over the years the project has moved away from the documentary approach focused on the cult of the Saint, to stimulate and push contemporary artistic research to the extreme». In fact, the absolute novelty of the 2025 edition is Unplugged: a small part of the exhibition that brings together drawings, paintings, video art, sculpture, sound art with Sicilian artists such as Barbara Cammarata, Michele Spadaro and Carmelo Bongiorno, who propose their personal poetics, not directly related to the theme, shifting the focus more on the dimension of contemporary art as a look at the present.
Adriana Torregrossa, “N.O.P.A.Q.U.I.E”, 2024, 50 x 400 cm, linen cloth with gold embroidery, courtesy of the artist and Fondazione OELLE – fON Art Gallery
In fact, since its birth in 2017, the foundation has wanted to propose itself as a new incubator of visions and projects that enhance the art, history and cultures of the Mediterranean because part of the art from our time is also imbued with civilizations, syncretisms, dialogues and devotional heritage, between the sacred and the profane.
Info:
VV.AA. Agata on the road
9/02/2025 – 30/03/2025
fON Art Gallery
Aci Castello (CT) – Via Antonello da Messina 45
Fondazione OELLE – fON Art Gallery
fondazioneoelle.com
is a contemporary art magazine since 1980
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