ALFREDO PIRRI’S STEPS IN SICILY
Curated by Helga Marsala, Passi (Steps) – the latest installation by Alfredo Pirri – covers the entire surface of the Sala Ipostila in Castello Maniace, Siracuse. The temporary flooring is entirely made of fractured walkable mirrors reflecting the castle cross-vaults and sober Norman architecture. Thanks to the conceptual strength and visionary power of contemporary art, the resulting effect is a fascinating transformation of a thousand-yearold monument. The installation finds a way to redesign the environment, creating a perfect fusion of architecture, nature, history and contemporary art. This is, moreover, the largest edition of the work so far created in a closed space, and it is only second to the open-air one designed for the Forum of Caesar.
Visitors walking on such surface – which can be safely walked on thanks to the type of materials used – become the protagonists of a collective performance as they shatter the mirrors. Some archaeological findings from the Paolo Orsi Archaeological Museum in Syracuse “float” on the shattered floor as evidence surfaced from the abyss. These enter into a dialogue with the very lightcolored spheres created by the artist. They are heavy stone “bullets” from ancient catapults. In this context they have become mysterious metaphysical objects, having a strong symbolic and formal value.
Passi is the title of a series of installations by Alfredo Pirri, one of the major representatives of Italian contemporary art that has been active since the 1980s, which the artist has begun in 2003. The first successful one took place inside the Certosa di San Lorenzo in Padula (Salerno) and was curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. Since then, the project has been hosted in several historical sites, in Italy as well as abroad, and each time the name of the installation has slightly changed by integrating into its name that of the venue that hosted it. Among these are sacred buildings; cultural spaces such as the Yugoslav Film Archive in Belgrade and museums the likes of Museo Novecento in Florence. Venues have, however, also included archaeological sites such as the Forum of Caesar in Rome and industrial sites such as the former atomic bomb shelter in Konjic, Bosnia.