Paladino's "Dormienti" Installation at ArtsLife

Mimmo Paladino's installation "I Dormienti" (The Sleepers) is on view at an undisclosed venue, as reported by ArtsLife. The work consists of thirty-two terracotta figures cast from the same mold, rearranged according to the space. Inspired by Henry Moore's shelter drawings from World War II, the figures depict sleeping, huddled bodies. The installation evokes a sense of sacred, communal humanity, with fragments and relics rather than full forms. Critic Lorenzo Madaro describes the figures as "remains, earthly relics, fragments guarding a threshold." The text, written in first person, immerses the reader in the space, noting details like a woman covered with half-amphorae, a man under slabs, and references to Odysseus and Nausicaa. The installation is compared to Paladino's earlier "Seven Heavenly Palaces" at Hangar Bicocca but deemed more human. The writer expresses a desire for the exhibition to be permanent, a refuge for humanity.