Posthumous Exhibition in Lecce Honors Curator Brizia Minerva's Vision

The exhibition "The future image. Scavi sull'Oriente" by Heba Y. Amin with Vincenzo Valente, now on view in Lecce, is a posthumous tribute to curator Brizia Minerva, who died in May 2026. The show, held at the Museo Castromediano and the former church of San Francesco della Scarpa, explores the distorted image of the Orient perpetuated by European colonial culture, including through 19th-century photography. It is one of the winning projects of the PAC – Piano per l'Arte Contemporanea, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Culture. Heba Y. Amin, an Egyptian artist born in Cairo in 1980, presents her first solo exhibition in Italy, reinterpreting the 19th-century painter Vincenzo Valente (Specchia, 1846 – Naples, 1889), whose work was influenced by Orientalism and Neapolitan verismo. Brizia Minerva, an art historian and curator at the Museo Castromediano, had dedicated significant effort to this project before her death. The cultural community of Puglia, including the University of Salento, honored her by attributing the posthumous curatorship of this complex exhibition to her. Minerva was known for her scientific rigor and dedication to the valorization of Puglia's museum heritage, including the restyling of the Pinacoteca of the Lecce museum. She also curated exhibitions on Salento's 20th-century artists such as Ezechiele Leandro and Edoardo De Candia, and managed the Carmelo Bene archive, acquired by the Puglia Region in 2019. The exhibition runs until September 7, 2026.