Carmelo Nicotra's Panorama Quotidiano at Fondazione Bartoli-Felter, Cagliari

Carmelo Nicotra's first solo exhibition in Cagliari, titled 'Panorama Quotidiano,' opens at Fondazione per l'Arte Bartoli-Felter, curated by Martina Carcangiu. The show explores collective memory through collages, sculptures, a site-specific installation, and a video. Nicotra, born in Agrigento in 1983, employs an anthropological approach to investigate illegal building and unfinished structures in the Agrigento area, focusing on the historic center of Favara where demolitions have altered the urban landscape. The exhibition includes fragments of house walls with original pastel colors and geographic coordinates, alongside collages reconstructing facades before demolition. Nicotra draws on Bernard Rudofsky's concept of 'architecture without architects,' featuring reinforced concrete constructions with kitsch decorations and brutalist elements, recreated as a large digital collage on blueback paper. His sculptures, such as 'Tavolino,' 'Mensola,' and 'Vetrinetta,' combine pastel geometric forms with recovered 1950s furniture, blending minimalism and baroque to highlight the contrast between interior care and exterior neglect. The artist states that behind architecture and illegal building are people and their aesthetic concepts, often creating interesting forms despite lack of respect for rules. The exhibition runs at the Fondazione per l'Arte Bartoli-Felter in Cagliari.