Contemporary Art Meets Archaeology at Palermo's Salinas Museum

The Museo Archeologico Regionale Antonino Salinas in Palermo has been expanding its spaces and collections, including the new Borbonic sections featuring artifacts like the bronze ram and the Heads of Cales. The museum's ongoing dialogue between ancient artifacts and contemporary art is embodied in the project "Quando le statue sognano" (When Statues Dream), curated by Helga Marsala with coordination by Caterina Greco and support from Coop Culture. Launched in late 2019 but interrupted by the pandemic, the first phase featured artists Ferdinando Scianna, Fabio Sandri, Alessandro Roma, Guido Bisagni, and Roselena Ramistella alongside rare artifacts from storage. The current exhibition, opened in May 2022, presents special projects by Masbedo and Francesco De Grandi, complemented by Iole Carollo's 2017 photo series "No Memory," which captures artifacts in storage. Masbedo's video "Un soffio in nulla" (A Breath into Nothing) from 2020 uses the mythological figure of Orpheus as a ghostly guide through the collection. De Grandi's "Piccola antologia del sogno nel mondo classico" reinterprets texts by nine classical authors including Cicero, Ovid, and Homer. A dense accompanying volume, also curated by Marsala with graphic design by Mimmo Rubino and Federico Lupo, includes archaeological notes by Sandra Ruvituso.