Luigi Presicce's bronze relief installed at Conversano Castle

A bronze bas-relief by Luigi Presicce, titled 'La lotta imperitura con gli Ottomani', has been permanently installed at the Castello di Conversano as part of the 'Arte Open Air. Sculture all'aperto' project. Promoted by the Fondazione Pino Pascali within the 'SAC Mari tra le mura' initiative, the project aims to create an open-air contemporary art museum across multiple sites in Puglia. Curated by Rosalba Branà, Antonio Frugis, Susanna Torres, and Nicola Zito, the initiative also includes installations at the Castello di Mola di Bari, the Museo del Fischietto di Rutigliano, and the sculpture garden of the Fondazione Pino Pascali in Polignano a Mare. Presicce, a Salento-born artist, adopted an unusual medium for this work, blending references from the Moorish world and holy war imagery. The piece draws on local artistic heritage, specifically Paolo Finoglio's 'Duello tra Raimondo di Tolosa ed Argante' from the Gerusalemme liberata cycle at the Pinacoteca comunale di Conversano, and extends to Pasolini's Medea, incorporating a bestiary that merges Christian West and Hindu East. The work offers a metastorical focus on modern religious conflicts, set against a contemporary backdrop of fundamentalism.