Maria Domenica Rapicavoli's 'Make This Earth Home' at Otranto's Torre Matta

The exhibition 'Make This Earth Home' by Maria Domenica Rapicavoli (born 1976) opened at Torre Matta in Otranto's Aragonese Castle, following an artist residency. Rapicavoli, a Catania-born artist now based in New York, typically makes power structures tangible but here focuses on Otranto's layered identity: the recent restoration of Torre Matta by local institutions, artisanal traditions, historical depth from prehistoric sites to modern times, and the unique meeting of the Adriatic and Ionian seas. The installations at Torre Matta offer an immersive aesthetic experience, while sculptural seats on the Lungomare foster relational engagement. The works reference the four elements (water, air, earth, fire) and the coastal landscape, including the red earth of Lago Cava di bauxite. Local artisans produced pieces using traditional materials: terracotta, Lecce stone, and papier-mâché. The generative core is the Grotta dei Cervi in Porto Badisco, a Neolithic archaeological site with pictograms and artifacts revealing ancestral matriarchal societies. Rapicavoli's concave forms—caves, amphorae, shells—echo these ancient symbols of hospitality and the regenerative power of the Great Mother Earth. The exhibition was curated by a team including an international visual culture theorist and an art historian. The article was written by Emanuela Termine for Artribune.