Pietro Fortuna's S.I.L.O.S. at Macro Testaccio: Art as Prophecy

Pietro Fortuna (Padua, 1950) presents a site-specific exhibition titled S.I.L.O.S. at Macro Testaccio in Rome, comprising works created specifically for the venue. The acronym stands for 'Senza Illusione Le Occasioni Svaniscono' (Without Illusion, Opportunities Vanish). Fortuna, whose practice has long engaged with the idea that 'art is prophecy and not prediction,' uses the title not as a narrative cue but as a conferred merit. In an interview, he discusses the relationship between technique and destiny, arguing that every encounter—including his meeting with the interviewer—is not accidental but destined, a result of technical capacity. He critiques Western humanism and its reliance on illusion and hope, suggesting that deactivating these canons might reveal nature's reasons, though such experience would be beyond language. Fortuna sees contemporary art as often unwittingly producing 'rubble' due to a thought system that contemplates its own end. He dismisses the notion of a crisis in art, instead viewing it as the agony of a dogmatic, finalistic humanism. He expresses skepticism about other cultures regenerating this model, which has sold science as a promise, and expects no virtuous effect from globalization's hybrid forms.