Tra mito e sacro. Opere dalle collezioni capitoline di arte contemporanea (Between myth and sacred. Works from the Capitoline collections of contemporary art)

The exhibition at the Carlo Bilotti Museum Aranciera di Villa Borghese investigates the relationship between contemporary art and the dimension of sacredness, through a selection of works from the MACRO collection. The exhibition is part of the initiatives promoted by the Capitoline Superintendency on the occasion of the Jubilee Year 2025.

The exhibition itinerary, divided in five sections, includes about thirty works by great artists of the 20th and 21st centuries from the Capitoline collections - such as the Gallery of Modern Art, the Carlo Bilotti Museum, the Palazzo Braschi  Museum in Rome and the Superintendence's Contemporary Art Collection - which are very different works from each other in terms of aesthetics, concept, languages, materials, styles and type of installation, united however by the common purpose of reinterpreting the themes of myth and the sacred through their own original vision.

Among the works on display, we would like to point out, among others, the large installation by Alessandra Tesi entitled Cattedrale (Cathedral), which can be visited again after ten years thanks to which one can immerse oneself in the sacredness of an authentic place of worship, the triptych by Alessandro Valeri entitled Universal Keyboard, which invites a reflection on milk as an element that has a particularly sacred and spiritual value for human beings, the Venus by Mario Ceroli, serially reproduced on gilded wooden tiles in the work Goldfinger Miss, the work La cera di Roma (The wax of Rome) by Alessandro Piangiamore, made with the wax of votive candles melted in the churches of the Capital, the abstract sculptures by Leoncillo Leonardi, like San Sebastiano and Taglio rosso (Red cut), which convey, both metaphorically and deeply, the perception of pain, the angelic face of the work entitled Trascendente (Trascendent) by Carlo Maria Mariani, studded with burning flames, the praying skeleton by Marc Quinn, a life-size work of great visual and emotional impact, an emblem of the transience of human life, which is connected to past works on the theme of vanitas.

Finally, a special focus, outside of public collections, is dedicated to Sidival Fila, a Franciscan friar minor, artist and President of the homonymous philanthropic foundation, who has been studying for several years the aesthetic relationship between waste materials that experience a renewed utility in the work of art.

Photo: Carlo Maria Mariani, Transcendent (2010), pencil, tempera and collage, Rome, Capitoline Superintendency, MACRO deposits