CTONIO

27 May - 10 July 2026 Isola Catania

Cthonic represents the culmination of a year-long journey between SARP and the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania, a journey of site visits, research, critical reflection, collaborative work, and exchange. Throughout this process, students engaged not only with fellow artists and cultural practitioners, but also with professionals from diverse fields of knowledge, enriching the project through interdisciplinary dialogue.
The exhibition emerged from a partnership with SARP – Artists Residency & Gallery in Sicily, located in Linguaglossa on the northern slopes of Mount Etna. Through the generosity and vision of its Artistic Director, Alfio Puglisi, students were welcomed into both the historic family palace and the residency spaces hosting international artists from around the world. This unique opportunity enabled them to establish a profound relationship with the Etnean landscape and with the volcano itself.
Their investigation extended beyond the human–nature relationship, exploring the myths, legends, and symbolic narratives associated with Etna, while also engaging with ethical, existential, and anthropological questions. The volcano became both a physical presence and a conceptual framework through which to examine transformation, memory, coexistence, and the forces that shape individual and collective experience.
The four artists featured in the exhibition—Teodoro Agricola with Holobiont, Aldo D’Amato with Entropy, Paola Gusmano with Caligine, and Sebastiano Maccarrone with Maintain, Operate and Possess—employ distinct visual languages and diverse technical and conceptual methodologies. By investigating the dialogue between the two spaces involved in the project, SARP and Isola, and by responding to the multiple layers of inquiry offered by the Etnean territory, they have successfully translated a shared educational experience into a series of mature and thoughtfully articulated works.
The exhibition stands as evidence of a process in which artistic research, critical thinking, and practical experimentation converged, overcoming both technical and conceptual challenges to produce a coherent and compelling body of work.