The calendar of initiatives, exhibitions and events for the year 2025. After two hundred years, ten Greek vessels from the VI and V centuries B.C. return to Sicily from Germany
Agrigento Capital of Culture 2025: The calendar of events and initiatives dedicated to enhancing the Sicilian city, the municipalities of the province and the island of Lampedusa, comes into full swing as the new year rings in. Close to two million visitors are expected over the course of the year, with a 50% increase of arrivals for hotels and b&bs. The Fondazione Agrigento Capitale della Culture – a “machine” led by Roberto Albergoni – is gearing up to implement the 44 projects presented in the application dossier, including 17 international projects, for an overall budget of close to seven million euro (one million of which are state funds) and an economic return for the region estimated at around 35 million.
Welcoming and mobility are the two major themes around which the schedule will revolve – the leit motive are the four elements water, air, earth, fire – with a focus on involving the communities and in particular the younger generations.
One of the key projects is the “Museum of Sunken Ships around Lampedusa” by the Sicilian group Seap, which links art to recovery. And thanks to the collaboration with the artistic platform of the Hera Group, on January 18th – during the official inauguration of the calendar of events at the Teatro Pirandello in Agrigento, attended by the highest national institutional figures – there will be an unveiling of a painting of the Temple of Concordia, made with the wood of migrant boats. The works by Scart – the Hera Group’s artistic platform – will serve as a framework for the inauguration. Beside the Temple of Concordia, there will be other paintings on display, portraying international figures in the entertainment industry: from Alain Delon to Monica Vitti, and including Sofia Loren and Massimo Troisi. Figures that come to life using leather scraps, zippers, metal fibers, buttons, paper pulp and a thousand other waste products from Italian manufacturers, which in the Scart materials library become the raw material for shaping faces and expressions. The collaboration between Scart and Agrigento Italian Capital of Culture 2025 will continue throughout the year with the organisation of an actual exhibition of works in the territory of Agrigento.
The programme at the Teatro Pirandello titled “Symphonies of a Capital” has been announced: the events include a concert by Giovanni Allevi, a tribute to Ennio Morricone and a dance piece inspired by the Sicilian pupi. There will also be exhibitions by the Argentinian tenor José Cura and the Japanese soprano Eriko Sumiyoshi, as well as light music and jazz concerts on the streets of the city, with the Brass Group. On the schedule is also the “Franco e Ciccio patrimonio di Sicilia” award in honour of the comic duo. The opera-symphony concert season between March and December will feature Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Don Carlo, Vespri Siciliani, Christmas Arias. There will also be a second edition of the lyric opera concert “Valle dei Templi” before the year-end gala dinner .
Furthermore, thanks to the collaboration with Pesaro, the previous Capital of culture, and the city that will take over in 2026, L’Aquila, there will be a coproduction of Shakespeare’s Othello.
It will be directed by Giorgio Pasotti, the current director of the Teatro Stabile d’Abruzzo. But the true beating heart will be the archaeological park of the Valley of the Temples, with the FestiValle scheduled from August 7th to 10th. Through May 18th, the Archaeological Park will host the exhibition titled “From Girgenti to Munich. From Munich to Agrigento. The return of the vases by the Ciantro Panitteri” at the the Pietro Griffo Museum, an exceptional collection of ten antique Greek vessels from the VI and V centuries before Christ and a collection of 47 kraters and amphorae produced in Attica, which are being returned to Agrigento from Munich (temporarily, of course) after two hundred years. Meantime, the exhibition “The Treasures of Italy. The great art masterpieces” at Villa Aurea has been extended. This is an exhibition that celebrates the greatness of the artistic and cultural heritage in Italy, region by region, through over 60 masterpieces of Italian sculpture and painting from the most important regional and national civic museums and prestigious private collections. From January 10th to 15th, the second session of the Foundations’ exhibition dedicated to the twentieth century will take place.
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