October in Palermo: a trip through the Sicilian city in the name of contemporary Art

Until the 4th of November, the city is hosting the 12th edition of the Biennial Exhibition of European Art dedicated to the principles of coexistence.

The perfect destination for autumn and for those looking for milder temperatures also in October and November, this year Palermo welcomes you in the name of contemporary art. Until November 4th, the city that symbolizes the thousand-year-old culture of Sicily, hosts the 12th edition of Biennale of European Art Exhibition, entitled Il Giardino Planetario. Cultivate coexistences. The exhibition includes 50 artists, takes place in 20 locations in and around Palermo, presenting 50 projects including 35 specially commissioned works. And then the interventions of intellectuals, writers, architects, directors, invited to conduct research in the field and to develop new projects working closely with the fabric of the city.

A trip to the secret places of the historic center, paths that draw the profile of the less known city, ancient buildings otherwise closed now reopened to the public. It is a unique itinerary, that offers you the Sicilian city in this season, giving you, at the same time, a cross-section of the most significant expressions of international contemporary art. The offices are open every day, except Monday, until November 4 from 10 to 20. The official guide can be found by downloading the Manifesta12 app.

What to see? Here are the hostelsClub signed advice.

1. THE BOTANICAL GARDEN

Credit: Exhibition Photo by Cave Stusio

The Botanical Garden of Palermo, source of inspiration for the curatorial project of Manifesta 12, was planted in 1789 and inaugurated in December 1795. It became part of the Royal University of Palermo at the time of its foundation, in 1806, the same time as when the first botanist position was established. Since then it has grown thanks to the Palermo Botanical School which made possible both the establishment of the gardens and subsequent structural extensions and collections kept there. Here, among the imposing ficus, the bamboo groves and the palms of every kind, exhibit eight artists: in one of the greenhouses the herbals of the installation News Herbs from Palermo and Surroundings by the Colombian artist Alberto Baraya are hung on the branches of the plants (1968), which builds a surprising parallel between the city's flora and its religious and popular traditions. The work of Leone Contini (1976) Foreign Farmers is not to be missed, who analyzed the rural activities conducted by migrants' communities to meet their dietary needs throughout Italy for ten years. The Tour of Manifesta 12 is inspired by the Botanical Garden and by the guiding image of the kermesse that was identified in the painting Veduta di Palermo (1875) by Francesco Lo Jacono, where the depicted plants are not native but coming from the Middle East, Australia, Japan and Mexico.

2. THE CASE OF ZHENG BO: THE CHINESE ARTIST ACCUSED OF PORNOGRAPHY

Credits: Corriere del Mezzoggiorno, 6 August 2018.

It is precisely among the delightful vegetation of the Botanical Garden that the controversy in the video installation Pteridophilia broke out in mid-August. It is a thirty-seven minute work produced by the Chinese artist Zheng Bo in which seven boys are seen having sex with plants in the Taiwanese forest. The video deals with the theme of dendrofilia: in other words, a form of fetishism that consists of sexual attraction for trees and plants in general, so that those who practice can come to a sexual relationship with plants. In truth, the work that has been accused of pornography, above all due to the fact that it is exposed in a public place, tells of an ancient practice whose origin dates back to some tribes of South America who used to occasionally ejaculate on trunks tree in a ritual manner. In addition to comments on Facebook, some politicians intervened, stigmatizing the possibility that the video will be seen even by children and request that the installation be removed. The director of the Botanical Garden, Rosario Schicchi, says: 'From the beginning I asked to place a sign with content not suitable for children under 16 written and headphones to be inserted so that you do not hear the video sound and required that there be staff to watch.' At the moment the work is still on display, it is until November 4th you will have time to see it live.

3. THE STATE ARCHIVES

Credits: Exhibition, Masbedo, Sala delle Capriate, Palermo Historical Archive

Among the most evocative of works and which has garnered greater critical and public success is the installation of the Masbedo, Protocol no. 90/6, hosted in the Sale delle Capriate of the Historical Archive of Palermo, a place that had fallen into abandonment before the artistic intervention. The challenge was to place a site-specific work in an emblematic context, safeguarding the atmosphere, the half-light and the intervals of light. Centuries of history collected in dusty folders are the horizon in which the work signed by the artistic duo composed by Nicolò Massazza (1973) and Iacopo Bedogni (1970) is located. "A Sicilian puppet - a wooden puppet animated by Mimmo Cuticchio and hand-built specifically for this video installation by his family - moves in a video stage, is placed at the top like an icon, behind a suspended curtain made of cables and led lights ", reads the presentation of the work. "The installation, set up in this abandoned historic building, is inspired by the vicissitudes of the director Vittorio De Seta. Several times, during his professional career, De Seta underwent the control of the Authorities". It is a work that investigates the reasons for power and the paradigms of history, certainly worth more than a visit, especially in the sweet days of autumn in Palermo.

4. BALLARO'

Credits: Ballarò, Palermo, Photo by Pietro De Angelis.

A tour in Ballarò is unmissable, a market located in the heart of the historic center of Palermo, near the Central Station and the Royal Palace and is the place that expresses the multicultural soul of Palermo. In the Middle Ages it was the market for fine meat, fish and spices that came from the Deccan, transported by caravans that entered the city from Ballarò, built in the area near the mosque, on the model of the Arab souks. It is the oldest of the four historical markets (Vucciria, Capo, Lattarini, Ballarò) and the one that has survived best, maintaining the dynamic and colorful character of a popular market, animated by day with stalls and attended by young university students that are found in taverns for the aperitif in the evening. On the occasion of Manifesta12, Ballarò is the theater for the Myopia exhibition by the sculptor Salvatore Rizzuti at the medieval tower of San Nicolò. An itinerary among the shops of Ballarò; a tour to discover the city where the experience of migrant communities will be traced, of which we invite you to visit the official website of the kermesse to know the upcoming dates scheduled for November.

5. THE ARABO-NORMANNE HOMES

Credits: Palermo, Palazzo Conte Federico.

The whole history of Palermo in two noble palaces - Palazzo Conte Federico and Palazzo Asmundo - a tour in the secret city offered in the program of the collateral events of Manifesta12. Palazzo Conte Federico is one of the oldest and most prestigious buildings in Palermo. It is located a few steps from the Royal Palace, the Palatine Chapel and the Cathedral. It incorporates an ancient gateway to the city, Porta Busuemi (from the Arabic "Bab el Soudan" Porta dei Negri). The oldest part of the building is an Arab-Norman tower of the twelfth century, called "Tower of Scrigno", was placed over the walls to defend the city and also constituted the access with the door of Busuemi. You can admire two beautiful mullioned windows in the tower today, a Norman and an Aragonese where we find the authentic crests of the City of Palermo, the Swabians and the Aragonese that governed it. More recently, the construction of Palazzo Asmundo dates back to 1615. The building was completed in 1767. "The noble house of the cassaro of Giuseppe Asmondo is to be seen in Vidi," says the Marquis of Villabianca in "The Palermo of today". Before the Marquess of Sessa owned it, the Palace belonged to the Joppolo family of the Princes of S. Elia. The palace, a plaque reminds us of this, welcomed Maria Cristina, daughter of Ferdinando III, refugees from Naples with her husband Carlo, Duke of Genoa and Sardinia. Another plaque on the main façade testifies that in this palace, respectively, in 1821 and 1822, Anna Turrisi Colonna and her sister Giuseppina, a painter and art critic the first, poetess the second, were born. The mortars, the stuccos of the Serpottiana school, the Venetian blinds and the Baroque doors, the frescoes with allegories by Gioacchino Martorana, the eighteenth-century alcove with its putti, its branches and the turtledoves that weave the love nest, are a real treasure trove of art making its collections even more precious.

6. PALAZZO COSTANTINO

Credits: Palazzo Costantini, Manifesta.

Last stop of our tour at Manifesta12 is Palazzo Costantino which is part of the City on Stage section of Il Giardino Planetario. Cultivating Coexistence and guest the works of Jelili Atiku, Matilde Cassani, Masbedo, Roberto Collovà, Coloco & Gilles Clément and the Rotors. The palace is located in the northeastern canton of the Quattro Canti (the canton of Sant'Oliva) and was built by Giuseppe Merendino in the second half of the eighteenth century, on a seventeenth-century structure. Following the purchase by the Marquis Giuseppe Costantino, the building was the subject of a renovation project designed by the architect Venanzio Marvuglia, which combined traditional elements of the eighteenth century with characteristics of the emerging neoclassical style. The main halls were decorated with stuccowork, frescoes by Gioacchino Martorana, precious Louis XV and Louis XVI furniture in carved and gilded wood and eighteenth-century majolica floors such as the one representing The Birth of Venus of Neapolitan manufacture "Barberio". The frescoes in the other rooms are instead of Giuseppe Velasco, Elia Interguglielmi and Gaspare Fumagalli. Do not miss the two videos of Yuri Ancarani (1972), a historical collaborator of Maurizo Cattelan, in the City on Stage section, projected in the Oratory of Our Lady of the Refuge of Pentitical Sinners. The first, Whipping Zombie, documents a voodoo ritual in a village in Haiti; the other video, Lapidi, shows the relationship between tourism and the urban testimonies of the mafia killings.

Our tour of contemporary art ends here ... if you are lucky enough to visit these magnificent places in person, consider that it is advisable to stay at least 2 days to see everything with ease. And here we can help you because on HostelsClub you find a wide range of B & Bs, cheap hotels and hostels in Palermo. Some examples? A property that is definitely worth trying is the A Casa di Amici hostel, not only because it is cheap, central and full of excellent services, but also because the managers organize tours, cultural activities and even music courses for the guests (the stage of percussion is a must!). If you prefer the comfort and privacy of a hotel, you can count on the Rainbow Hotel, which has super comfortable rooms at unbeatable prices. These are just two examples, but if you do a search with the booking form below you will see that you are really spoiled for choice and surely you will find what is right for you!