‘…In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps were no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers’ Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.’
— Suarez Miranda,Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV, Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658
Jorge Luis Borges, On Exactitude in Science, 1946
Trinacria’s Charm is an artistic exploration of the Sicilian territory through the lens of Archaeodreaming. The arching project focuses on the Sicilian historical stratigraphy, the material remains and their role in contemporary life, the Sicilian community and the possibility of imagining a Mediterranean future.
The arch of the project includes Legame Immisurabile and Zolfo Rosso.
Legame Immisurabile is a public space installation acquired by the village of Sant’Angelo Muxaro, in the province of Agrigento, Sicily. It is a spiral bench supported by a series of twin vases. The form of the vases is inspired by an archaeological object found in the local necropolis, belonging to the Sicans civilisation, dating to 600BCE.
Zolfo Rosso is a multimedia installation and experimental 16mm film about a fragment of Mediterranean history. Exploring the so-called ‘Arab-Norman’ period of Sicily through the lens of Al-Idrisi’s world map, the work composes a non-linear narrative that mixes history, dreams, and psychedelia to recount a poetic tale of re-enchantment. The story follows geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi on his quest to compile the ̄ ̄Tabula Rogeriana or Kitab nuzhat al-Mushtaq fı ikhtiraq al-afaq.