On Sunday, February 22nd, at 5:00 PM, the prestigious Villa Cattolica in Bagheria will host the opening of the photography exhibition “Nostos” by three Sicilian artists: Giuseppe Lentini, Pietro Lo Buglio, and Antonella Messina, exponents of the “Transfigurative Photography” movement.
The exhibition, which opened on February 15th, aims to take visitors on a profound journey, both external and internal: a journey of images that explores memory, identity, and individual and collective perception. The title itself, “Nostos,” which in ancient Greek recalls the concepts of “return” and “journey” (and which we find at the root of the word “nostalgia”), suggests the journey as a journey of inner exploration for a return to oneself.
“Nostos” is distinguished by its exhibition structure: the works are presented in triptychs, or groups of three photographs, one by each artist. These are not simple juxtapositions of images, but a true “dialogue” between the artists, an exchange of letters in which images replace words. Three photographs, a triptych, a single choral work playing on natural, provocative, or condescending exchanges. The photographs on display, in line with the principles of Transfigurative Photography, aim to express photography’s ability to convey emotions, transforming the visible into a bridge to the invisible and to deeper feelings. Each shot is a fragment of this journey, an invitation to reflection that goes beyond mere aesthetic representation. The opening, moderated by City Councilor Giusy Chiello, will feature the participation of Bagheria’s Mayor Filippo Tripoli and Councilor for Culture Daniele Vella. The event will be presented by Bagheria-born screenwriter and novelist Paolo Pintacuda and will offer an important opportunity to explore the language of photography. The inauguration will include a talk with Anna Fici, Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes at the University of Palermo, who will discuss how individual and collective photographic work is conceived today, as a miracle of affinities and confluences.
Finally, Enza Manila Raimondo, Researcher in Didactics and Special Pedagogy at the University of Enna “Kore”, will participate and offer her own interpretative reading of some of the triptychs on display.
Giuseppe Lentini, a lawyer from Palermo, Pietro Lo Buglio, a sports coach from Bagheria, and Antonella Messina, an architect from Trapani, have been collaborating for years on landscape photography research. With a larger group of photographers belonging to the “Transfigurative Photography” movement, they have organized exhibitions and catalogs that have met with considerable public success. With “Suspended Cities – Investigation of the Landscape,” an exhibition and catalog by 40 photographers from across Italy, they have exhibited in Pesaro, Naples, Milan, Erice (TP), Locarno (Switzerland), and at the “Letizia Battaglia” International Center of Photography in Palermo. “Nostos” was exhibited last May in Trapani, at the Complesso Monumentale di San Domenico, and will be presented in Palermo in July at the “Letizia Battaglia” International Center of Photography.