20 Saints for the City - Venti Santi per la Città

Mother Mary, All For Silver, is a permanent installation in Piazza Aragona in Palermo’s historic district as part of 20 Santi per la Città. Twenty Saints for the City is an artistic and cultural initiative for the display of contemporary iconography coupled with the restoration and revitalization of abandoned votive shrines that lay empty throughout Palermo’s historic center. The project’s original aim was to offer artistic continuity that had been halted by the various restrictions the pandemic brought.

Selecting the theme of Saints and their lives was a way of reviving a symbolic hope in the world. The south of Italy, like many places throughout the world, faced complicated times of uncertainty during the pandemic, and collectively our worlds turned towards our inner resources to rediscover older, traditional and authentic ways of being. Iconography became a symbolic tool for rebuilding the world. The art found the perfect reflection in the way it was displayed – in old abandoned shires that lay neglected in Palermo’s historic center. The revitalization of these empty votive spaces with striking, fresh, contemporary art has in turn offered new hope and inspiration to those artists involved, the viewer, the visitors and inhabitants of the city.

Venti Santi per la Città was conceived by Luca Lo Sicco and David Carrigan and produced by APPA Museum, whose mission is to support contemporary art and poetry while preserving history and building bridges between artists, publics and other types of communities.