Here she is again in Taormina! She is the young priestess of Isiswith a melancholic face and an inspired and nostalgic look, which seems to go beyond everything, space or time, perhaps very far away, to the years in which this marble was sculpted, in the second century AD. Without her right hand, the priestess, carefully dressed, elegant, has her left arm turned downwards with the hand holding a small basket with a lid of woven wicker, one of the most recurring attributes in the figures concerning the goddess Isis, even in the cults that developed in ancient Sicily.
It’s just This precious statue, 1 meter and 37 cm high, was found in 1867 near the church of San Pancrazio and is returning to its hometown for the second time (located in the Salinas Museum in Palermo) to be the central pivot of an extraordinary exhibition that tells us about archaeological Taormina which was inaugurated yesterday evening at Palazzo Ciampoli – in the presence of the mayor of Taormina, Cateno De Luca, and Mirella Vinci, superintendent of cultural heritage of Messina – and which will remain open until November 30.
It is the central pivot for its artistic and historical value, but also or perhaps above all because it is the symbol of that the need, so far always frustrated, for the creation of an archaeological museum in Taorminaperhaps in Badia Vecchia, the ever-coveted building, already the site of a previous exhibition in 2001, and which the Municipality could now sell, with this intended use, to the Naxos Taormina Archaeological Park. So this exhibition, strongly desired by Gabriella Tigano, the last archaeologist to direct an archaeological park in this strange region (with equally strange regional laws on managers) that is Sicily, and now a few months away from retirement, takes stock, after two years of specific work and in a fascinating way thanks to three-dimensional visual reconstructions, of the research on the important past of the Ionian city.
«From the Taormina of the Greeks (Tauromenion) – as it is presented – to that of the Roman era (Tauromenium)». Told in the time span of its maximum splendor – from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD – “the city nestled on the slopes of Mount Tauro comes to life in its imposing scenographic layout, where every monument was conceived by the Greeks to be able to look out to sea”, and is the protagonist of the archaeological and multimedia exhibition entitled precisely “From Tauromenion to Tauromenium. The invisible city between history and archaeology”. The evident aim of the exhibition route, in fact, is to make visible what is not, where the fragmentary nature of the many finds brought to light in public and private excavations does not allow the usability typical of the most famous monuments: the Ancient Theatre, the Odeon and the Naumachia.
Now all the studies carried out by scientific and technical working groups, combined with the spectacular possibilities given by the 3D reconstruction of buildings and streets, allow us to recreate Taormina in what is called “immersive reality”doing justice to a very important concept in archaeology, that of a “site with continuity of life”, where there has been an uninterrupted human presence over the millennia.
: This retraces a story that begins shortly after the foundation of Naxos (734 BC), the first Greek colony in Sicily, with Sicilian-Greek settlements, followed by the official foundation of Tauromenion by Andromachus (358 BC), then with the dominion of Syracuse, before passing to that of Rome. With one constant characteristic: that of a prosperous city with autonomy. Until at the time of the Roman civil war, the choice to support Pompey turns out to be wrong and Octavian, having become the emperor Augustus, does not hesitate to deport the old inhabitants (21 BC), replacing them with his veterans. Tauromenion was born, with the common characteristic of being economically rich. All this is brought to life in six thematic sections, on the two floors of Palazzo Ciampoli. It starts from the traces of the Sicilian populations documented by the necropolis of Cocolonazzo: the origins, living and dwelling in Tauromenion/ium, the houses of men; public buildings, sacred places, necropolises, from the theater to the amphitheater, collecting. At the same time, an archaeological map, 3D reconstructions and a multimedia and immersive apparatus (video and video mapping) allow visitors to relive the experience of wandering through current alleys and inside the ancient city (civil and public buildings, such as the Baths, whose traces are behind the Carabinieri barracks).
«Taormina – reiterated the director of the Park, Gabriella Tigano – is a site with continuity of life, therefore its urban history, over a period of about 2500 years, becomes for us scholars a complex mosaic to reconstructan operation to be conducted with the necessary scientific rigor. We have tried to reconstruct it, cross-referencing documentary sources, mobile finds and ancient structures and, with the support of modern digital technologies, we have created a series of videos with 3D animations to give back to visitors from all over the world and of all ages the fascination of the monumental and scenographic city founded by the Greeks and which experienced centuries of peace and fortune even in Roman times».
His words yesterday at the inauguration were touching: «With this exhibition I pay my debt to the city of Taormina and to two people who, when I took office five years ago, proposed that I put on an exhibition on the ancient history of the city. They are the archaeologist Cettina Rizzo and the professor Francesca Gullotta who unfortunately is no longer with usI dedicate the exhibition to her and to her memory.”
In short, alongside finds of great beauty and importance, many never exhibited before (with loans from the Salinas Museum, as well as from the Superintendency of Palermo and the Archiepiscopal Seminary, also of Palermo, former Alliata di Villafranca collection), there is the possibility of experiencing the visions and sensations of a citizen of Taormina from many centuries ago.
According to the regional councilor for Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity, Francesco Paolo Scarpinato, the exhibition “is evidence of how the narration of an archaeological museum can and must adapt to contemporary languages in order to speak to different audiences and new generations”. How can we not agree with him, when the project is headed by the last of the archaeological directors, rather than agronomists and engineers (all excellent people, of course), choices that have brought Sicily to a very critical attention from the national press?
Who knows, Taormina could be a good opportunity to announce the launch of a law for cultural heritage managers more logically thought out. Likewise, the exhibition, with its scientific and spectacular evidence, calls the Region to the effort necessary for the launch of the long-awaited and now unpostponable Archaeological Museum.