The reference and connection with one’s roots are the guiding themes of the exhibition “Terra Mater, Magna Graecia” dedicated to the creative genius of the designer from Reggio Gianni Versace, which will be visible from today, until 19 April 2026, at the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio.
The occasion coincides with the 80th anniversary of his birth. The exhibition which intertwines fashion, art and archaeology, putting the creative language of the founder of the Versace maison in dialogue with the roots of Magna Graecia, is curated by Sabina Albano and Fabrizio Sudano, director of the MArRC, promoter of the event, and is configured as a tribute to the symbolic force that has permeated the designer’s work, restoring the profound link between his creative vision and the ancient culture of his native land.
And in this direction, the mayor of Reggio Calabria, Giuseppe Falcomatà, wanted to add a preview on the naming of the Sea Museum under construction, after Gianni Versace. This links the name of the designer of the work, the starchitect Zaha Hadid, to one of the most revolutionary representatives of international fashion.
The exhibition itinerary develops in various thematic sections, including “Mother City”, “Visions of the South”, “Versace Code”, a reconstruction of his studio and a nucleus dedicated to sketches for costume and ballet, testimony to the collaborations with Maurice Béjart, John Cox and Roland Petit.
Through a selection of over 400 pieces, including clothes, accessories, furnishing accessories and archive materials, coming from private collections, including those of Franco Jacassi, Antonio Caravano and Tonino Serranò, the exhibition reconstructs the aesthetics of Gianni Versace, his constant inspiration from the Greco-Roman world, from the Meander motifs to the figure of the Medusa, icon of the Maison. In dialogue with the archaeological finds of Magna Graecia and proto-historic, Roman, late ancient and Byzantine Calabria, the exhibition creates an immersive journey that stages the continuity between myth and modernity, between classicism and contemporary language.
The collaboration with the Reggio area is the result of a synergy with the high school campus: Campanella classical high school, artistic high school and Preti-Frangipane art institute. Yesterday, during the presentation at the MArRc, contributions were made by Bruno Gianesi, head of the style office of Gianni Versace, the collector Franco Jacassi, the well-known Reggio artist Natino Chirico, a friend of the stylist himself who created a personal work of art that opens the exhibition itinerary, and the photographer Roberto Orlandi.
«With this exhibition we wanted to bring Gianni Versace back to his roots, restoring the profound dialogue that his creative vision has always had with the history and cultural identity of Calabria» declared Fabrizio Sudano. «The MArRC – he added – created this project as a symbolic bridge between ancient and contemporary: on the one hand the collections of the Reggio Museum, which houses the Bronzes and numerous figurative testimonies of Magna Graecia; on the other, the imagination of a stylist who was able to transform those references into an aesthetic language recognized throughout the world, offering the community and visitors a new look at the link between the territory and one of its most illustrious sons”.
For the curator Sabina Albano «the exhibition was born with the intention of returning Gianni Versace to the cultural context that profoundly oriented his creative vision, highlighting the structural and non-episodic relationship that his work had with the legacy of Antiquity». «Creating this exhibition project inside the Museum means bringing Versace back to the place of its memory and its deepest roots».
The exhibition is sponsored by the Calabria Region, the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria and the Calabria Film Commission. For the mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà «it is an extraordinary tribute to two very powerful symbols on which the identity and history of our city of Reggio Calabria are based. The eternal beauty, which spans the centuries, of the Riace Bronzes and of the other wonders kept in the National Archaeological Museum.” Anton Giulio Grande, president of the Calabria Film Commission, highlighted the location of the exhibition «a place of international culture such as the MArRC. Moreover, in the birthplace of Gianni Versace, his sublime source of inspiration.”
The exhibition will have further prominence thanks to Atam, represented by the administrator Giuseppe Basile, who has set up a bus totally dedicated to the event.