Sebastiano Mortellaro

Born in Syracuse in 1974. Lives in Syracuse

Sebastiano Mortellaro's research makes use of many expressive means, especially videos and installations. His work often deals with his homeland, Sicily, the different aspects of which he tries to unearth. Popular traditions, the beauty of the landscape, and native Sicilians become protagonists of works that often conceal something bitter, insisting on the transformations the region has undergone over the last thirty years. This is the case in videos such as Caterpillar - D - 9 and Process-i-one, in which the artist compares the rural and industrialized landscape, even though the abandoned warehouses photographed in the area of Priolo, near Syracuse, become an index of a never fully achieved progress. In other works, instead, there is an evident touch of irony. Sicilian stereotypes (the gestures of a Mafia boss in the video 675/96) are distorted to mean something completely different, symbolizing how a land seeking rebirth must look carefully at its roots and its own historical memory. (A.T.)