Brief
The Academy of Fine Arts of Catania, in partnership with the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara, launched the visual communication project Urgenze. Parole e immagini per il presente (Urgencies. Words and Images for the Present), a public poster campaign addressing the most pressing issues of our time. The initiative includes a call for 25 original posters designed by third-year BA students, MA students, “cultori della materia,” and PhD candidates of the XL cycle, all invited to translate contemporary urgencies into powerful visual and textual narratives for public space.
In a context marked by global crises—wars and rearmament, the erosion of democratic consensus, new colonial dynamics, climate emergency, overtourism and gentrification, technological anxiety around automation and algorithms, and the systematic attack on human and gender rights—the project asks participants to take a stance through participation, imagination and visual resistance. The selected posters are printed in 100 x 140 cm format and displayed in the streets of Catania, Messina, Ragusa and Siracusa, transforming the city into an open-air exhibition and creating an accessible digital archive that documents the works and the overall event.
Concept
Narc1s0 evokes the crisis of human identity in the technological‑digital age and in the age of AI. New technologies make us aspire to perfection, but they generate dependence, a sense of inadequacy, and social paralysis. They have become unsettling mirrors of what we would like to be and what we fear becoming, constantly feeding new desires and fears.
From tools of support, technologies have turned into potential substitutes that confront us with the fear of failure and with a pervasive feeling of not being enough. In this scenario, the myth of Narcissus is updated: humankind risks drowning its last shred of humanity in efficiency and performance, losing authenticity and relationships. A conscious awakening is needed to resist the dangerous fascination of a technological ego that suffocates our truest dimension, and to invite us to acknowledge the complexity of our time and defend our humanity.
Credits
Project “Urgenze. Words and Images for the Present,” promoted by the Academy of Fine Arts of Catania in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara within the national project “City Open Museum” (PNRR – Investment 3.4 Advanced University Education and Skills).
Authors
Leonardo Barcio, Elisa Colletti, Chiara Contino, Gabriele D’Amico, Lucia Debole, Fabio Finocchiaro, Giuseppe Graziano, Lucia Lamacchia, Maria Lazzaro, Margherita Malerba, Giulia Marchese, Leonardo Mazzeo, Lucia Orsina, Flavia Papa, Roberto Puliafito, Morena Ragusa, Rachele Romano, Rossella Santapaola, Serena Scarito, Fabrizio Sciacca, Carla Scolaro, Martina Speciale, Gaia Stella Messina, Roberta Trapani, Elisa Trovato.
Photos
Anastasio Simona, Aprile Carla Sebastiana.