Sergio Fiorentino protagonist in the village of Radda in Chianti

The project – curated by Mila Sturm and organized by Radda Estate d’Arte, whose president is Barbara Widmer – was born in the wake of the experience of Panzano Arte 2019 and renews the encounter between contemporary art and landscape in the Chianti area. The initiative is carried out thanks to the support of: Fondazione Caris, main sponsor; Municipality of Radda in Chianti; of the companies Brancaia, Edilchianti, Frontiers, Montevertine, Tuscany Green, Castello di Albola, Tenuta Terrabianca-Arillo in Terrabianca. It also stands out for the collaboration with the “Duccio di Buoninsegna” Art High School in Siena, which began in February 2026, up to the staging of the exhibition, with masterclasses and workshops, in which twenty-three students participated.

A recurring visual element throughout the exhibition is Fiorentino’s pictorial style, made up of intense and layered tones, in which ultramarine blue dialogues with a constellation of figures, faces and suspended presences. Saints, apparitions and human fragments emerge from the facades of the village in a continuous balance between memory, spirituality and vision. They thus evoke a timeless and symbolic dimension, where the image seems to emerge from an internal, mythical and contemplative place. The exhibition itinerary develops both in the village of Radda and in the beautiful Church of Santa Maria Novella, a few kilometers away towards Volpaia, recently opened to the public after long years of restoration begun in 1990. The building, one of the most notable examples of Romanesque parish churches in the area, houses four large paintings of saints by Sergio Fiorentino which establish an intimate relationship with the sacred architecture, while monumental draperies reproducing his paintings float on the external walls.

In Radda, however, the exhibition unfolds throughout the historic centre. Along the main road, blow-ups, monumental paintings, sculptures and installations establish a direct dialogue with the intimate intimacy of the town, inviting the visitor to cross it following the works. In front of the churchyard of the Church of San Niccolò, there is an installation made up of nine sculptures from the Segreti series, heads that open revealing an interior and mysterious dimension. The place welcoming the public, in the center of the town, becomes for the occasion a gallery which hosts five large works as well as two smaller ones, together with other objects, including furniture-sculptures and vases dedicated to the figure of San Sebastiano, created in the artist’s Noto studio, which find inspiration from colours, materials and suggestions of the past, reworked in a dreamlike way. The project also directly involves public space through the participation of the high school students, who will create 23 posters, one each, installed in the area normally intended for electoral posters: a personal interpretation of the theme “Blue: Fiorentino and Me”, discussed during the workshop, transforming these contexts usually linked to political communication into places of visual and creative expression.

Throughout the duration of the exhibition, the artist’s blue also becomes a sign in the landscape: the bell towers of the two churches, Santa Maria Novella and San Niccolò, will be illuminated with a blue light visible in the night, a luminous signal linked to the artist’s presence.

Painter and sculptor, Sergio Fiorentino, born in Catania in 1973, deeply linked to Sicily, lives and works in a former convent in Noto. His research comes from a profound knowledge of the figurative tradition. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania and trained in the restoration of historical heritage, the artist has developed a language in which the Mediterranean light and the memory of the Sicilian Baroque dialogue with a contemporary sensitivity. Sergio Fiorentino combines timeless classicism with radical modernity with great virtuosity. In the context of Radda his imagery meets the measure and harmony of the Tuscan landscape, generating a comparison between two visual traditions that find a point of balance in the artist’s works. The event is also part of the tradition of great experiences that have brought contemporary art and territory into dialogue in Tuscany. Starting from the initiatives promoted in the 1980s by Luciano Pistoi at the Castello di Volpaia, up to the Arte all’Arte and Tuscia Electa projects, these experiences have built over time a model of comparison between artists, landscape and historical heritage. Radda Arte 2026 is ideally placed in this line, renewing the encounter between contemporary art and community in Chianti. Sergio Fiorentino transforms Radda into a landscape suspended between myth and reality. A crossing between art and history, where every corner of the village becomes a fragment of a pictorial and sculptural universe, in harmony with the light and breath of Chianti.