CONTEMPORARY ART · PHYGITAL
Where matter meets the digital
A sculptural system where balance,
force and perception converge.
Year
2025
Work
Monumental sculpture
h 320 cm + pedestal
Materials
Finished steel
pigments and composite material
CONTEMPORARY ART · PHYGITAL
A leap into the Phygital
Discover how to enter the Phygital experience in the tutorial video below
Are you standing before the artwork?
Then you are already beyond matter
ENTER THE PHYGITAL EXPERIENCE BELOW
ARE YOU ALREADY IN FRONT OF THE ARTWORK?
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STAND ABOUT 5 METERS AWAY
Experience the artwork from the ideal distance.
ACCESS THE PHYGITAL EXPERIENCE
Tap the button below.
A PAGE WILL OPEN TO GUIDE YOU
Let yourself be guided.
FIRST TOWARD THE GROUND, THEN TOWARD THE ARTWORK
Follow the flow on the screen.
LIVE THE PHYGITAL EXPERIENCE
The artwork comes to life.
You are now ready to enter the Phygital experience
Shaping Reality
where matter and vision converge
« “The Heart of the Earth” takes shape as a sculptural reflection on a dual system of forces, inseparably intertwined.
From a material perspective, the work explores the delicate balance between rationality and instinct:
the inverted pyramids embody gravity, stability, the terrestrial principle — rooted, solid structures oriented toward a constructive order.
The spheres, by contrast, evoke the cosmos, dream, the universe — perfect forms that challenge stillness, suspended between space and thought.
In a deeper, anthropological reading, these same forms transform into archetypes of the human condition:
the sphere as a generative, complete and primordial principle, traceable to the feminine;
the pyramid as an ascending tension, angular and directional, an expression of the masculine.
The work thus takes shape as a symbolic system in which matter and meaning converge,
and where balance is never given, but continuously negotiated between complementary opposites.»
Cesare Catania
Contemporary art sculpture created by Cesare Catania in steel, first shaped and welded, then surface-treated. A geometric artwork that synthesizes, in a single piece, the complexity of forms and harmony in space.
The Balance of the Impossible
APPARENT INSTABILITY, REAL BALANCE
« To experience an artwork in Augmented Reality means to cross a threshold: the one between matter and its potential.
In this hybrid space, contemporary art — by its static nature, defined and anchored to a physical equilibrium — encounters kinetic art, which has always aspired to movement yet remains inevitably bound to the laws of the real world.
The phygital dimension does not simply add a digital layer to the work, but expands its perception, freeing movement from any structural necessity, from weight, and from every limitation imposed by gravity and matter itself.
In this way, kinetic art ceases to be the endpoint of a formal research and becomes the starting point of a new construction: an open system, where form is no longer definitive, but continuously redefined through experience.
The artwork no longer finds its completion in its existence as an object, but is fulfilled in the moment it is experienced. It is here that a language takes shape — one that no longer belongs solely to the artist, but to those who engage with it — a language that, above all, does not seek to be explained, but to be felt. »
Cesare Catania
UPCOMING EVENT
May 13, 2026
Official Presentation
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
On May 13, 2026, in the evocative setting of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the monumental sculpture The Heart of the Earth – Phygital Version will be presented to the public, officially inaugurating an exhibition that will accompany the entire summer season.
Set within one of the most iconic contexts of the French Riviera, the work enters into dialogue with the Mediterranean landscape and an international audience, transforming the urban space into a meeting point between contemporary art, architecture, and engineering research.
The Exhibition Path of the “Hearts of the Earth”
A journey through the exhibition stages of the eponymous collection
ELBA ISLAND (IT)
Summer 2025
LIVORNO (IT)
Summer 2025
PIETRASANTA (IT)
Summer 2025
MAC,n Museum (IT)
2025-2026
CICA Museum (KOREA)
January 2026
SAINT PAUL DE VENCE (FR)
Summer 2018
FABBRICA DEL VAPORE MUSEUM (IT)
November 2023
THE "A VERSION"
2012 – 2015
MUSEUM OF POETRY (IT)
Spring 2023
MILAN (IT)
Spring 2022
BARCLAY'S BANK (MONACO)
Summer 2019
MILANO SCULTURA ART FAIR
May 2025
Beyond Matter
The true meaning of "Phygital"
“Contemporary art should not be limited to mere aesthetic satisfaction, but must also serve as a means of communication — a way to bring people closer together.
Engaging with art makes the process of approaching it more natural.
Digital art and kinetic art expand our perception of reality, becoming the most natural way to experience art rather than passively consume it.”
(Cesare Catania)
The artwork activates.
Your perception shifts
If you are standing before the sculpture “The Heart of the Earth”, discover how art, perception, and technology merge into a unique experience.
Frame it. Observe. Go beyond.
Access to the Private Collection
The artwork exists across multiple dimensions. You can experience it in public space or bring it into your own.
The Sculptural Collection
Unique sculptures
h 80 cm
Limited edition
8 pieces
Each work is different.
Each work is unique.
Access by selection only
Works on Paper
Fine Art prints
A3 vertical format
Cotton paper
Premium quality
Limited edition
30 pieces + 4 AP
Limited availability
MONUMENTAL WORK
“The Heart of the Earth” Monumental Version Edition 1/2
A THRESHOLD BETWEEN MATTER AND VISION
The first monumental version of “The Heart of the Earth” is Edition 1, conceived as the counterpart to the presented Edition 2 and also created in a Phygital version.
The first monumental version of The Heart of the Earth emerges as a balance between geometry and tension. An apparently unstable system, built to endure. It is not a form. It is a condition.
Each element exists in relation to the others, in a continuous dialogue between weight, direction, and gravity. With the Phy Version, the work opens itself to a new dimension. It does not add technology. It reveals it.
The sculpture becomes an experience. Matter expands beyond its physical limit.
CONTEMPORARY ART · PHYGITAL
further details of the Monumental Work — Edition 1/2
The inverted pyramids, symbols of rationality and grounding, stand in formal contrast to the spheres, which instead evoke expansion, cyclicity, and cosmic freedom.
Their visual and structural juxtaposition expresses a harmony built on contrasts — a contained tension that becomes both sculptural gesture and universal meaning.
Here, order and disorder coexist as two expressions of the same creative breath.
The chromatic surface of the Phy Version is a symphony of shifting reflections and treated pigments that interact with natural light, responding to changes in the environment.
Every face, every plane, every curvature is designed to transform, activating new meanings both in the visible material and in the digital projection of the work.
The augmented reality component is not an addition; it is an integral part of the artwork’s identity — a narrative and visual extension that completes its physical form.
The result is a work that is both immersive and contemplative, where the encounter between art and technology is not an effect, but a language.
Within this new language, once again, Cesare Catania unites opposites: mass and absence, root and sky, the tangible and the imagined.
ARTISTIC BACKGROUND
Genesis of a Collection
The “Hearts of the Earth” by Cesare Catania
This Phy Version represents a further evolution of a theme already initiated by the artist in 2012. That year marks the creation of the first version of the sculpture of the same name, realized on that occasion in coral-red wood—a color that conveyed the full intensity and emotional charge of a work symbolizing the energy of our planet.
Over the years, the raw form of the first A Version gradually gave way to more geometric forms, more orderly defined in space (B Version and C Version), without losing its original meaning.
In between, we also find a digital elaboration, the D Version, which transports the sculpture into the metaverse through a short film that, in less than a minute, gives the B Version a spatial harmony that brings the sculpture closer to kinetic art.
In the following years, the E Version and F Version emerge—two versions that synthesize, in a single diptych, the statuary presence of an ordered geometry on one side and the disruptive energetic charge of acrylic colors on the other.
From the original matter to contemporary form
each version preserves the symbolic core of the work, but transforms its language, balance and presence
CULTURAL EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF DEMOCRATIC ART
From Art to Artistic Movement
The Phygital project of the sculpture The Heart of the Earth is part of the broader path that leads the artist to write the First Manifesto of Democratic Art in history. Below is the evolution of his artistic poetics in relation to the writing of an Artistic Manifesto.
The path that leads the Italian artist to conceive the Manifesto of Democratic Art begins in 2015, when he creates “ReArt”, his first artwork made from urban waste. On that occasion, Catania understands the importance that art can have in promoting sustainability.
In 2015 and 2016, Cesare Catania creates the first two versions of “The Embrace”, highly celebrated pictorial works that mark the beginning of a true collection, as well as of the “The Embrace Project”, an artistic and socio-cultural project that enhances human connection. In this case, art shifts from being an ultimate goal pursued by the artist to becoming a means to generate good in an ethical way.
The path that leads the Italian artist to conceive the Manifesto of Democratic Art continues in 2017, when he creates his first artwork designed for people affected by Color Vision Deficiency (“The Mouth of Etna – E Version”). On that occasion, he understands that art can become a means to overcome cultural barriers and represent minorities.
After 2020, with the rise of NFTs, Catania immediately understands the difference between the universal possession of an artwork and its unique ownership. A pioneer of digital art in the Web3 space, the Italian artist develops his artistic journey both in the traditional and digital worlds, eventually merging them into a single phygital dimension with strong social and democratic impact through the project for the Venice Biennale 2024.
This is the cultural and artistic background that leads Cesare Catania to write the first Manifesto of Democratic Art.
SOCIAL BACKGROUND
The Embrace Project
at the origins of the Manifesto of Democratic Art
“An embrace is worth more than 1,000 words… there are no cold or warm embraces, there are no true or false embraces, there are no embraces of war or of peace… An embrace is universal. When two people embrace, regardless of the culture they belong to, they want to express only one thing: love. Regardless of their age, the color of their skin, or their cultural differences.”
(Cesare Catania)
Sole Global Ambassador 2023 for the National Hugging Day
Cesare Catania — appointed in 2023 as the sole global Ambassador of the National Hugging Day (celebrated on January 21st since 1986, the year of its creation) — believes that art can be the means through which to do good. No longer, therefore, art as the ultimate goal pursued by the artist, but rather a means for a project that acts as a social glue, breaking down barriers of discrimination in all its forms.
The Embrace Project and the collection of the same name, together with the Manifesto of Democratic Art, give life to an auteur cinematic production directed by Cesare Catania. The title: The Imagination of a Child, the multi award-winning artistic short film that aims to convey a message of democratic art and the overcoming of social barriers.
you might also like …
In this section we invite you to explore other sculptures from the artistic universe of Cesare Catania. Each work is connected to a visual language that is both intense and geometric, emotional and symbolic, embodying the same tension between matter, symbolism and spirituality. If “The Heart of the Earth” has resonated with you, these creations will speak to you in the same way: they continue the artist’s research around form, balance, and the dialogue between art and nature. Let your gaze guide you and immerse yourself in Catania’s sculptural universe.
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