Cesare Catania

CESARE CATANIA:
SUMMER 2025 IN FORTEZZA NUOVA (NEW FORTRESS) IN LIVORNO

Title of the Artwork
"The Hearth of the Earth Phy Version"

... a Sculpture born in the Physical World and amplified in the Digital World ...

26th of June 2025

"IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH: THE EMBRACE THAT UNITES"

FREE AND DEMO-CRATIC EVENT

On June 26, 2025, starting at 6:30 pm, an evening of presentation to the public of the Phygital sculpture entitled “The Heart of the Earth Phy Version” and international premiere screening to an extra-festival audience of the award-winning artistic short film “The Imagination of a Child”

“This evening is the meeting point between what is seen and what is felt. Between matter and imagination. Between art and consciousness.”

(Cesare Catania)

MORE INFORMATION

VIDEO PRESENTATION OF THE LIVORNO FREE EVENT - 26.06

Under the patronage of:

CULTURAL INSIGHT

THE VALUES OF THIS FREE EVENT

The evening of June 26 is not just an artistic presentation. It is an emotional and symbolic experience that puts the human being at the center, in all its facets.
Through the monumentality of a phygital sculpture and the delicacy of an artistic short film, the event invites the public to stop, to feel, to imagine.

The Messages:

That art is not elitist, but accessible, alive, inclusive. That embracing—metaphorically or actually—is a revolutionary gesture. That technology and humanity can coexist in the same art form, without conflict.

The Values:

Brotherhood, as an emotional bond that overcomes differences. Imagination, as a fundamental right and resource, not only for childhood. Shared beauty, as a meeting space between artists, citizens, institutions.

The Contents:

A monumental sculpture that dialogues with architecture and the sky. An award-winning film, intimate and universal, capable of moving without words. A cultural salon in which art returns to being an instrument of union, not decoration.

This evening is a collective narration.
An artistic gesture that becomes a civil gesture.

WHERE

Scali della Fortezza Nuova, 57123 Livorno (LI) – Italia

AT WHAT TIME

Thursday 26.06.25

press entrance: 6:00 p.m.
guest entrance: 6:30 p.m.
official presentation of the Phygital Monumental Sculture “The Heart of the Earth Phy Version”
world premiere screening for an extra-festival audience of the artistic short film “The Imagination of a Child”: 7:00 p.m.
cultural talk: 7:20 p.m.

RSVP

Registration to the Lists Mandatory by sending an email to

events [at]cesarecatania.eu

by registering for the event by clicking the button below

This event is made possible thanks to the participation of Galleria Fidanda and S.C.C. Società Costruzioni Capannoni

Event Messages

Technology and Humanity

As soon as you enter Fortezza Nuova, you will be welcomed by the monumental phygital sculpture entitled “The Heart of the Earth Phy Version”.

A physical sculpture created by the artist Cesare Catania that represents a visual balance between opposing forces: lightness and gravity, order and chaos, geometry and emotional impulse. Composed of inverted pyramids and hollow spheres, the work challenges apparent stability through a play of tensions and balances. It is a suspended embrace, an architecture of empathy, which blends structural strength and symbolic delicacy.”

Phygital sculpture is the symbol of an art that does not close, but expands. It integrates matter and code, steel and light, to reach anyone, anywhere. It is the proof that technology and humanity can coexist in art not to distance themselves, but to approach. Because an art that opens up to digital is an art that breaks down boundaries and becomes truly democratic.

When you find yourself in front of the monumental sculpture “The Heart of the Earth” you can enter an immersive reality through your smartphone.

1 – Get on the platform

2 – Click on the “ENTER AUGMENTED REALITY” button that you find in this section

3 – Point your phone down and wait a few seconds while the animation loads

4 – Now point your phone towards the monumental sculpture and zoom in or zoom out with two fingers if you want to enlarge, reduce or move the animations

5 – Record a video, share it with whoever you want

Cultural insight

The True Meaning of the Word "Phygital": Play with Art

“Contemporary art must not only be aimed at mere aesthetic satisfaction but must also be a means of communication, of bringing people together. Playing with art makes the process of approaching art more natural. Digital art and kinetic art increase the perception of reality and therefore become the most natural way to experience art rather than passively undergo it.”

(Cesare Catania)

Cultural Background

Art Enters Cinema

At the Fortezza Nuova (New Fortress) in Livorno on 06.26.25 the artistic short film “L’Immaginazione di un Bambino” will be screened as a world premiere to an extra-festival audience, an artistic documentary that conveys messages of inclusion, overcoming social barriers and brotherhood.

“… conceiving a film as a work of art means creating a series of scenes by letting yourself be carried away by emotions. The filters of conventional language leave room for a more direct means of communication, which enters people’s hearts in a total way. And the more this way of creating is harmonious, the more this means of communication becomes democratic… “

(Cesare Catania)

The Cinematographic Work of Art: An Extreme of Kinetic Art

In the days preceding the installation of the Phygital sculpture “L’Abbraccio” Phy Version at the Venice Biennale 2024, Cesare Catania decides to dedicate his creative flair to cinema, making and directing a 15-minute artistic documentary called “L’Immaginazione di un Bambino”. It is a short film, mostly in black and white, which describes the evolution of an artist’s feelings in his personal growth. The documentary also becomes the material on which to shape his ideas of overcoming social and cultural barriers, making it fully fit both among his works of democratic art and among the works of the “Abbracci” collection, even though in this case it is neither a painting, nor a sculpture nor a digital work of art. In this, the Italian sculptor conceives cinematographic art as an extremization of kinetic art.

The Awards of the Film "The Imagination of a Child"

An award-winning artistic short film, “The Imagination of a Child” has been selected in more than 150 international festivals

150+ international film festival selections
50+ international film festival wins
10+ nominations
9-time finalist
35-time semi-finalist
IMDb rating higher than 8.5

Official Trailer of
"The Imagination of a Child"

…a short documentary that explains the evolution of an artist in his creative process and his artistic maturation. A short film where the explanation of how an artist elaborates his emotions and sensations becomes, among other things, the pretext for the diffusion of a higher social message linked to inclusiveness and overcoming cultural barriers…

cultural evolution of the concept of democratic art

From Art to Art Movement

The project for the Venice Biennale leads the artist to draft 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.

Il percorso che porta l’artista italiano a concepire il Manifesto di Arte Democratica parte nel 2015, quando realizza “ReArt“, la sua prima opera d’arte creata a partire dai rifiuti urbani. In questa occasione Catania capisce l’importanza che l’arte può avere nel favorire la sostenibilità.

In 2015 and 2016, Cesare Catania created the first two versions of “L’Abbraccio”, very famous paintings that will give rise to a real collection, as well as to the “Embrace Project“, an artistic and socio-cultural project that enhances the closeness between people. In this case, art goes from being the ultimate goal to which the artist tends to a means to do 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 the first work of art for people affected by Dalton Syndrome (“The Mouth of Etna“). On that occasion he understands that art can be the means through which to overcome cultural barriers and represent minorities.

After 2020, with the advent of NFTs, Catania immediately understands the difference between universal ownership of a work of art and unique ownership. A pioneer of digital art in web3, the Italian artist cultivates his artistic path both in the traditional and digital worlds, to then merge them into a single phygital world with a high social and democratic impact with the project for the Venice Biennale 2024.

This is the cultural and artistic background that led Cesare Catania to write the first Manifesto of Democratic Art.

Social Background

The
Embrace
Project

“A hug is worth more than 1000 words… there are no
cold or warm hugs, there are no true or false hugs, there are no hugs of
war or peace…. The hug is universal. When two people hug,
in whatever culture they do it, they want to express only one thing: love.
Regardless of their age, the color of their skin and their cultural differences.”

(Cesare Catania)

2023 Single Global Ambassador for the National Hugging Day

Cesare Catania – appointed for 2023 the only Ambassador in the world of the International Hug Day (celebrated on January 21st since 1986, the year of its creation) – is convinced that art can be the means through which to do good. No longer art as the ultimate goal to which the artist tends but rather the means for a project that acts as a social glue, breaking down the barriers of discrimination in general.

Cesare Catania is an Italian artist. Painter, sculptor and digital artist, he began his successful career some time ago, blending tradition and innovation in his art. His creative abilities and aesthetic taste enthusiastically embrace technology and development towards the future. In his works of art the boundaries between painting, sculpture and digital art blur, always maintaining his attachment to his contemporary art.
After more than a decade of successes on the international scene as a traditional artist, in the last period he has amazed critics for his ability to take on the role of digital artist.
Fascinated by modern art, architecture, cubism and the pictorial masters of the classical age, Cesare Catania’s artistic maturity is still in continuous evolution; always looking for new techniques to best express his inspirations.

Cultural Insights into the Embrace Project and the Artworks Related to It

The First
Embrace: The A Version

Two people embracing express love and affection together. On the left a statuesque and confident figure; on the right the representation of a sincere and passionate figure. The firmness on the left of the painting and the dedication in the character on the right are perfectly represented by the mutual positions of the bodies and hands. Welcome and protection are the characteristics of this first version of what will be an artistic trend of the Italian painter Cesare Catania.

The Child in Each of Us

“it feels like going back to being a child… and in fact it is just like that… immediate, natural, expressive… For me, wax crayon is that expressive medium that often more than others lets the child in us be free…”

(Cesare Catania)

The Complete Collection of Embraces

From 2015 to today Cesare Catania has created a complete collection of “Abbracci”. The means of expression range from wax pastel to oil on canvas, from traditional sculpture to abstract art up to digital art. When we talk about hugs we immediately think of love, human warmth. Cesare Catania’s “Abbracci” convey exactly these sensations and these feelings

The Embrace B — "The Embraces"

Forty-Eight – “The Embrace (B Version)”

"The Embraces"

Seventeen – “Embrace” A Version

Cultural insight

The Connection between the Phygital Project for Livorno 2025 and the one for the Venice Biennale 2024

In 2024, at the Venice Biennale, Cesare Catania’s art confronted the new frontiers of aesthetic experience thanks to the use of Augmented Reality (AR). The presence of phygital installations and the possibility of digital interaction with the works made tangible a concept increasingly central to the artist’s path: art must break out of its traditional confines to become accessible, engaging and universal. In Venice, technology did not replace matter, but amplified it, making each observer an integral part of the work itself. It is in this context that the principle of Democratic Art, theorized in the Manifesto drafted by Catania, is affirmed: an art that does not select the public, but embraces it.

The event of June 26, 2025 at the Fortezza Nuova in Livorno represents the natural evolution of that Venetian path. If in Venice Augmented Reality has allowed art to flow beyond the visible, in Livorno it will be the physical body of the work – the monumental sculpture “Il Cuore della Terra” – to embody the same values of openness, interaction and cohesion. The presence of the public, the screening of the short film and the historical context of the Fortezza renew the democratic vocation of art: a language that, through phygitality, emotion and dialogue, speaks to everyone.

Further information – International Press

Press Review on the
Embrace Project

Art against Discrimination

“… discriminations obscure. They are preconceptions, often wrong, with which a human being has a preconception in reference to another human being or to an idea…” (Cesare Catania – extract from Rai interview)