artwork ninety-nine
Year: 2025
Dimensions Monumental Sculpture: h320cm + Pedestal
Dimensions Collectible Sculptures with 8/8 edition: h80cm
Technique: Acid-etched and surface-treated steel
Contemporary Art
“Experiencing a work of art in Augmented Reality allows the artist to merge static contemporary art and kinetic art, where the latter no longer requires all the limitations given by the physical world. Kinetic art in this way is no longer the point of arrival of artistic production but becomes the starting point on which to base a project that first of all wants to be emotional…”
(Cesare Catania)
«“The Heart of the Earth” is a plastic reflection on the balance between rationality and instinct, between the matter that binds us and the vision that frees us. The inverted pyramids represent gravity, stability, the Earth: they are rooted, solid, rational structures. The spheres, on the other hand, are the cosmos, the dream, the Universe: perfect forms that challenge staticity, that float in space and thought. It is a phygital work because it is not limited to matter: it is a portal between the world we know and the one we can still imagine.»
Cesare Catania
Contemporary art sculpture created by the artist Cesare Catania in steel, first modeled and welded, then treated superficially. A geometric art sculpture that synthesizes in a single piece the complexity of forms and harmony in space.
Events related to the work of art
On June 26, 2025, the artwork “The Heart of the Earth Phy Version” has been officially presented in the New Fortress of Leghorn (Tuscany) – IT
On the same occasion, the award-winning artistic short film “The Imagination of a Child”, directed by Cesare Catania, is presented for the first time in a world preview to an extra-festival audience. The film aims to convey a message of democratic art and the overcoming of social barriers.
“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)
In the Phy Version of The Heart of the Earth, the balance between geometry and symbolism opens up to a new dimension: that of augmented reality. This monumental and phygital variant was created to merge the language of sculpture with that of technology, creating a hybrid, living work, in constant sensory expansion.
Here too, as in the G Version, spherical and pyramidal solids are composed in space as autonomous entities, each endowed with its own mass, direction, and tension. But it is in their unstable composition—a geometric dance balancing between verticality and imbalance—that a broader poetics takes shape: that of the Earth connecting to the Universe.
The inverted pyramids, symbols of rationality and grounding, are formally opposed to the spheres, which instead evoke expansion, cyclicity, cosmic freedom. Their visual and structural juxtaposition expresses a harmony made of contrasts, a contained tension that becomes plastic gesture and universal meaning. Here, order and disorder coexist as two sides of the same creative breath.
The chromatic surface of the Phy Version is a symphony of iridescent reflections and treated pigments that play with natural light, reacting to changes in the environment. Each face, each plane, each curvature is designed to change, to activate new meanings both in the visible matter and in the digital projection of the work.
The augmented reality component, in fact, is not an addition: it is an integral part of the identity of the work, a narrative and visual emanation that completes its physical form.
The result is an immersive and meditative work at the same time, in which the encounter between art and technology is not an effect, but a language. And in this new language, once again, Cesare Catania unites opposites: mass and absence, root and sky, tangible and imagined.
This Phygital Version represents a further evolution of a theme already started by the author in 2012. In fact, the first version of the sculpture of the same name dates back to that year, on that occasion made of coral red wood, a color that showed all the intensity and emotional charge of a sculpture that symbolized the energy of our planet. Over the years, the rough shape of the first A Version has given way to more geometric shapes, confined in space in a more orderly manner (B Version and C Version) without losing its original meaning.
In the middle we also find a digital elaboration, the D Version, which ferries the sculpture into the metaverse through a short film that in less than a minute gives the B Version spatial harmony that brings the sculpture closer to kinetic art.
In the following years we find the E Version and the F Version, 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.
cultural evolution of the concept of democratic art
The Phygital project of the sculpture Il Cuore della Terra is part of the project that 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.
The path that leads the Italian artist to conceive the Manifesto of Democratic Art begins in 2015, when he creates “ReArt”, his first work of art created from urban waste. On this occasion Catania understands the importance that art can have in promoting sustainability.
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 “Progetto dell’Abbraccio”, 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 (“La Bocca dell’Etna E Version”). 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
“A hug is worth more than 1000 words…
there are no cold or warm hugs, there are no real or fake 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)
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.
In this section you will find a selection of press articles, interviews and reports dedicated to the monumental and phygital installation “Il Cuore della Terra”, presented in Livorno on 26 June 2025. Cesare Catania’s work, which combines steel sculpture, augmented reality and sensorial narration, has attracted the attention of national and local media. The review reflects the cultural and symbolic impact of the project, its social scope and its artistic ambition: to reconnect humanity with the planet through contemporary art. A critical immersion in the world of a visionary artist and an event that is already emblematic in itself.
Nazione: IT Fonte: Qui Livorno – Giugno 2025 APPROFONDIMENTO CULTURALE ARTICOLO IN VERSIONE INTEGRALE PER L’ARTICOLO ORIGINALE CLICCA QUI TRASCRIZIONE DELL’ARTICOLO “Applausi e grande successo per Cesare Catania a Livorno per la sua performance artistica” Tra arte monumentale, cinema d’autore […]
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Nazione: IT Fonte: Livorno Sera Notizie – Giugno 2025 APPROFONDIMENTO CULTURALE ARTICOLO IN VERSIONE INTEGRALE PER L’ARTICOLO ORIGINALE CLICCA QUI TRASCRIZIONE DELL’ARTICOLO “In Fortezza Nuova inaugurazione dell’opera di Cesare Catania; Alta più di quattro metri, scolpita in acciaio saldato” LIVORNO […]
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Nazione: IT Fonte: La Nazione – Giugno 2025 APPROFONDIMENTO CULTURALE ARTICOLO IN VERSIONE INTEGRALE PER L’ARTICOLO ORIGINALE CLICCA QUI TRASCRIZIONE DELL’ARTICOLO “La Fortezza Nuova diventa teatro dell’arte phygital con Cesare Catania” Livorno, 25 giugno 2025 – Giovedì 26 giugno la Fortezza […]
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Nazione: IT Fonte: Il Tirreno – Giugno 2025 APPROFONDIMENTO CULTURALE ARTICOLO IN VERSIONE INTEGRALE PER L’ARTICOLO ORIGINALE CLICCA QUI TRASCRIZIONE DELL’ARTICOLO “Livorno e il successo della scultura monumentale di Cesare Catania in Fortezza”. Piramidi rovesciate e sfere cave: oltre 150 […]
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Nazione: IT Fonte: Il Telegrafo – Giugno 2025 APPROFONDIMENTO CULTURALE ARTICOLO IN VERSIONE INTEGRALE PER L’ARTICOLO ORIGINALE CLICCA QUI TRASCRIZIONE DELL’ARTICOLO “La Fortezza Nuova diventa teatro dell’arte phygital con Cesare Catania” Livorno, 25 giugno 2025 – Giovedì 26 giugno la […]
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Country: IT Source: Green Report.it – June 2025 CULTURAL INSIGHT FULL ARTICLE FOR THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE CLICK HERE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE ARTICLE “The Heart of the Earth beats in Livorno in Phygital version, with the art of Cesare Catania” The […]
Read MoreIn this section we invite you to explore other sculptures from the artistic universe of Cesare Catania. Each work is linked to an intense visual language, both geometric and emotional, and embodies the same tension between matter, symbolism and spirituality. If “Il Cuore della Terra” struck you, these creations will speak to you in the same way: they continue the author’s artistic 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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