Further to new government measures (Dpcm 4/3/2020, art. 1/b) and in order to prevent issues and safeguard the public, the Foundation hereby postpones the opening of the 22nd Edition of the Pino Pascali Award.  The exhibition  “Zhang Huan, 55 love” will still be  running and open to visitors until the 7th of March and the Museum will respect its normal opening hours (every day from 11 am to 1 pm and from 4 pm to 8 pm. Closed on Mondays).Zhang Huan will produce a monumental public art work for the Apulia Region. The artist will attend the opening and Award Ceremony, which will be held when normality is restored to the current international situation. Within therealm of a project that sees Italy and China attempting to send a message of peace and social and cultural harmony, the Pino Pascali Foundation has welcomed the artist’s desire to realize  a monumental sculpture depicting the Buddha. The sculpture will be  made by using ashes from olive trees that have been cut down because affected by an outbreak of  Xylella, a calamity that has recently afflicted Salento and its amazing landscape. Ash, a spiritual substance, becomes mystical body, an allegory of rebirth.The artwork is a gift that the artist has designed with the Apulian territory in mind. This important international project  will be a permanent installation in the Wellness Park at  Karol Wojtyla airport in Bari, as a welcoming symbol, an open door to strangers. It is the place from which a journey starts or to where it ends, thus becoming an integral part of an intimate experience. It is also the space in which visitors first come into contact with the region, with its culture, its material and immaterial heritage.“It is an honour for us to welcome an internationally acclaimed artist like Zhang Huan to our airport – said Antonio Maria Vasile, vice president of Apulian Airports. In the past months we have worked together with the Apulia region to create a “Hill of Contemporary Art”. We are persuaded that the airport does not need to be seen as a mere passage way, but also as an opportunity to all those who, for some reason, happen to be there. We would be proud to offer the community the possibility to admire the works of great artists. The “ Hill of Contemporary Art” will be an open air museum surrounded by nature and the Apulian landscape. Therefore, with Zhang Huan’s work – the vice president concluded – we launch a new way of perceiving airports, in which travelling is also art”.
A vital message that embraces the values that the Apulia Region stands for also in these delicate times for the whole world. With this project, the Pino Pascali Foundation comes out of the museum’s walls to offer a gift to the whole region and to visitors looking to explore the authentic beauty of our territory. In the hope that contemporary art can offer a message of hope, trusting that it will be an instrument of resilience, we are willing to get out there and talk to everyone, to be of service to the whole community.