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ARCH of SYDNEY by Antonio Pio Saracino

The Italian Cultural Institute is proud to support the Arch of Sydney, a proposed project for a public art installation in Sydney, designed by the New York-based Italian architect and designer Antonio Pio Saracino.

arch of sydney 01An exhibition on the Arch of Sydney will be presented at the School of Architecture, University of Sydney on October 16, 6-8pm, with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney, the University of Sydney, the Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas (SCCI), and the European Australian Business Council (EABC).

This project takes the form of a Triumphal Arch, focusing on the celebration of diversity in identity of Australia’s people. According to Saracino, the Arch is a symbolic place for many cultures, often seen as a metaphor for the departure from the familiar, representing a universal portal to an unknown but bright future. The Arch of Sydney celebrates the idea of unity and integration originated from diversities. The shape of the Arch of Triumph was developed in multiple civilizations around the world, but also mimicked by nature in the cliffs and gullies of coastal Australia.

The Arch of Sydney is a proposed new project for an Arch made like a historical diagram comparing human settlement to the natural phenomenon of the sedimentation of rocks, just like the layering of Australian sandstone. The project investigates the idea of the evolution of national identity in Australia. It is inspired by the complex phenomenon of human migration and integration with previous inhabitants, which has not always been a smooth process. The Arch starts its construction with local Sydney sandstone to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians, and at some point, other stone plinths from different countries from around the world become introduced to the Australian bedrock. The Australian sedimentary sandstone is layered with marble, limestone, and granite slabs from England, China, Italy, Ireland, India, South Africa, Brazil, and many more countries; the result is an iconic Arch made with stones coming from many nations and geographic locations. A collection of diversities within a single gateway that serves the idea of unity, framing the landscape.

Antonio Pio Saracino is an internationally acclaimed Italian architect and designer, who designs buildings, monuments, and saracino portraitproducts. Several of his designs are part of the permanent collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Art and Design, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney. He designed Life, two sculptures at the entrance of the largest hospital in New York City, the NY-Presbyterian. He designed The Guardians, two sculptures, which sit permanently at the entrance of Bryant Park, NY. His work was in an exhibition in the Accademia Gallery in Florence next to Michelangelo’s David.Saracino has received two American Architecture Awards from the Chicago Museum of Architecture. His work was selected as part of the Italian Pavilion in the world for the 54th Venice Biennale. He is a four-time winner of Interior Design’s Future Furniture design award, was named one of the world’s 25 Most Interesting Trendsetters by ARTnews, and was recognized as one of the Top Ten Italian Architects by New Italian Blood. His design work has been featured in prominent international publications, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Interior Design, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, and Vogue.

Opening of the Exhibition:

Wednesday, 16 October 2019, at 6.00 pm

Free entry