Villa Aurelia – Archaeological and Landscape Park of the Valley of the Temples – AGRIGENTO
July 22, 2026 – October 31, 2026
The exhibition “Fernando Botero. The Enchantment of Myth” in Agrigento brings together 25 original works, including sculptures, watercolors, drawings, and mixed media, from the Fernando Botero Zea Collection. The exhibition unfolds in the outdoor spaces of the Valley of the Temples, featuring eight bronze sculptures that engage directly with the monumentality of ancient Akragas, Doric architecture, and the light of the Sicilian landscape. Works such as “Leda and the Swan,” “Maternity,” “Woman on Horseback,” “Seated Woman,” “Man on Woman,” and various versions of “Reclining Woman” become sculptural presences capable of engaging with classical memory and the Mediterranean concept of form, balance, and duration.
The relationship between Sicily and the Colombian artist Fernando Botero extends far beyond the exhibitions held in Palermo in 1988 and then in 2015 with the two shows “La Corrida” and “Via Crucis.” The Passion of Christ, which attracted over 400,000 visitors, reflects the Maestro’s strong attraction and appeal, not only artistically, for this region.
Today, thanks to the efforts of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity, the project’s promoter, and the management of the Archaeological Park of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, a major exhibition project featuring 37 works is coming to life. It will take place in two locations and under two distinct titles: Fernando Botero. The Enchantment of Myth, in Agrigento, which will open to the public on July 23rd between Villa Aurea and the outdoor spaces of the Valley of the Temples, and Fernando Botero. The Weight of Dreams, in Palermo from July 24th, in the spaces of Palazzo Riso, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Sicily, curated by Fernando Botero Quintana, the Maestro’s nephew, and Nicola Barbatelli. Both exhibitions will close on October 31, 2026.
Inside Villa Aurea, the exhibition takes on a more intimate and meditative character. With 17 works on paper and canvas, among the last completed by the artist in 2023, they explore themes of the body, family, music, couples, everyday life, and the circus: from Circus Woman to Family in the Park, from Man and Woman Walking to Woman with Gloves, from Musicians to Dancing Couple, all the way to Dog, Woman in Profile, Reclining Woman, and Woman Sewing, the works convey the continuity of a poetics grounded in volume, presence, and the transformation of everyday life, in images suspended between narrative immediacy and formal construction, highlighting the most intimate dimension of Botero’s figurative universe.
The dialogue between Botero and the Valley of the Temples is not limited to the evocative nature of the archaeological context, but focuses on a reflection on the permanence of form and the ability of art to transcend time. The artist’s figures, renowned for their volumetric fullness and the unmistakable language of Boterism, interact with one of the symbolic sites of Western classicism, revealing profound affinities with a tradition that has made measure, stability, and memory its essential values.
The exhibition “Fernando Botero. The Weight of Dreams” at Palazzo Belmonte Riso, home of the Regional Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Palermo, brings together 12 works, including paintings, drawings, watercolors, and sculptures, all from the Fernando Botero Zea Collection, completing the multi-faceted exhibition project involving, in addition to the Botero family, the production company Renaissance Exhibitions.
The exhibition’s title evokes one of the most profound qualities of Botero’s universe: the ability to give weight, measure, and presence to the interior sphere. This is represented in the oil and watercolor works of the Palermo exhibition by the centrality of the human figure, the monumentality and hieratic nature of the body, especially the female one (among others, Woman with a Fan and Woman with a Bra), still lifes, the circus (The Tightrope Walker), bullfighting (Picador), popular festivals (Carnival), domestic intimacy (Girl with a Cat), and the constant relationship between painting and sculpture. Along with the works on paper and canvas, the Serpent also stands out, a large, emblematic sculpture in gilded bronze, a sinuous and tapered presence, rare within the artist’s voluminous and sculptural production.
At Palazzo Riso, the works establish a dialogue with the historical and urban stratification of Palermo. The city, a crossroads of memories, languages, and images, thus becomes the ideal context for reinterpreting Botero’s poetics in its tension between Latin American roots, European culture, and universal vocation. The project’s sponsors are the Italian Ministry of Culture, ARS – Sicilian Regional Assembly, the Colombian Embassy in Italy, and the Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity.
