Art, Territory and Identity: The Links Between the Artistic Landscape of the "Fiumara D'Arte"

Monuments play an important role in the creation of a collective memory within society, serving as tangible symbols that evoke events, individuals and cultural narra-tives, reinforcing and sometimes even creating a commu-nity’s identity. The aim of this article is to examine Fiumara d’Arte, a unique open-air museum in Tusa, Sicily, founded in 1982 through the artistic vision of the patron Antonio Presti. This monumental park is a paradigmatic example of how even the most dominant monuments can be integrated with the surrounding territory in a symbiotic relationship capable of celebrating the power of art and the territory at the same time. To clarify this relationship, the article presents an analysis of the territory, developed during a research activity that involved, among other things, the use of advanced digitalization techniques and GIS mapping. This analysis includes technical studies of the morphology of the context, the connections within the territory and the overarching constraints present in the area, as well as more perceptual analyses aimed to show the connections between the monuments, the landscape, and the artworks themselves.