MACS

Culture, Museum and historical sites
Via San Francesco d'Assisi, 30 - 95124 Catania
095 6172035 / 342 3017376

Tuesday to Sunday from 10.30 to 17.30

Ticket € 5,00
Reduced (students) € 3,50
Reduced (under 18 years) € 2,00

MacS is situated inside the little Abbey of the Monastery of Saint Benedict, a UNESCO and World Heritage site, found in Via Crociferi, Catania. This historic building, famous for its graceful architectural and harmonious forms, is the result of the work of the architect Giovanni Battista Vaccarini and is connected to the great Abbey via the famous arch of Saint Benedict.

In perfect balance with the splendid setting in which it is housed and the beautiful al frescoes of the church of Saint Benedict connected to the monastery, MacS combines the architectural beauty of the eighteenth century with the modernity of contemporary art. The museum is in fact the link which begins with the distant Baroque pictorial tradition to finally arrive at contemporary art, with the aim of promoting Sicily’s rich cultural heritage, whilst creating frequent cultural associations with equally prestigious historical and artistic exhibition spaces, promoting an awareness of Italian and international contemporary art. It simultaneously aims to provide space for new, young, emerging artistic talent as well as those artists who are already well affirmed.

The very choice of having gallery space situated specifically on this historical site is in line with the very essence of MacS, as MacS proposes to be a natural progression of aesthetic exhibition area for our times. The reason why it has chosen to privilege figurative art in its collections is based on the conviction of the importance of the image and its evocative function. MacS main source of inspiration are the “classical” criteria and parameters with which to approach beauty, executive competence, technical ability, harmony of form, and verisimilitude, so often marginalized in the Avant-Guarde tradition of the 1900s. MacS successfully merges such inspiration with the reality, the means, the requirements and the expectations of all that is Contemporary.

(Translation by Gillian Palmer)