Monira Al Qadiri, among the protagonists of contemporary art for Tenuta Planeta dell’Ulmo

From open-air museums among the vineyards to designer wineries signed by the most celebrated “starchitects”, from artist-designed labels to wineries acting as patrons of young artists, the bond between wine and art is no longer just one of mutual inspiration dating back to ancient times. Today, the liaison between two of humanity oldest passions has gone much further: more and more producers are turning to art to convey the cultural values behind their wines, while wineries have become new exhibition spaces for contemporary art, and their territories an inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists (as WineNews has recounted in a video). This increasingly more compelling synergy is of interest not only to wine and art lovers, but also to historians and critics (we also discussed it with Bruno Corà, president of the prestigious Burri Foundation), as well as galleries and museum institutions. This is thanks to pioneering projects such as the first artist residency in an Italian winery: “Viaggio in Sicilia” - “Trip to Sicily” by Planeta Cultura. For over 20 years, Planeta, one of the wineries behind the “renaissance” of Sicilian wine, has involved Italian and international artists in a direct dialogue with the island history, places, memories, and diverse cultures, transforming it into a space of contemporary production. One example is Monira Al Qadiri, a prominent figure on the global contemporary art scene, who, after traveling across Sicily, from Selinunte to Enna, from Gibellina to Mount Etna, from Noto to Palermo - engaging in dialogue with sites such as “Cretto” by Burri, Palazzo dei Normanni, Palazzo Chiaromonte Steri, and the paleontological collections of the Gemmellaro Museum, presented “Geologie del tempo/Geologies of Time”. This new site-specific project, curated by Valentina Bruschi and Vito Planeta, unveiled “Falconeri”, an installation named after Palaeoloxodon falconeri, the dwarf elephant which inhabited Sicily 500,000 years ago, at the Ulmo Estate in Sambuca di Sicilia.
In particular, the edition No. 10 of “Viaggio in Sicilia” is part of the “Gibellina 2026 Off” program, the calendar of side events for “Gibellina Italian Capital of Contemporary Art” - the city rearisenafter the 1968 earthquake in the Belìce Valley, thanks to the visionary process of cultural regeneration initiated by Ludovico Corrao, first as mayor and then as president of the Orestiadi Foundation, symbolized by “Grande Cretto” by Alberto Burri, one of the largest land art works in the world. Today, it is also supported by wine produced in the vineyards of the Tenute Orestiadi that surround it (as we have described in a video) - expanding the reach of the project and strengthening the dialogue between culture, creativity, and community, which has always been at the core of Planeta Cultura commitment. Within this framework, the collaboration with the Merz Foundation also lies, with which Planeta Cultura has maintained an ongoing path of research and exchange for years.
As Vito Planeta, head of Planeta Cultura and co-curator of “Viaggio in Sicilia” #10, explains, “the project stems from an awareness of the extraordinary complexity of the Sicilian territory: a land composed of deeply different landscapes, cultures, traditions, and identities. For this reason, over twenty years ago, Diego Planeta - my grandfather brother and a Knight of Labor for his commitment to the revival of Sicilian wine at national and international level - realized that viticulture could become a powerful narrative tool, capable of enhancing and telling the story of Sicily. This vision was later expanded by my father generation and my uncles. In the following years, Vito Planeta Sr. (1965-2023, and in whose Studiolo Ulysses at Ulmo the work is housed, ed) understood how contemporary culture could represent a further tool of storytelling and transformation. Through the gaze of artists and sensitivity, Sicily reveals itself in its deepest and most universal dimension. From this vision, Planeta Cultura arose, then called “Planeta per l’Arte e il Territorio” - “Planeta for Art and Territory”: a project designed to create an ongoing dialogue between contemporary creativity, landscape, and Sicilian identity. This journey through vineyards, wineries, and places in Sicily arises precisely from this idea: to transform wine not only into a productive expression, but into a means capable of narrating culture, memory, and territory”.
For “Geologie del Tempo”, Monira Al Qadiri, a Kuwaiti visual artist born in Senegal and educated in Japan, visited the island for the first time in September-October 2025, accompanied by photographer Federica Iannuzzi “crossing landscapes, archaeological sites, scientific museums, and territories often far from the most well-known routes - explains Valentina Bruschi, curator of “Viaggio in Sicilia” since 2015 - as always, the project is based on the idea of looking at Sicily through new eyes, allowing the journey, encounters, and cultural stratifications of the territory to slowly transform into artistic research. In the case of Monira, this experience created such a strong bond with the island that it led her to return several times even after the residency had ended. Perhaps this is one of the most beautiful aspects of the project: its generative capacity to create real and lasting connections between artists, people, and places. As Leonardo Sciascia wrote, Sicily is not an island, but a continent”.