"Mare Nostrum": Andrea Roggi's sculptures in Liguria. Second stop: Genoa.
With the Mare Nostrum project, Andrea Roggi brings his sculptures along the Ligurian coastline, where the dialogue between sea, matter, and light opens a new chapter in an artistic journey already begun with Terra Mater. In every location that hosts the works, the sculptures enter into a relationship with the landscape and with the history of the Mediterranean. They become images of a humanity that has always looked to the sea as a point of departure, a horizon to strive toward. The sea embraces the bronze forms, which reflect upon the water and engage in dialogue with the light and the surrounding environment. Above all, Mare Nostrum is an invitation to recognize the sea as a shared space, a place that throughout history has connected peoples and cultures. The sculptures thus become a bridge between humankind and nature, evoking ancient routes and new beginnings.
In Liguria, the Mediterranean speaks with a thousand voices: the ancient breath of Genoa, the golden sweetness of Alassio, the hidden pearl of Portofino. Each place preserves a unique nuance of landscape, and each city tells a different story of journeys, exchanges, and horizons. Within this setting of beauty, and as part of Ligyes 2026, the exhibition project Mare Nostrum comes to life – a journey intertwining art and territory, guiding Andrea Roggi’s sculptures along an ideal route from East to West Liguria. His works, trees rooted in memory and spheres opening toward the cosmos, engage in dialogue with squares, views, and harbors, transforming each stop into an encounter between matter and infinity.
Each exhibition creates a meeting point between the strength of matter and the movement of the waves, where Andrea Roggi’s art converses with the sea and the surrounding landscape.
“Having reached the realization of this exhibition represents an important moment for me, because it marks the natural continuation of an artistic journey already begun with Terra Mater, which today finds a new development in the Mare Nostrum project. In this dialogue between elements, sculpture and nature create a profound union that finds in Liguria and in the cities hosting the exhibition an ideal place for expression. I would like to thank the City of Genoa for welcoming and supporting this exhibition, together with Ligyes, the City of Alassio, and Galleria Ravagnan, with whom I continue a relationship of esteem and collaboration that makes projects of this cultural significance possible. The dialogue with the element of water and the sea thus becomes the guiding thread of a journey that begins in Liguria and will continue in Sardinia, opening a new scenario of artistic and cultural connection at the heart of the Mediterranean.” – Andrea Roggi
Territorial collaboration supports this traveling cultural project not only because it amplifies the call of the sea as a symbol of life, but also because it resonates with prestige throughout the Ligurian region, once again a crossroads of beauty, history, future, and above all, art.
“With Galleria Ravagnan and Ligyes_Alassio Genova Cultura Fest, today we witness the second stage of the Mare Nostrum project. This summer exhibition has many different souls” – states Marco Melgrati, Mayor of the City of Alassio. – “Art is one of the key elements that has helped bring the name of this cultural festival from local prominence to national recognition. After Portofino and Genoa, the final stop of Mare Nostrum will be Alassio itself, from June 6 to November 30.”
“We are delighted to return to Genoa, after the great success of Bruno Catalano’s exhibition in 2024, with an important new exhibition project dedicated, for the first time in the city, to Maestro Andrea Roggi. A special thanks goes to the Municipality of Genoa, the Liguria Region, the cultural institutions, the organizations involved, and the sponsors who believed in this project and made it possible. Andrea Roggi’s works will engage in dialogue with the city and its most symbolic locations, offering citizens and visitors the opportunity to encounter contemporary art in a spontaneous and engaging way, outside traditional spaces and in the heart of urban life. We look forward to welcoming you to Piazza De Ferrari to share this new artistic experience together in the heart of Genoa.” – Chiara Ravagnan
The four monumental bronze works featured in Andrea Rogggi's open-air exhibition in Genoa:
Ki
Ki originates from a reflection on the vital energy that flows through every form of existence. The title refers to an invisible and profound force, capable of nourishing body, mind, and spirit, creating harmony between human beings and the world around them. The work is connected to the theme of the Tree of Life, central to Andrea Roggi’s poetics. The roots represent the past: memory, culture, and tradition from which we draw nourishment. The trunk corresponds to the present, the only time in which we can act and create through love, evoked by the union of two anthropomorphic figures. The branches and fruits open toward the future, gathering the values of the past and the energy generated in the present. In Ki, past, present, and future merge into a harmonious vision. Vital energy becomes the principle that connects everything: what we have been, what we are, and what we may become. The work thus conveys a positive future, born from the encounter between memory, love, and awareness.
Il Volo della Conoscenza
Il Volo della Conoscenza portrays an anthropomorphic female figure soaring through the air with a powerful sense of freedom. The body appears to rise into space, transforming matter into movement, momentum, and lightness. The surface of the work is crossed by folds and graphic marks that evoke the pages of a book, symbolizing knowledge unfolding, spreading, and taking shape in bronze. The long, tapered braid supports the entire composition, creating a powerful balance between rootedness and ascent. With this work, Andrea Roggi presents knowledge as a force capable of liberating and elevating the human being, without breaking the bond with the earth. Il Volo della Conoscenza thus becomes an image of unity between soul and ground, wisdom and freedom, from which a deep and enduring balance emerges.
Le Radici della Rinascita
Le Radici della Rinascita is a new, previously unseen work connected to the theme of the Tree of Life, one of the central symbols in Andrea Roggi’s poetics. The sculpture reflects on time and the human journey, focusing on the bond between past, present, and future. The work depicts human figures intertwined with vegetal elements such as roots, branches, and natural forms. This fusion of body and nature expresses the profound relationship between humanity and life, as well as the possibility of rebirth through essential values. Andrea Roggi emphasizes the importance of love, altruism, and knowledge: forces capable of freeing humanity from prejudice, isolation, and limiting thoughts. Le Radici della Rinascita thus becomes a symbol of inner growth, openness, and renewed awareness.
Campana Incontro di Popoli
Campana Incontro di Popoli takes the form of a bronze sculpture with a green-blue patina, placed on a stone base. Its shape recalls that of a bell and rises upward through a network of stylized human figures intertwined in a continuous structure. The bodies appear to support one another, creating an open and harmonious composition in which emptiness and matter exist in balance. At the top, the composition closes and rises like a canopy or a flame, evoking the image of a tree, growth, and vital energy. The work represents the meeting of people as a force of unity, dialogue, and sharing. Each figure preserves its own identity while finding support and value in connection with the others. Campana Incontro di Popoli thus becomes a symbol of community, peace, and hope, where the union between human beings generates harmony and a shared future.
