Episode 6: Irene Coppola on fight-specific art in Palermo
Episode 6: Irene Coppola on fight-specific art in Palermo
Season 3 Sicily
Irene Coppola portrait at Alter Eva.Natura Potere Corpo, collective show, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 2021. Image credit Stefano Casati
In this episode of Art Destinations, Sicilian artist Irene Coppola discusses how Palermo’s post-war urban decay, environmental neglect and cultural transformation shape her “fight-specific” art practice. Born and based in Palermo, Irene Coppola uses walking, collecting and site-responsive installation to engage with the city's complex social and political history.
She explores the destruction of Palermo’s historic centre during World War II, the infamous Sack of Palermo construction boom, and the polluted Sicilian coastline—once public, now largely privatised. Coppola’s project Mammelloni documents this transformation through photography, material archives and a poetic documentary film co-directed with Ruben Monterosso.
We also learn about spaziomateria, the independent studio Coppola co-founded with architect Vito Priolo, and how their collaborations bridge art, ecology and architecture. From street vendors during the COVID-19 lockdown to fireworks as a visual language of resistance, Irene Coppola's work reclaims Palermo’s layered memory through contemporary art.
BIOGRAPHY
Irene Coppola (Palermo, 1991) is a transdisciplinary artist who explores residual memories and the display as critical tools. With her sculptural approach, she weaves poetical and sensitive connections between matter, organic forms and “g-local” narratives, acting a semantic and perceptive shift.
She embraces the fight-specific practice of her mentor Bert Theis, looking at the socio-political struggles of the liminal territories. Her recent art expeditions were in the jungle of Panama and the Atacama desert in Chile (supported by the Italian Council). In 2024, she founded spaziomateria in Palermo with the architect Vito Priolo. Her work has been shown at Palazzo Strozzi (Florence), PAV (Turin), FSRR (Guarene), Cercle Cité (Luxembourg), and Palais de Tokyo (Paris) among others.
