In this episode of Art Destination Sicily, artist Aurora Passero joins us from her Oslo studio to reflect on her creative journey. Growing up in Norway, Aurora was immersed in textiles through her grandmother’s sewing and her mother’s costume design for film. Those early tactile encounters with wool, linen, velvet, and embroidery continue to shape her work today.

Aurora shares how her father’s Sicilian roots inspired her recent residency at SARP on Mount Etna, where she balanced family life with artistic deadlines. She describes weaving with nylon and local Sicilian wool, exploring the tension between synthetic and organic materials, and creating site-specific works that engage directly with space, atmosphere, and audience.

Through stories of travelling with her artist husband and children, Aurora reveals how family, process and place intertwine in her practice.

In this conversation, we explore how staging echoes her mother’s influence and how atmosphere itself becomes a narrative in art.

Alessandro Giorgi joins Art Destinations Sicily to reflect on his childhood in a remote Sicilian fishing village Torretta Granitola which he describes as an island within an island. His childhood memories of migrant boats arriving from North Africa in the night and the unspoken presence of the Mafia have found their way into his art. Alessandro discusses his shift from architecture to art, and how drawing became both a meditative practice and a democratic tool.

Alessandro’s work flows across mediums—murals, stop-motion, and fluid drawings. His imagery responds to the rhythms of the sea, resisting borders and tracing connections across place and imagination.

Step inside Palazzo Butera in Palermo with director Claudio Gulli, where the private collection of Francesca and Massimo Valsecchi transforms the historic palace into an experimental playground for drawing links between ancient art and contemporary culture.

Palazzo Butera displays art as if in a lived-in home, inviting you to feel comfortable and make unexpected connections between historic masterpieces, contemporary works and decorative arts.

In this episode, Claudio speaks about the Valsecchi vision, Palermo’s role as a cultural crossroad, and on how a collection can be viewed as an artwork in its own right.