The exhibition “East and West. Allegories and symbols of the Mediterranean tradition. Installations by Navid Azimi Sajadi”, is organized by the Palermo Superintendence for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Monreale and MondoMostre. The exhibition connects two extraordinary monumental works of Sicilian Arab-Norman art, UNESCO World Heritage sites the Monreale Cathedral monumental complex, and the Zisa./// The exhibition opens on 23 October 2020 in Monreale. Curated by Lina Bellanca and Alessandro Carlino, it brings together stories and symbols carved onto the capitals of the Benedictine Cloister and the Duomo’s chapels, along with photographs from the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz-Max-Planck-Institut archive, site-specific installations by Iranian artist Navid Azimi Sajadi and a special App dedicated to the exhibition with music by Pinuccio Pirazzoli. Inspired by the iconography of the monumental complex, works by artist Navid Azimi Sajadi are being exhibited in the Monreale Cloister, the halls of the Diocesan Museum and the San Benedetto Chapel in the Duomo, sparking a modern-day dialogue between Middle Eastern art and the Western Mediterranean. Not only is this a journey between East and West, it is a journey between past and present, thanks to an exhibition layout developed by concept designer Francesco Ferla that exalts the multiple representations of the capitals against the evocative background of the abbey. Navid Azimi Sajadi’s art and poetics refer to these very same representations. Much like William II, King of Sicily – known as “William the Good” for re-establishing a climate of peace and inter-religious coexistence, who had a dream and dedicated the Church in Monreale to the Madonna and Child (the pivotal, coordinated image of this exhibition) – today, looking on this architectural wonder, the artist has ventured on a dreamlike inner journey through allegories and symbols, signs and anthropomorphic evocations of the different cults hidden within the capitals.