BARI.- The body and its training, competition, social prestige, the hero and memory: these are some of the themes at the heart of Athl鑤es - The Icon Beyond Time. Athletics, society and funerary ritual among the Peucetian aristocracies of the territory of Bari, an exhibition promoted by the Superintendency for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of the Metropolitan City of Bari.
Curated by Caterina Annese, Elena Dell and Francesca Romana Paolillo, the exhibition will remain open until 28 March 2027.
The initiative forms part of the institutional activities of the Ministry of Culture - Department for Cultural Heritage Protection and Directorate-General for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape - and reflects its commitment to combining heritage protection, research and knowledge with meaningful public access to the archaeological heritage.
Fabrizio Magani, Director-General for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, states: "The ancient athlete is not simply a man who competes. He is an image of the world. In his body, his gestures and the forms in which he is represented, a civilisation embodies its own ideas of measure, discipline, prestige, beauty and memory. Athl鑤es explores this idea through ancient Apulia, never a passive periphery of the Mediterranean but a laboratory in which the Peucetian, Daunian and Messapian communities selected, adapted and reinterpreted Greek models, developing original forms of cultural expression. The figure of the athlete thus becomes a privileged lens through which to move beyond the opposition between the 'Greek' and 'indigenous' worlds and reveal the profoundly interconnected nature of Mediterranean societies. After all, the past never returns unchanged: it returns only if we know how to ask it the right questions."
Aldo Siciliano, President of the Institute for the History and Archaeology of Magna Graecia, states: "Through the archaeological evidence from the territory of Bari, Athl鑤es develops several of the themes at the heart of the 65th Conference and reflects a shared commitment by the Institute and the Superintendency to common projects and research perspectives. The archaeological record of the territory of Bari shows how the models and values of Greek athletic culture were received and reinterpreted by the communities of Peucetia. The dialogue between scholarly research and heritage protection thus makes it possible to develop shared approaches to knowledge and public engagement with heritage, of which Athl鑤es is a significant example."
The exhibition begins with the figure of the athlete to explore a reality far broader than athletic competition alone. In the ancient world, the trained body embodied discipline, education and self-control, while individual success could acquire public and collective significance. When these models reached Apulia, local communities did not receive them passively; instead, they selected and reinterpreted them within their own cultural and symbolic systems.
Through finds from the archaeological contexts of Rutigliano, Turi, Conversano, Gravina in Puglia and Ruvo di Puglia, Athl鑤es investigates the relationships between the body, education, athletic competition, aristocratic prestige, myth and memory. Figured pottery, implements associated with bodily care and preparation, numismatic evidence and funerary assemblages reveal how the image of the athlete entered the representational systems of the Peucetian aristocracies. The works on display include vessels attributed to major figures of ancient vase painting, from the Eretria Painter and the Amykos Painter to the Creusa Painter and the Circle of the Pan Painter: works that convey the outstanding quality of the selection while forming part of a much broader narrative.
A significant group of finds is being exhibited to the public for the first time. Many of these objects, previously held in storage, are being returned to public view in a display that reconstructs their meaning through their respective contexts of provenance. The exhibition is therefore also the outcome of the Superintendency's work in studying, documenting, conserving and enhancing the archaeological heritage of the territory of Bari.
"Athl鑤es stems from the heritage we protect and from the knowledge that this protection makes possible," states Francesca Romana Paolillo, Superintendent for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of the Metropolitan City of Bari. "We chose the athlete as the guiding thread through which the finds from the territory of Bari could tell a story extending far beyond sport in the ancient world: the body and its training, social prestige, identity, the relationship with the hero, and the construction of memory. Bringing such a significant part of this heritage to public attention for the first time means transforming the daily work of protection and research into an opportunity for shared knowledge, and reconnecting the territory with evidence that forms part of its heritage."
The exhibition also acquires particular significance through its dialogue between past and present. In a year when Apulia has once again become a meeting place for the peoples of the Mediterranean through sport, ATHLET蒘 reflects on the long history of athletic experience and on the capacity of its values, images and memories to cross periods and cultures.
This dialogue between the ancient and contemporary worlds takes concrete form through objects connected with a particularly significant moment in Olympic history: London 1948, the first Games held after the Second World War, at which Bari-born Pietro Lombardi won the gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. Athl鑤es pays tribute to his achievement thanks to the invaluable collaboration of his daughter, Vittoria Lombardi, and the Andrea Angiulli Gymnastics Society of Bari, restoring the memory of one of the most important chapters in the city's sporting history.
The 1948 Olympic torch also belongs to those Games. Preserved by Alceste Maurizio Lo Buono, it is presented in the exhibition as one of the most evocative objects in the entire display. Its significance extends beyond the symbolic power of the flame: it directly recalls the edition that marked the return of the Games after a twelve-year interruption and at which Lombardi reached the pinnacle of his career, symbolically bringing a fragment of that extraordinary Olympic experience back to Bari.
A symbol of journey, transmission and continuity, the torch creates a bridge between the ancient and modern athlete and, together with Lombardi's victory, interweaves archaeological heritage, sporting history and the memory of the region.
Vito Leccese, Mayor of Bari, states: "Athl鑤es reminds us that Rutigliano, Turi, Conversano, Gravina and Ruvo share a history that long predates the administrative boundaries we know today. It is a history of bodies, training, competition and rituals. One of the most interesting aspects is that many of the objects that tell this story, preserved in the Superintendency's storerooms, are now being made accessible to the public. In this way, the essential purpose of an institution and an exhibition remains alive: to safeguard memory and bring it into contact with those who come after us. Among the objects on display, one struck me in particular: the torch from the 1948 London Olympic Games. These were the very Games at which Pietro Lombardi, a native of Bari, won the gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. Through that torch, we retrace two thousand years of history: from ancient athletes to the modern Olympic spirit embodied by a young man from Bari who reached the highest step of the Olympic podium. I thank the Lombardi family, Alceste Maurizio Lo Buono and the Andrea Angiulli Gymnastics Society for preserving that memory and choosing to share it with the city."
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Mario Adda Editore, bringing together institutional and scholarly contributions on the themes explored in the exhibition. Through the objects and their contexts, it examines the relationship between athletics, society, identity and memory in Peucetia and across the wider Mediterranean world.
The exhibition's scholarly and curatorial concept was developed by Caterina Annese, Francesco Carofiglio, Lucia Ceci, Elena Dell, Francesca Romana Paolillo and Azurra Tenore, with a contribution by Stefania Montanaro on the numismatic finds; the exhibition design and installation were produced by Consorzio IDRIA.
