The torrent of art, the rooms of art. The Fiumara d’Arte and Atelier sul Mare in Sicily

It is generally acknowledged that some issues of the aesthetic process relate Architecture to Art, tying them together. The chapter aims at examining under a different point of view the old matter of the correspondence between Art and Architecture. The reported case-study focuses on Fiumara d’Arte and Atelier sul Mare (Castel di Tusa, Messina, Sicily), a huge artistic park and a very singular hotel in which different artists have designed the rooms. Thanks to this extraordinary private enterprise (the Sicilian patron Antonio Presti), it is possible to open some actual questions about Art’s and Architecture’s task. First of all, Art can by-pass the functional and ergonomic issues, more typical of the Architectural range. A second point is the possibility for the Artist’s creativity to give the user the opportunity of passing throughout a sensorial and intellectual experience. Moreover, as a final synthesis, to understand that the comfort dimension is based on intellectual circumstances, much more than to ergonomics or technological parameters.