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HORIZONS Art Prison for the Recovery of Fort St. Catherine in Favignana

Art Prison is the international competition of ideas launched by the Municipality of Favignana together with the Agenzia del Demanio, aimed at the redevelopment of the Castle of Santa Caterina. Managed by YAC (Young Architects Competitions) the project has the task of designing the reuse of the majestic building, owned by the State, at the center of the largest of the Egadi Islands, Favignana.

The competition, Art Prison, was conceived by the intuition of using a contest to transform the Fort of Santa Caterina. In other words, the modern recovery of an old prison in one of the most evocative contemporary art centers in the Mediterranean. With Art Prison, the aim is to create a cultural center that exploits the historical and economic characteristics of the island.

A refuge for artists, creative and curious in a sublime context between encounter, culture and creative research. A place where artists have the opportunity to weave themselves to enjoy an inviolate environment to stimulate and regenerate mind and spirit.
Art Prison: young ideas for an ancient good.
From the abandoned prison to the high spot of contemporary art, this is the fascinating challenge of Art Prison, and the winner will lead an artistic renaissance of the sixteenth century Fortress. The goal is to re-imagine Santa Caterina, and the homonymous top on which it stands, as a multi-purpose and multi-purpose art center. All in the idiom of the fabulous Kröller-Müller museum in the Netherlands and the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum in Japan.

Students, graduates or freelancers who are not necessarily enrolled in professional registers may participate in the call for applications. Participants can join teams in which there must be at least one member aged between 18 and 35 years. The deadline for the submission of projects is 11 April. The prize money is 20,000 euros: 10,000 for the 1st prize; 4,000 to 2 °; 2,000 to the 3rd. In addition, four Gold mentions of 1,000 euros each.
Projects must include a hotel, an art studio, exhibition spaces and a high-end restaurant. Fundamental, above all, must denote a sustainable and harmonized project with the natural and anthropic context of the place. The projects will be evaluated by a panel of architectural experts, including: Daniel Libeskind of Studio Libeskind, Manuel Aires Mateus of Aires Mateus, Felix Perasso di Snøhetta. And João Luís Carrilho from Graça of Carrilho da Graça Arquitectos.
The Fortress of Santa Caterina
Located at the highest point of the wild island of Favignana, in the south of Sicily, stands the abandoned Fortress of Santa Caterina. Its construction dates back to the period before the Norman domination. Year one thousand and most likely referable to a Saracen watchtower.

At the end of 1800 a period of decline started for the Fortezza. Later in the Italian post-unification, the Risorgimento patriots erased all Bourbon traces. Even from the castle of Santa Caterina, used until then as a prison.

The Fortress was erected in local limestone with a rectangular shape with symmetrical protrusions at the four corners. The ground floor was buried in the rock and here, since the seventeenth century, political prisoners languished.