PALERMO, ITALY.-The 6th Edition of Il Genio di Palermo will take place from 28th September to 2nd October. The event, which is dedicated to young Palermitan artists, is promoted by the Comune di Palermo, directed by Eva di Stefano and organised by Sintesi Cultura. Thirty-two artists under the age of 35 will open their workshops to the public from 6.00pm to 12.00 midnight. A carefully constructed itinerary around the city's old town centre will show off some of Palermo's multiform creative activities. An international jury, including museum directors, art critics and experts will not only evaluate the works of art produced, but will also choose the most interesting and innovative project conceived for the city of Palermo. The winning project will receive funding for its realisation.

Again this year, Il Genio di Palermo will let us know a generation of raising artists, who express their ingenuity and their motivations by using different languages: photography, painting, video and installations. The thirty-two artists, a third of whom are women, were selected among 250 candidates. Their studios, scattered throughout the Historical Centre of Palermo - which on this occasion will become an animated "arts working site" - will be open from September 28th until October 2nd, between 6 PM and 12 midnight. On September 26th, in the Chiesa dello Spasimo, two workshops will take place. These workshops (the works resulting from which will be presented to the public on the 1st of October) will be held by leading figures of the international art scene, Atelier Van Lieshout and John Bock.

The Genio di Palermo programme is also enriched by a conference by the anthropologist Franco La Cecla (28th September at the Chiesa dello Spasimo) and a discussion on the relationships between Palermo and Contemporary Art (29th September at 6 PM at the Chiesa dello Spasimo).

Founded in 1995 by Joep Van Lieshout, Atelier Van Lieshout gained international recognition for a series of works (sculptures, installations, design and architectural work and performance) whose anarchic and transgressive contemporary artistic themes deal with nomadism and the concepts of social alienation, collective solidarity and sexual freedom;

The German, John Bock, is a leading artist of the new European avant-garde movement. He is the creator and performer of eclectic, visionary performances characterized by unexpected effects. As a sculpture and actor, he creates structures from precarious materials and uses improbably shaped objects to build universes that allude to themes and obsessions of our time and in which he himself is the protagonist. His "lessons", both involving and absurd, are the expression of a versatile personality that has been defined as being half mad scientist and half Buster Keaton.