The Trinacria in bronze on the Strait of Messina

Compelling and full of meaning is the statue we find at the arrival of the bridge over the Strait of Messina. It encapsulates all the basic concepts of the work it is meant to celebrate. A Trinacria “woman,” made of bronze, nine meters high: she soars balanced on two arms that sink into the ground like the roots of an oak tree. So does the bridge itself, which has two roots at either end of the strait. The statue’s beautiful face looks serenely toward the mainland which, thanks to this same bridge, has finally become one with the island. The statue’s hair, her curls, flow thanks to the wind from the strait.
Trinacria is the symbol that represents Sicily. It is an ancient religious image that represented the sun god in his threefold form of spring, summer, and winter. A female head with three bent legs (triskeles) moving from it. The head harks back to the gorgons, monsters of Greek mythology with golden wings and distinctive snakes instead of hair. There were three of them and they represented perversions: Euryale represented “sexual perversion,” Steno represented “moral perversion,” and Medusa represented “intellectual perversion.”
The Trinacria statue is already visible from the Salerno – Reggio Calabria highway towards Villa San Giovanni, and travelers now consider it a sign of arrival, a finish line. The work is mounted on a circular podium, made of steel, in which various combinations of electronic, multilingual signs welcome those arriving and greet those leaving the island. A cult object: in addition to the classic “selfie” in which it is featured, it already appears on postcards, T-shirts, models, gadgets and commemorative stamps. A success comparable to such monuments as the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, and the Christ of Rio de Janeiro. When its creator presented the project, he was mocked and treated as a dreamer. But it’s a work within a work, says Cecco Cecchini, who over time created, planned, designed and executed the statue, following the stages of its realization at an Italian foundry, together with a pool of experts in bronze working. I had never made a bronze sculpture in my life, but the first one I “made big!” says Cecco Cecchini again. In truth, the artist continues, I had had the image of the Trinacria Woman in my head since 2004 and wanted to give her form. I first made a painting of her on canvas, which can be found in Sicily, in the 150×204 cm format, on the occasion of an exhibition in Taormina.
The statue was made and set up by Gianpaolo (Cecco) Cecchini, a Roman freelance creative active in the world of communication since the 1970s. He has linked his name to famous advertising campaigns and images that have become icons in the world of cinema where he has collaborated with great Italian and American authors. His is the image of the Oscar-winning film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso. One more icon created by Cecchini: the bronze Trinacria on the Strait of Messina.