Phyllis: Love in Metamorphosis
The wild beauty of the natural territory that forms the "Monti Sibillini" National Park has been the superb scenery, for over two millennia, of myths, legends and epic narrations - still very much alive in traditions and in present-day culture.

One of these legends mentions that the name "Amandola" derives from an almond tree growing on the highest hilltop of the village. That tree was none other than Phyllis, the Princess who, in despair for the loss of her beloved, arrived at the village and here, at the point of death was transformed in an almond tree by Minerva.

The myth of Phyllis and her metamorphosis is full of symbolic meanings that the ancient Greek have drawn from Oriental myths and Palaeolithic rituals concerning the female and terrestrial fertility of the prehistoric Venusses; in their turn related to the figure of the Dea Mater.

The almond tree, audacious in its flowering of white, delicate petals in wintry days, is the forebode of vernal life, already sprouting - whereas the almond nuts, base ingredient of oriental and Mediterranean gastronomy, can be interpreted as a symbol for the rich and nutrient fruits of the earth.

The metamorphosis of Phyllis is therefore the rebirth to new life, caused by the rejoining of her beloved Demophoon. Love, capable to accomplish powerful, fertile metamorphoses in the life of everyone... starting from this mythical axiom the young artists will draw inspiration to create contemporary artworks, confirming once again the universal meaning of Art.