The volume Visual Culture, Heritage and Identity: Using Rock Art to Reconnect Past and Present (Archaeopress, Oxford, 2021), edited by Professors Jamie Hampson of the University of Exeter and Andrzej Rozwadowski of the University of Barcelona, is a fundamental reference point in the study of rock art and its role in the construction of contemporary cultural identity.
Through a critical and innovative approach, the book explores the dynamics with which ancestral forms of expression are reinterpreted and integrated into the present, opening up profound reflections on the dialogue between past and contemporary times in the field of visual culture and heritage.
In this important academic contribution, published by Archeopress, a leading Oxford publishing house, Andrea Benetti is cited not only as an artist but also as a theorist through his Manifesto dell’Arte Neorupestre (Manifesto of Neorupestre Art). The text recognises the originality and value of the Manifesto, which proposes an innovative synthesis between contemporary languages and prehistoric forms of expression, emphasising its relevance in the current artistic and cultural landscape. The reference to Benetti and his Manifesto in such a prestigious publication, signed by two eminent scholars of international renown, confirms the importance of the Bolognese painter‘s artistic and theoretical research in the contemporary debate on art forms and cultural identity.