The universal warmth and positive outlook as expressed in the lyrics and melody of the great Neapolitan song, ‘O Sole Mio,’ inspired our online exhibition O Sole Mio in which we published responses to the song by emerging, mid-career, and established international contemporary artists, and the wider art community.

Presented weekly as themed digital magazine, O Sole Mio included compelling images, film stills, newly created animations and films, together with essays by artists and art professionals, and an introduction to each issue by Parasol unit’s director/curated Ziba Ardalan. The various themes will continue to resonate beyond the Covid-19 pandemic as we delve into the human condition, and the fraught relationship between nature and technology, reality and illusion, hope and optimism.

The O Sole Mio project aimed to look beyond the global crisis and focus on the positive throughout this challenging period. Each contributor responded uniquely to the content of the song and their own personal association with it, what it represents to them, the memories it evokes, and how we might understand it within the context of our time.