Giovanni Bellini’s Allegoria Sacra (Sacred Allegory) hangs in the Uffizi in Florence. The subject of this painting is a mystery to art historians. The earliest figures of Christian and ancient mythology are gathered together on a balustrade by a sea or a wide river, surrounded by hills on which can be seen, in the distance, village huts and a palazzo. St. Sebastian, the Madonna, a centaur, small children playing by a tree in the centre, a Saracen-Muslim, a man somewhat like the Apostle Paul with a sword in his hand, in the background a peasant with a mule, two beautiful ladies one of whom is St. Catherine, a naked old man reminiscent of Job - this is a far from a complete list of the heroes who Bellini brought together in this picture. AES+F have always been intrigued by this painting. When they started to think of a third project after Last Riot and The Feast of Trimalchio, shown at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2009 respectively, the artists decided that a series entitled Allegoria Sacra would form the final part of a trilogy about the modern world (Hell, Heaven, Purgatory). They see Bellini’s heroes in those passengers who meet accidentally while awaiting their flights at international airports. The airport is Purgatory. The bringing together of the incompatible (in an airport, according to AES+F) raises the question of the values of our civilisation. The crowd of Muslim migrants and the skinhead with a baseball bat, the disconnected ‘western’ passengers and the almost military unity of the Asian travellers, the adopted children of prosperous gay couples and the poor Muslim children with their families - Allegoria Sacra does not discuss recipes for happiness in different cultures, it points to the impossibility of an answer to that question.