MAURO FILIPPI AND THE STREET ART IN SICILY
Citymap SiciliaStreet art in Sicily is one of the treasures that citizens and tourists are discovering / should discover more and more with more passion, because it is linked to the past, is synonymous with regeneration in the present and can give interesting tourist prospects and enhancement of the territory in future.
We talked about it with the architect and designer, photographer and lover of urban art, Mauro Filippi. He is among the founders of PUSH. Palermo non-profit, working in the field of social innovation and service design where he currently works as a designer and project manager.
Together with the semiologist Marco Mondino and the sociologist Luisa Tuttolomondo he is one of the authors of “Street Art in Sicily”, complete and engaging guide to Sicilian street art edited by Dario Flaccovio and with him we talked about the ferment of street art in Sicily, the most active and of the places of Catania and of the collective “in turmoil” to visit and know absolutely. As a tourist and as a tourist in the city.
With your “Street art in Sicily” you have given an unpublished reading of the places, interesting also from a point of view of potential routes and tourist enjoyment. From your point of view, at what point is our island in terms of cultural tourism linked To these new urban issues?
The theme of tourism at this precise historical moment is very controversial. In an island where for too long one has been deceived to be able to “live on tourism” some services have been strengthened, but forgetting everything that surrounds them and makes them effective and efficient: infrastructures, culture, sustainability. In Palermo, for example, for many years there have been several cultural proposals in the city related to urban art such as walks, meetings and thematic events. Thematic and sector exhibitions have been organized in the last few years between Catania, Ragusa and Giardini Naxos, but it seems that the interest is still quite limited. The works of urban art represent a value for the city and , for example, a few years ago the City of Palermo has sponsored and financed the printing of a thematic paper map that offers a path between the main urban art works in the city . However, I believe that the individual experiences are still too timely and weakly synergistic.
What is missing and what do you hope for a greater enhancement of tourism also linked to street art?
Perhaps there is no overall strategy and a common direction that values the heritage as a whole. Personally, I hope that in the future there will be incentives for “healthy and responsible” and not mass tourism on these issues, and I believe that even the guide we have created, with its critical and multidisciplinary approach, is making a contribution. I hope the development of a respectful and attentive tourism to the issues of urban spaces as a whole, bring new value to the individual communities, called into question in the different places that host this form of art.
How much is urban culture active in Sicily?
In recent years we have witnessed a real boom. After the very first and sporadic works of Campo Felice di Roccella and Giardini Naxos, which date back to a decade ago, the pace of expansion and growth of urban art has increased exponentially. Today we certainly register a strong institutionalization of the interventions with patronage of regions, municipalities, participated companies and private bodies that with specific objectives and interests support urban art experiences spread over the territory, in the centers as well as in the suburbs. In the last decade, real poles of attraction have been generated, both in large and small local areas.
Which are the most “in turmoil” Sicilian places?
Favara (with FARM Cultural Park), Ragusa (with Festiwall), Giardini Naxos (with Emergence), Catania (with #redlinedistreet and #skylinedistreet), Palermo (with Borgo Vecchio Factory and Cartoline da Ballarò), Caltanissetta (with eCLettica ) and again Mazara del Vallo (with Periferica) and Castrofilippo (with Cufù). If you then want to go even deeper you should also mention the experiences of San Giovanni Gemini (with his poster art festival), Frazzanò, (with fra.me.it), Graniti (with his atypical international residency project artistic) and still many many others. It is really interesting to note the plurality of approaches and the difference in contexts. There really is something for everyone.
And what about street artists in Catania? Which path would you recommend to those who want to know the street art in Catania?
The Catania scene is a particularly rich and active scene. The artists that gravitate around the capital are many and buy day after day more consensus and interest of industry critics. I think of the twins Mangione, Gue, Ligama, with his interesting project among the ruins of Sicily, Poki, with his characters just mentioned and extremely respectful of the walls from which come to life, Vlady, now emigrated to Sweden but present on the international scene, Luprete with his sharp humor, and still the young Ruce with its delicate nuances and transparencies.
Surely in Catania those interested in urban art can travel different paths, beat various areas and know a multitude of projects all characterized by specific characteristics.
Six architects and photographers, expert in documentation of cultural heritage and co-founder of the Push innovation laboratory. You are a wonderful and young collective that operates mainly in Palermo, carrying out projects of social innovation. With one of the projects, Borgo Vecchio Factory, you talked about how graffiti and street art can be an instrument of education and to counteract social emergencies. Are there any noteworthy realities also in Catania, of the collective “partners” that in Catania carry out similar requests to yours?
In Catania there are many realities and collectives active in different areas of the city. Among the most present are the “Res Publica Temporanea”, promoters among others of two very interesting projects between Librino and San Berillo. The first, #skylinedistreet, carried out together with the students of the Campo San Teodoro and with the support of the Teatro Coppola, has created over the years a rich and interesting heritage of urban art capable of activating “collateral” activities, not least the action of guerrilla gardening developed just a few weeks ago in synergy with the Botanical Garden of Catania.
And then there is #redlinedistreet and everything that orbits around San Berillo…
#redlinedistreet tries to intervene calmly and intelligently within an urban fabric full of history and stories, virtually isolated from its surroundings. With a careful look at the possible risks of increasing the economic value of the buildings on which the artists intervened, to avoid the incentive of possible unwanted gentrification effects, the works were mostly carried out on “mobile” and precarious supports, like doors and windows, walled or not. Also this project consists of numerous signatures ranging from the local scene to the international one, offering a plurality of ideas, styles and messages, able to make people think and to tie themselves in an indissoluble way with the context from which they are born.