Italian tales

Colonised by the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Spanish and French, the south of Italy today retains echoes from all the Mediterranean histories. It seems the perfect region for artists and cultural centres, but the lack of employment, the consequent migration of its habitants and the danger of serious crime makes this exceptional environment much more complicated. There are significant obstacles and difficulties for cultural organisations, such as very poor infrastructure, compounding the difficulty of promoting and selling a show, the delays on the part of local government in assigning funds and the inhibited mentality of political patronage. However, despite these challenges, many capable artists and bold cultural entrepreneurs have succeeded in starting arts centres and activities in their homeland.

Kismet Opera Theatre was founded in Bari (Puglia, on the south east coast) at the beginning of the 1980s by a group of theatre graduates. Since its inception, it has been deeply committed to profiling the urban environment and city problems. The company philosophy is that artists can deal with social problems and bring many ideas to the table. Roberto Ricco, one of the founders and the artistic director of Kismet, strongly believes that relationships are the fundamental solution: trading minds and places with each other, talking, listening and sharing experiences. That’s why Kismet has been working for years with disabled people and convicted children in Bari prison. A year-round theatre laboratory exists inside the jail where children can work with professional actors. Audience members have to enter the prison to attend the show. The young prisoners, although kept apart for safety reasons, are there with them. This is crucial for the integration process of the jail and the children in the city. Today, Kismet is one of the key cultural organisations in the south of Italy, providing a special programme to support new theatre companies and regularly touring abroad.
Majazè (‘storage’ from the Sicilian dialect) was founded in Catania eight years ago by the Sicilian contemporary dancer, Emma Scialfa, and musician, Tommaso Marletta. This cultural centre is deeply connected with the city and has often successfully involved the habitants in its activities, such as the ‘Piccone Day’ when Catania people helped with the restructuring works of the building for two days. Majazè’s mission is arts and culture exchange, performance and training. To overcome the lack of public funding, Majazè is now revising its activity focusing on training (having gained the ISO9000 Certification¹) and also running private events to generate revenue.
The Blackside Festival in Agrigento (Sicily, south coast) ran from 1997 to 1999. This international African-American inspired music festival, initiated by Francesco Camerino, was created to enrich the Sicilian summer music panorama through an explorative journey of Black music. Despite of attendances of 10,000, the local government did not support the festival and arranged similar music events but with free entrance, which it had never done before. As they had not reached a managing agreement, Blackside was forced to close down, though Camerino may submit a proposal for an event in 2009. Despite the difficulties, the south of Italy’s artistic initiatives survive and succeed thanks to patience, perseverance and creativity.