“Hidden amidst luxuriant Sicilian vegetation, hibiscus, bougainvillea, wild fennel, prickly pears, all immersed in grassland the color of lime; along the path that a variety of pilgrims take to climb to the edge of Stromboli’s volcano, a row of little white rooms with light gray floors will be, once again, the home of Volcano Extravaganza 2012. Neither nomadism nor wandering, but brightness and a 360-degree horizon, Alighiero Boetti suggested the name stra-vaganza as an allusion to those who want to invest in the multiplicity and unexpected nature of encounters. We invite you to make your own precious contribution, in terms of free associations and spontaneous intuitions.”
This message was sent by curators Milovan Farronato and Nick Mauss to 10 artists such as Andro Wekua and Thea Djordjadze to invite them to take part in Volcano Extravaganza, a series of art events taking place in July and August on the island of Stromboli, Sicily. The project is organized for the second time by Fiorucci Art Trust, a private foundation created in 2011 by Nicoletta Fiorucci, a collector of contemporary art.
In this way, Volcano Extravaganza brings contemporary art to the holiday resorts in August, a month that in Italy is synonymous with vacation. More specifically, the choice of the Aeolian Islands recalls a long tradition of creativity on these small islands off the Sicilian coast, famous for their primitive beauty and their active volcanos. Discovered by hippies and bohemians and beloved by artists and intellectuals, the Aeolian Islands became popular in 1950, when filmmakers Roberto Rossellini and William Dieterle chose them for shooting respectively Stromboli, Terra di Dio and Volcano, featuring stars Ingrid Bergman and Anna Magnani. The affair between Bergman and Rossellini, who was Magnani’s partner, caused a scandal and draw the public attention on the islands.
Besides the artists, Volcano Extravaganza has invited to Stromboli a number of guests such as Mark Nash, head of department of Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art in London, and Stuart Comer, curator of film at Tate Modern in London, to perform a soliloquy in front of the volcano, a moment of confrontation between man and nature in which the majesty of nature is enhanced: “A platform on a black rock cliff resembling the prow of a ship, with the drowning sun and spray of sea-foam at your back. We invite you to take a position and express your own voice in confrontation with the constantly erupting volcano you are facing from below.”
Parallel to Volcano Extravaganza, another art event takes place in Lipari, the biggest of the Aeolian Islands. It’s “Io Te e il Mare,” which means “Me You and the Sea,” a residency program for artists organized by That’s Contemporary, a Milan-based association which was started less than a year ago.
“The idea of the residency came out of a conversation with Milovan Farronato who was organizing the second edition of Volcano Extravanganza in Stromboli,” Francesca Baglietto, co-curators of the project together with Amy McDonnell, explains to Auction Central News. “We liked the idea of creating on the Archipelago a flow of people, ideas and unusual projects. The residency takes place in a farmhouse on Lipari’s hills, where, starting August 12, there will be a continuous coming and going of people. The residency program will finish in Stromboli on August 23.”
“That’s contemporary” has invited to Lipari 10 artists like the group “Alterazioni Video” to intervene in the island’s space with the awareness that is is not possible to represent the place in an objective way, thus rather concentrating on the perceived place. “We wanted to create an atypical residency which could start a dialog with the rhythm of the island, with its characteristics and its temperature,” says Francesca Baglietto. “We were aware of the time-limit that we have and of the separation from the region, so we decided to transform these limitations in our strong point, imposing our presence on the island and creating a sort of micro-community on the highest point of Lipari. Io Te e il Mare is an island on the island, a kind of temporary mental place.”
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