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The crystalline success achieved by «Gente in Aspromonte» has reasons that are all in all simple, albeit telluric. The quality of the cultural proposal, the suggestions of the indicated horizon, the simplicity of a paradigm that invites us to sit among the complexity of things to understand their profound meaning. The eighth edition of the event conceived by the writer, journalist and intellectual Angela Sposato, animated by the writer Gioacchino Criaco and organized by the «Insieme per Africo» association has raised the bar of the debate once again, in the name of the mountain that reclaims its most authentic and genuine connotations: metaphysics and identity together in a path that has continued to pass through southern Europe for millennia.
Between Rifugio Carrà and Campusa, cardinal points that cut the palingenesis of Africo Vecchio in half, dozens of activities filled the days of 22 and 23 August with content. For the over one thousand people who lived the experience, overall, a journey into inhabiting places that persist in life beyond the definitions of the contemporary world. The theme chosen is evocative: «From the metareal to the metaphysics of Alvaro». «We went to the profound meaning of things – explained Angela Sposato – in a place that is pure metaphysics, not abstract but absolutely concrete. We have combined the mountain by looking at the spirit that animates it and thinking of it in the feminine, well beyond ideology, but in the folds of a land that preserves and generates. At Africo we reiterated that what is beautiful requires effort, in places that host not because they are comfortable, but because they become coveted again.”
Culture, literature and identity in the flow of an open dialogue filled with suggestions, provocations and proposals. Art and sociality; food and wine resulting from fine raw materials and essential nature. And that continuous reference to Corrado Alvaro, to his metaphysics, to Medea and to the gaze from within. Among the guests for the two days were many institutional representatives, third sector and civic representatives. But also curious people, ordinary people, scholars, intellectuals. Among others, the mayor of Africo Domenico Modaffari, the councilor for Tourism of the Calabria Region Giovanni Calabrese, the mayor of Sant’Agata del Bianco Domenico Stranieri, representatives of the GAL Area Grecanica and the president of the Film Commission Calabria Anton Giulio Grande.
The schedule accompanied in the stitching of meaning. Great attention was paid to the book “A King’s Lunch” by Jim Harrison and to the theme of food as healing. High quality in the discussion on Aspromonte and Alvaro between the writer Gioacchino Criaco, the director of the Palazzo Reale in Milan Domenico Piraina and the linguist Giuseppe Polimeni. Then space for Ettore Castagna and the luthier Giuseppe Lucà. The second day still held important surprises. In Campusa, another area of Africo Vecchio, the reasoning returned to Alvaro and Saverio Strati. On a journey, both, on timeless values and suggestions, cradled by the anecdotes of Domenico Stranieri. Lunch at the primary schools that belonged to Zanotti Bianco, where they hadn’t eaten for seventy years. Then the inauguration of the «Barcalabria» installation by Antonello Scotti and the «Bacheche di thought»: a LED sign, powered by a photovoltaic panel which lights up at night when the sun drops behind the line of the Tyrrhenian Sea. A revolt by the poet, a reappropriation of a place and the meaning of that place. A light to strengthen the sense of living, on the edge of an increasingly clear allegory.
The meeting with Gazzetta del Sud journalist Anna Mallamo was greatly appreciated, as she discussed her award-winning novel “Col cuore me la vedo io” (Einaudi) with Alessia Alboresi and Evelina Catizone: we talked about powerful femininity, “Mediterranean” matriarchy and the Magna Graecia spirit. Of genius loci and places that continue to live, obstinately, in the imagination.
Closing with the music of the Youth Wind Orchestra «G. Scerra» by Delianuova: a classic and modern repertoire, with interpretations of great intensity. How intense was Gioacchino Criaco’s final thought, between awareness and hope: «We didn’t win due to the number of attendances, a thousand in a continuous coming and going that lasted 48 hours. We are satisfied for not having managed to describe the mountain and the internal areas from a favorable stage overlooking the sea. Those who allowed themselves to be ensnared by our stories and moved from many, many kilometers away, experienced the internal area and the mountains from within, with the effort, the sweat, the inconveniences, which are the fuel of the engine that takes girls and boys away from us, that empties a world that is now only told in a rhetorical key. Those who have subjected themselves to our “tortures” will now understand something more about nature, not through hearsay, some will keep away and most will remain imprisoned in a spell that binds mercilessly and lovingly. University professors, writers, musicians, majority and opposition politics, in the end all together, exhausted, but all returning with a gift, a bunch of oregano or an acorn closed in a fist. The girls and boys from Africo, the friends from outside who literally sacrificed themselves in a crazy bet that will return, with the same hardships, next year, won.”