Once again the “Antonello da Messina” Award – awarded since 1998 to cultural excellences that have brought prestige even outside their hometown, to their homeland, Messina and Sicily – has renewed the threads that unite Rome, the island and the city of the Strait. In the name of the great artist, as noted by the president of the “Antonello” Association Milena Romeo who promoted the event. «Antonello, an extraordinarily enigmatic painter, whose enigmas have deep roots», observed the great writer Dacia Maraini, guest of honor at the ceremony, held in the Austrian Culture Forum, in Parioli. The writer received the “Prix Erica” promoted by the Geneva Foundation “Erica Suater” chaired by Dagmar Reichardt, and the special “Antonello” lifetime achievement award for her intense bond with the island: «I am happy with this evening which links me to Sicily where I spent my formative years». A living bond in unforgettable books: «The Sicily of the 18th century that I described in “Marianna Ucria” and “Trio”, set during the Messina plague, was a rich and cosmopolitan island, which traded silks and sugar», said the writer, whose volume on traditions in the world edited by the Reichardt. Then the intense award ceremony sponsored by the Messina Foundation for culture, together with Cara Beltà and CentoSicilie. The editor-in-chief of the “Gazzetta del Sud” Nino Rizzo Nervo received the award in memory of his journalist father Gaetano Rizzo Nervo, promoter of Rome’s “Amici di Messina” in the 70s and 80s: «When I learned of the award in memory of my father, who passed away 11 years ago, I felt great emotion also because we often forget about the dead, while the Antonello Association, to which he was very close, wanted to celebrate it. I remember with pleasure the acquaintances in Rome with personalities such as Massimo Mollica, Gino and Mario Landi, Adolfo Celi, and above all Gioacchino Toldonato, with whom my father animated the Messina group”, underlined Rizzo Nervo. Vincenzo Morgante, director of Tv2000, who as a Rai reporter carried out the last interview with Father Puglisi, underlined the importance of recognition “by my Sicily”. Catanese journalist Emma D’Aquino, who hosts the 8pm edition of Tg1, underlined the importance of talking about Sicily. The president of the Superior Council of Health, the psychiatrist Alberto Siracusano, was moved and recalled his family roots in Lipari, while the Madonnina del port was evoked by the general of the GdF and legal advisor to the Presidency of the Council Francesco Attardi, on the front line against fraud and the mafia. The Strait was at the center of the touching message of the well-known designer Fausto Puglisi, famous for his dresses for Madonna and Pausini, read by his aunt Rosalba Di Paola. Also vivid were the interventions of the Supreme Court lawyer Carlo Vermiglio, who as regional councilor for Culture committed himself to the reopening of the Museum of Messina, of the general director of the Ministry of Culture Andrea De Pasquale, who focused on historical memory, of the director Francesco Calogero, who dedicated the production house to the “Polittico”, of the set designer Marco Dentici, who evoked the island’s colours. The young people awarded: the journalist Andrea G. Cerra and the manager Francesco Burrascano. Evening enlivened by the musical contributions of the soprano Michela Marconi and the pianist Emanuele Rizzo, the readings of the actress Mariella Lo Sardo.
John
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