Messina and the graduation of Emilio Isgrò: the word, the first of human rights

John

By John

That the roots, the seeds, Sicily are fundamental for Emilio Isgrò (“I am the result of positive grafts, starting with my family” he always repeats) the Maestro tells us this at the end of the solemn ceremony which awarded him the title of honorary doctor of Law. Guardian of the word, which he erases to preserve it from vain use and abuse, maestro Isgrò states: «Words count more than facts. Yes, because after them, if said at the right time, the facts follow.” Obviously «the honest word to which we all must contribute, and especially you journalists, who measure yourselves every day with social media and with news that comes from everywhere and in every language; here, you must try to broaden the space of understanding, which applies to everyone, which applies to young people. Without ever abandoning the line of advanced research, following free thought, therefore no provincialism, no localism. Sicily is declaring its desire to do and act, like Messina at this moment, also with this day in which I gave my contribution which I hope will be positive. But without unnecessary parochialism, because Sicily is one and unique, like Italy.”
His “Christ the Canceller” comes to mind (a Christ who is the executioner and at the same time the redeemer), and he says how for some time he has been appreciating the ants and bees as “erasers”: «They apparently cover the text on which they swarm, so much so that they seem to prevent it from being seen, but in reality they are writing a new language and with their tireless industriousness they want to give a sign of rebirth, of hope for the future”.
He says he is optimistic Emilio Isgrò, plural artist born in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, writer, journalist, poet, playwright, screenwriterwho finds his own material in his poetics, which makes objects speak and affirms inalienable human rights, while “erasing” them, so that their value is better understood, so that they are never forgotten. This is why since yesterday he has been a Doctor of Law, «younger – he says laughing – than my colleagues, given that I have just started».
And so, in the beautiful ceremony in the presence of the Rector Giovanna Spatariof the director general of the University Francesco Bonannoof the director of the Department of Law Alessio Lo Giudiceof the constitutionalist Giacomo D’Amicowho delivered the laudatio of the academic senate and of many admirers, friends, students, became a poet laureate in Law, because, as Professor Lo Giudice explained at the opening of the ceremony:

«At the center of the artistic experience there is the word with its presuppositions, its multiple meanings and also with its unsaid, and in the same way law cannot exist without words. A word to affirm, law, for its pacifying capacity, for its ability to create relationships and resolve conflicts.” The rector underlined that «master Isgrò’s knowledge is the combination of many pieces of knowledge, an example for our young people», and invited him, certain «of interpreting the desire of the whole community», to an exhibition at University for a joint initiative with the Museum and its director Orazio Micali. An invitation welcomed with enthusiasm by the maestro.

How valuable it is for a university to award a master’s degree to an artist like Emilio Isgrò, an international artist as well as one of the most well-known and important exponents of Italian art between the 20th and 21st centuriesProfessor D’Amico said in his laudatio, recalling how he is currently the artist of the year at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome.
An artist since he was a child, his beginnings were as a poet and storyteller. Fifty years ago, in 1973, he wrote «The adventurous life of Emilio Isgrò in the testimonies of statesmen, writers, artists, parliamentarians, actors, relatives, family members, friends, anonymous citizens», followed by the original «Autocurriculum» ( a book of meetings and visions). An already “adventurous” life which «in 1964 – recalled D’Amico – had had a turning point with its first cancellations initially accompanied by critical skepticism, with a fundamental misunderstanding that every now and then, perhaps, resurfaces here and there. But Isgrò’s erasure is never the expression of a nihilistic attitude. Nothing to do with cancel culture. For the master, erasure is not just a gesture of social unrest, it is constructive. The moment he deletes a page, and later an image, as he always repeats, he simultaneously constructs others. Erasure is therefore a writing tool, removing words to enhance their spirit. It is no coincidence that Isgrò’s attention has often turned to legal texts and his work significantly intersects with that of law, urging attention to words: the civil and penal code, the Constitution, the racial laws (in 2020 it was presented the work for the contemporary Quirinale project, in which Isgrò cancels the “provisions for the defense of the Italian race” published in the Official Journal of 1938)».
An adventure that continues every day and which Isgrò spoke about in his lesson, a fast and intense “advanced course” on the freedom of creativity and speechto. Claiming his art to come from literature and to have been born «in the Sicilian heart of a Mediterranean sea that had cradled the three monotheistic religions». Therefore, when as an artist and a writer he felt threatened, he understood that «the word (the only cheap technology because it is a direct expression of man) had to be saved on the adversary’s terrain». And that is with eminently visual tools. «I understood this – he said – after my trip to the USA in 1963 as a correspondent for the Gazzettino di Venezia following Kennedy. In the midst of all those languages ​​of Jews who escaped the pogroms, of Calabrian and Sicilian farmers, of Poles and Irish, the language that united them was that of cinema and comics. And then I understood it better in the Venice Biennale of 1964 with the explosion of Pop Art. It was for this reason that in 1964 I decided to erase the word, not to destroy it but to strengthen its expressive power.”
«Saying that speech is the first of human rights – he continues – means putting one’s feet on the plate of rights guaranteed in a free and democratic country, it means believing in a law that is always and forever the same for everyone, for the rich and for the poor, for those aligned no less than for those disbanded by poverty.”