“What is “restanza”? It is the rediscovery of a new feeling of inhabiting places of memory, which is accompanied by the ethics of doing”. And again: “It is also political responsibility and becomes the choice of one’s own future”. On the evening in which the cultural association #IO RESTO in Piazza Immacolata in Crotone awarded him the Restanza 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award (“for the exceptional contribution to the world of culture, promoting a decisive debate on the value of rooting”, as can be read among other things in the motivation for the award), these were some of the concepts, summarizing his “ideology of staying” that the anthropologist, university professor and writer Vito Teti highlighted on the occasion of the Restanza Festival, a review now in its second edition and organized by #IO RESTO.
During the debate Vito Teti added: «In receiving letters from emigrants I felt their sense of emptying and uprooting: repopulating the villages instead can be a mass cultural movement today, for which the “restanza” can become a way of life, in the perspective of a new sense of community».
The meeting, coordinated by the journalist Annamaria Terremoto, was attended by those who, among the people in various fields – business, tourism, art – make and practice “staying” in Calabria their own, taking action with their own professionalism. Among these, there were the founder of the agricultural company “Mulinum” of San Floro (Cz) Stefano Caccavari, the master puppeteer, director and set designer Angelo Gallo of Crotone, the serial walker, storyteller and writer Alessandro Frontera, the founders of the library “Libri liberi” of Petilia Policastro (Kr) Giuseppe Caruso and Manuela Arminio and the musicians Federica Greco and Paolo Presta. Among the others who spoke were the mayor of the capital Vincenzo Voce («those who stay must make this city grow») and the artist Antonio Affidato, who with his father, master goldsmith Michele, created the silver plaque – Award presented by Antonio himself to Teti.
In his speech, the founder of “Mulinum” Stefano Caccavari highlighted: «My “vision” can be that of everyone, I have decided to defend the territory by enhancing our agricultural vocation, for a community that from 800 people has grown to 5000». «In Petilia Policastro we have proposed to educate children and adults to read, so much so that the library books can be given as gifts», explained the librarians Giuseppe Caruso and Manuela Arminio. Also interesting is the life choice of the serial walker, storyteller and writer Alessandro Frontera from Umbriatico (Kr), who crosses Calabria on foot and explained: «I returned from the North here looking for new relationships between people»).
The association #IO RESTO is chaired by Tiziana Paletta, present the other evening with the founding members of the association Gianni Pitingolo, Salvatore Perri, Rita Piperissa, Claudia Liotti, Stefania Ragusa and Marilena Sacchetto.