07/01/2025
Riposto, Sicily, Italy. September 2022.
Ed è pi tantu disfiziu
si sacciu sulu chianciri e sfardari
sti fogghi di carta
ca sunnu bianchi
e mi pàrinu nìvuri;
si cercu cunsolu
nta n’aceddu chi canta,
nta un cani chi m’aspetta;
nta na parola d’amuri
rubata o ventu,
caduta du celu,
piscata nto funnu du mari.
Si mori dui voti di Ignazio Buttitta
Ed è per tanta amarezza / se so solo piangere e stracciare / questi fogli di carta / che sono bianchi / e mi sembrano neri; / se cerco consolazione / in un uc***lo che canta, / in un cane che mi aspetta; / in una parola d’amore / rubata al vento, / caduta dal cielo, / pescata nel fondo del mare.
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Mennula Amara is an ongoing project about the story of Sicilian stick’s art and its protagonists, whose scenary is bitter Sicily, a Sicily crushed and barbarically humiliated by the power.
It tells the story of an ancient native fighting technique, developed in the agricultural and pastoral context of the 13th century and still surviving despite a long period in hiding. The soul of this art is the Sicilian stick, carefully chosen from island’s wild plants in specific seasons, hardened and shaped by fire. Master Alfio Di Bella dances and twirls the stick in circles, creating vortices in the air and exploding in powerful and straight thrusts. His movements seem to describe the true essence of these lands, an elegant and harmonious composition in contrast to chaos and the unpredictability of fate. These are also movements of a particular kind of life, constantly tending towards an impossible perfection, one step after another, waiting for the right moment.
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