In Graniti, a small village immersed in the Alcantara Valley, since 2017 artists from all over the world have been creating murals on the facades of local buildings and in the streets of the village. An idea by Salvatore Romano and Karin Maier is to create culture, give new life to Graniti through new tourist circuits and encourage cultural exchange between the local community and artists.
Messina – There are many emails that we receive every day as an incentive to tell stories of change scattered throughout Italy. I am struck by the emphasis and enthusiasm of Elisabetta Brunetto, who tells me about an artistic initiative in Graniti, a small village in the Alcantara Valley a few kilometres from Taormina. This name brings to mind the numerous times that, as a child, I crossed it in the car with my parents to go and discover hidden and remote corners of that area famous above all for the Alcantara Gorges.
Elisa and I met on an August evening in Graniti, a village in the Sicilian hinterland which has just under 1500 inhabitants at the beginning of the Peloritani mountains. She accompanies me through the streets of the town which, from 2017 to today, has been embellished with over 37 murals created by artists from all over the world and who are transforming Graniti into an “open-air museum”.
The idea came from the Granite-Swiss entrepreneur Salvatore Romano and his wife, Karin Maier, with the aim of creating culture and giving new life to the town through new tourist circuits. Thus the cultural association Art Project Graniti was born to promote the town through art, creativity and murals, but also to inspire, educate and stimulate the people of the Alcantara Valley, not just Graniti. All under the artistic direction of Hawaiian artist Richard Ralya.
In fact, many foreigners have found a home in Graniti: Swiss, Danes, Argentinians, Germans, and Americans. Among these Richard Ralya, 52 years old, artist, photographer, and now leather craftsman who, after living in America and Turkey, decided to stop in Sicily, in total contrast with the young and old who leave Southern Italy in general and the Island in particular, to seek fortune elsewhere.
He has chosen Sicily as his new homeland and he is fine with it, he has also learned to speak Sicilian. In the country, he was adopted by the local community and his dream is to grow his small business, Relje International, with which he designs and creates bags and accessories by hand, using traditional artisan techniques handed down over time. He would like to share his art with the local kids to teach them this job.
The economic return is important, but even more so is the inspiration for young people who are proud of their community. This is the real investment of Richard, Salvatore and Karin
Every year at the beginning of summer, international artists are invited to create a site-specific public artwork in the country. It is Richard who selects the artists and the walls of the buildings to decorate. This year, four artists were hosted for the Murales Arts Festival – including one Serbian and one American – and four murals were created and inaugurated on July 22nd. The Graniti Murales experience is different from most mural festivals.
The residency is designed to encourage cultural exchange between the community and artists who bring their talent, vision and outside perspective, while the community offers a taste of small-town Sicilian life nestled in a picturesque mountain landscape, through the food, the culture and the hospitality.
Citizens participate a lot by welcoming and adopting these artists who go to eat at the homes of various fellow citizens. Often a special bond is created between the owner of the building being painted and the artist, a community is created. To start again, now more than ever, we need to go to small businesses that are often forgotten in favour of big cities. Since Covid onwards, many have been doing it, aiming for a new way of experiencing the area”, says Elisa.
It happens to her too. Trade marketing specialist – but also a naturopath, reflexologist, and art lover – her dream is to live, at least for a period of the year, in these parts. Born in Milan, she has always resided in the Milanese city, but she feels the need to return at least once a year to Graniti, which she considers her home and where she keeps many memories of her childhood, in addition to the beauty of the territories. A further reason, despite the distance, is to take care of her.
«It is somewhat typical of the Sicilian mentality to think that behind an attitude of interest there is always an ultimate goal. They often ask me why I do so much for the Graniti community, even the most banal initiatives. In reality, I have no personal interest, I like to hope and think that this country will not die, that it can become a flagship thanks to the artistic movement that has been growing more and more in recent years.”
The experience of the pandemic has affected many of us, even positively, finding the courage to make radical choices that in other cases we would never have made or that, out of laziness, we would have postponed indefinitely. According to Elisa – and not only her – we need to start from small places to better understand the strength of being a community. Furthermore, Graniti’s experience also shows a different way of being able to live in Sicily, a stone’s throw from the largest and most tourist centres, and find opportunities to restart the economy of a territory.
Graniti is not invaded by tourists, but it is now customary to see groups of people wandering the streets of the town to discover the various murals. The economic return is important, but even more so is the inspiration for young people who are proud of their community. This is the real investment of Richard, Salvatore and Karin. The small “painted town”, between crisp air, good food, mountains and greenery, set in the landscape crossed by the Alcantara river, between narrow landscapes and very high walls born from a lava flow from Etna, is the demonstration of how it is possible to create culture and give new life to citizenship through art, tourism and above all the heart .
Written by: SALVINA ELISA CUTULI
