39 artists from Italy and foreign countries are currently working in the 18 municipalities of the Madonie area that are partners of the project, to create nearly 50 artworks inspired by the intangible cultural heritage and oral traditions of the Madonie area. The communities enthusiastically greet the artworks that celebrate natural elements, traditional techniques, rituals, and famous people of their hometowns. From the art of weaving and embroidery to the typical products of the area, such as the artichokes of Cerda and the oranges of Scillato, from the patron saints of the towns, such as San Gandolfo in Polizzi and Sant’Anna in Castelbuono, to both historical and contemporary characters who belong to the local communities, such as the expert in manna ash extraction, Giulio Gelardi, in Pollina and writer Giuseppe Antonio Borgese in Polizzi.
A mosaic of bright colours and illustrations, which recalls an iconography strongly linked to identity through the different styles of the artists and participates in a process of urban regeneration in which the community is the protagonist of its own renewal.
“I ART Madonie – Lucenzo Tambuzzo says, creator and artistic director of the project – aims to suggest new processes of regeneration of villages where creativity, authenticity and integration work together to generate new forms of tradition and re-propose the suburbs as new centers of artistic and cultural production. Forgotten landscapes and characters, ritual moments, but also the repetitive fatigue of ancient gestures must be considered as the essential ingredients of the poetic identity at the base of the nearly 50 murals from the most different styles, where naive irony, abstractionism and hyperrealism contribute to enrich the panorama of street art in Italy”.