Palermo/Bisacquino (gro) Giovanni Santacolomba and Maurizio Canunscio are among the Sicilian artists who are working to help the earthquake victims of central Italy. The quake in the late evening of September 6 devastated several small towns and villages northeast of Rome. It claimed over 300 lives, most in medieval Amatrice, where nearly all the houses were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable because of dilapidation. An auction of artworks , donated by artists, will raise financial aid to rebuild the devastated villages.
Nearly 1000 restaurants are already participating worldwide.
Not only visual artists support the earthquake victims, to whom the Roman Prime Minister Matteo Renzi “unbureaucratic quick help” promised. Nationwide solidarity expresses among others also chefs of Italian restaurants appreciated worldwide. Meanwhile, more than 800 trattorias and dining rooms around the globe have agreed to put “Spaghetti all `Amatricana” at the top of the menu. It is the famous spaghetti dish named after Amatrice, the ruined small town northeast of Rome. Those who order the plate dish pay 1 to 2 euros more than usual, and the surcharge goes directly to earthquake relief efforts in central Italy.
A sculptor and a ceramic artist.
And now two artists in Sicily: Giovanni Santacolomba has made a name for himself with his often cartoonish alienated figures and figurines (in the picture above with a statuette of Pope Paul II), Maurizio Gannucsio managed as a traditional Sicilian ceramic artist. They support a charity auction, setting a good example and providing some works from their collection. They encourage their colleagues in the provinces of Palermo, Racalmuto and Sciacca to do the same.
“Best director of all time”.
From Bisacquino comes incidentally Frank Capra, the “best director of all time”. Born in 1897 as the son of a fruit picker the six-year-old boy, who was then still called Francesco Rosario Capra, arrived with his parents in Los Angeles, where he earned his first money as a paperboy. After quite a few different jobs, he made a career as a filmmaker as a sideways entrant. The most famous is probably his black comedy “Arsenic and Lace” with Cary Grant. Capra was the only director to win the Oscar three times. His film “Isn’t Life Beautiful?” was chosen by the “American Film Institute” as the “most inspiring American film of all time” Capra, who created 54 films, died in 1991 at the biblical age of over 97 in the California town of La Quinta at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains.
Arab origin.
The small town of Bisacquino, located almost 800 meters above sea level in the deep south of the province of Palermo, was ruled for several centuries from the bishop of Monreale. It lies on the edge of a vast wooded area at the foot of Monte Trione. Its slopes have been reforested by the Bisacquinesi (as the inhabitants of Bisacquino are called) in decades of work . The origin of the town, which boasts quite a few monuments, including the sanctuary of Madonna del Balzo, located above the town, dates back to a settlement established by Arabs in the 9th and 10th centuries. Picture: Giornale di Sicilia