Ten years have gone by since the earthquake that devastated L’Aquila: part of a series of seismic events occurred between December 2008 and 2012, the main earthquake (of 6.3 magnitude) took place on 6th April 2009. To mark a decade since the fateful event, tomorrow at 10.30 the secondary schools of the Navelli Comprehensive Institute, in collaboration with Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto and the city of Navelli, will present an installation of the symbol of the Third Paradise in the Town Council Hall. It is the final stage of a didactic project included in the school’s 2018-2019 educational offer, coordinated by art teacher Danilo Maccarone, in collaboration with teachers Giuseppina Riocci, Alessandra Tesone and Maura Vaccarelli. For this educational initiative, the students have worked on the theme of the house in connection to that of the earthquake, declining it into its denotative and connotative meanings; a symbolic space which is in fact not only made of walls, doors, roofs and windows, but also smells, colours, faces and feelings. The flux of these emotions has gone from heart to paper: the young students have expressed their feelings on hundreds of post-it notes, which will be assembled to form a Third Paradise. The work, inspired by Michelangelo Pistoletto’s sign-symbol, will be placed on the glass window of the Town Council Hall of the city of Navelli.
The presentation of the installation realized by the pupils of the secondary schools of first grade of Barisciano, San Pio delle Camere and Capestrano is scheduled for 10.30. Attending the event will be the school’s head teacher Domenica Pagano, the mayor of Navelli Paolo Federico, the curators of the project and the coordinator of the Rebirth/Third Paradise ambassadors Saverio Teruzzi. At 11.30 the initiative will continue with the Concert for the Third Paradise, performed by the students themselves and their music teachers. Teacher Danilo Maccarone has talked to us about the background of the artistic project. He said: “We have decided to associate two elements to the symbolic value of the Third Paradise: the house and the post-it notes.
For us from L’Aquila, the house has represented the emblem of a research started ten years ago, in the aftermath of the tragic event. Since then, this research has not only been carried out with bricks, but also with many social reconstructions, place re-appropriations and emotional rebirths. We have had to invent ways to feel we belonged to a place that didn’t exist anymore, and now – a few years after – we have found out that our house is a bit closer than yesterday, and that our students are going to be its future inhabitants. The history of our territories – continued the art teacher – will develop from this synergy between who was and who will be here. The post-it notes symbolically represent our daily interactions, which will lead to a reconfiguration of the social fabric; the same way the central circle of the Third Paradise allows the infinite to become a concrete practice for the collectivity”.
