On Saturday, June 21, two important openings took place in Centuripe, a small inland Sicilian town perched on a hill between Enna and Catania. The first, the exhibition Futurism and Sicilian Futurists, set up at the Antiquarium Exhibition Center and curated by Simona Bartolena, is a significant review built around about 50 works from Italian collections distributed throughout the Peninsula. The opening was also attended by ministers Matteo Piantedosi and Nello Musumeci. A few hours later, the monumental sculpture Verstärker 65 by the well-known German artist Gerold Miller was inaugurated, placed at Villa Corradino, a scenic walk in the green overlooking the Etna valley, which leads to a monumental Roman tomb dating back to the 2nd-3rd century AD. Two events that, in terms of quality and prestige, would have the exceptional when one considers that Centuripe has fewer than 5,000 inhabitants: however, for some years now, the village has repeatedly distinguished itself for initiatives of this kind.
Since 2021, when the new Antiquarium Exhibition Center was inaugurated, the town of Centuripe has hosted several major exhibitions, including Signs. From Cézanne to Picasso, Kandinsky to Miró, built on more than 80 graphics by some of the most important masters of the European twentieth century, in dialogue with the prehistoric rock paintings in the area, and The Masters of the Twentieth Century: from Guttuso to Vedova. Works from the Alberto Della Ragione Collection, which brought masterpieces from the Museo del Novecento in Florence to Centuripe. Assisting the Antiquarium’s activities was then the cultural center “Il Purgatorio,” housed in the recovered spaces of the Church of the Anime Sante del Purgatorio, which had been closed for more than 20 years. The new exhibition space stood out for its programming focused on contemporary art, which ranged from photography, with works by renowned Japanese-American photographer Michael Yamashita, to works by Lucio Andrich and Silvio Cattani, to installations by artist Armando Fettolini and pop art by Pippo Galofaro. To understand how these important achievements, built on incredible cultural programming, have been arrived at, we caught up with the main architect of this successful season that is increasingly proposing Centuripe within the island’s tourist and artistic geographies: mayor Salvatore La Spina.
La Spina boasts a solid cultural background. Born in 1971, at a very young age he left his hometown to move to Tuscany, in Florence, where he graduated in Art History. Also in the Tuscan capital, he started his career, first as an educational worker for the Soprintendenza, then working for Opera Laboratori Fiorentini, dealing with communication and holding the position for a long time as head of the press office of the Uffizi Galleries and, since 2018, of the Gallerie dell’Accademia and the Bargello Museums.
JS. Mayor, after nearly 30 years spent in Florence, where by then you had built a solid working position, where you had established your life, building affections and buying a house, how did you come to such a radical choice as to return to Sicily and run for mayor of Centuripe?
SLS. The motivations that led me to this turning point are rather romantic, and have nothing to do with politics. I have always been in love with Centuripe, for almost spiritual, karmic reasons. When I first left, leaving home behind, I did not return for almost two years, because I had to purge myself of all this love. Then, every time I came back, I felt unsettled. Florence and Tuscany gave me so much: they are places I loved very much, I forged myself there, I learned, to which I owe so much. I like the way the Tuscans take care of their land: you don’t see big disfigurements. Sicilians, unfortunately, have not yet fully understood how to protect their history and the past while paying attention to the present. So I was carrying around this frustration, the frustration experienced by every person in love with their land. Yet, I didn’t think about going back at all: I had my life in Florence, where I had bought a house, and I imagined growing old in Tuscany, perhaps to come back and die here. Then, well, something changed. I matured the choice of a new commitment. All this time away had not faded my love for Centuripe and the people who live there. Thirty years were not enough to sever the bond with these lands.
Before putting yourself forward as a candidate, had you had any other political experience?
No, absolutely not: I was divorced from any information and modus operandi related to politics. I had never been involved in any such initiative, rather associative, particularly being part of the Sicilia Antica association, which was created to enhance archaeology to traditions. In addition, about two years before my election as mayor, I had been one of the promoters of the “No Landfill” committee, created to stem a wretched project, which would have seen the construction of a landfill in the Muglia Valley, in our beautiful landscape. The project had already been filed with the municipality, complete with a request for a change of use of some 300 hectares of land, until then designated for agricultural use. The intervention would have undermined one of the few environments still left uncorrupted in Sicily, and of high archaeological and historical value, as well as landscape. From there began collections of signatures and exhausting appeals and negotiations between superintendencies and various agencies, including the Region. We even invited the former director of the Uffizi, Antonio Natali, to give a lectio magistralis on beauty and its protection. Then finally the affair ended with the affixing of the constraint placed by the superintendence of Enna. Later someone even speculated, perhaps maliciously, that this commitment was to prepare for my descent into politics, but it was not so.
And so, two years later, you found yourself at the head of the Municipal Palace of Centuripe....
Yes, the first year was quite difficult, because it coincided with the second lockdown. The management was complex, partly because, unlike the first, there was no total lockdown: the contagions continued and the situation was much more fragmented. Nevertheless, we managed to make a difference: in the exhibition spaces of the Antiquarium, we set up a vaccination hub, a kind of field hospital for the first vaccinations. Even the beautiful Villa Corradino was turned into a center for administering swabs. In the meantime, however, we also began to think about the idea of developing and promoting the area. The first step was to deal with the economic recovery of a municipality in financial distress, with more than seven million euros in debt, a legacy of previous administrations. Thus began numerous initiatives for land development and urban regeneration interventions, made possible by participation in several public calls for proposals. We won many of them-obviously not all-and this allowed us to start the redevelopment of several squares and spaces. Public works, however, are notoriously neither quick nor easy: some interventions are already completed, others still in progress. A real race to restore Centuripe’s landmarks has begun. Among these is the restoration of the façade of the Mother Church, or Church of the Immaculate Conception, and the adjacent Church of the Blessed Sacrament: a splendid sacred place, monumental and, perhaps, a bit out of scale with respect to the meager size of the village. We were able to go ahead with the project by covering 90 percent of the costs thanks to Bonus Facades, which could also be applied to public buildings.
I don’t see it being widely used in Italy, or do you?
I don’t think so. In Sicily, the example of Centuripe has not been emulated. We subsequently started the redevelopment of Piazza di Carcaci, a hamlet of Centuripe. The intervention, completed in 2023, transformed a square in the ancient village, which had become a sort of dump over time, into a community gathering place. Here, every first Sunday of the month, Ruralia, an agricultural market where local products are sold, is held. Another significant intervention involved Villa Corradino: a panoramic terrace leading to a mausoleum from the imperial age. Thanks to funds from the Regional Infrastructure Department, we managed to enhance the area with a series of interventions: urban decoration, installation of benches, planting of trees and shrubs, which transformed the villa into an accessible botanical garden. Today the space is embellished with a beautiful sculpture donated to the city by German artist Gerold Miller, which is perfectly integrated with its surroundings. Soon, we will also begin the last set of works in this area. In 2024, however, we restored the Customs House Theater. This is an archaeological area that houses another Roman mausoleum from the imperial age, known as “the Customs House” because in the Middle Ages it was possibly used as a seat for tax collection. An open-air theater had been built nearby in the 1980s, but its steps had deteriorated over time. The restoration project, financed thanks to a €1 million bid under the FRUSFund (Urban Development Fund), supported by the JESSICA(Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas) community initiative, made it possible to restore the bleachers, install a new lighting system, improve accessibility, and create, on the retaining wall adjacent to the theater, the largest public vertical garden in Sicily. The intervention was inaugurated with a lectio magistralis by archaeologist Giacomo Biondi on the history of the Mausoleum of the Customs House, followed by a performance by the Sicilian Opera Chorus. Now we are preparing for an even more ambitious construction site, which will require an investment of about eight million euros: it will concern the enhancement and recovery of Mount Calvary, a panoramic hillock overlooked by a church that dominates the entire town of Centuripe.
You have also been honored in Florence in 2021 with the Archaeology Viva TourismA award, thanks to your commitment to the enhancement of archaeology. In particular, for contributing to the return of one of the greatest treasures discovered on your territory: the marble head of Augustus, which for more than eighty years had been kept at the Paolo Orsi Museum in Syracuse. During the same period, part of the Archaeological Museum was also rearranged, the Neolithic rock paintings of Riparo Cassataro were opened to the public for the first time, and much more. How did you manage not to miss any opportunity, to intercept resources and calls for proposals in a land like Sicily, sadly known (though not the only one in Italy) for administrative immobility?
Here we are splinters gone mad! I can’t sit still, I’m ravenous in this sense: a mayor’s time is short, five, 10 years at most, so you can’t afford to let anything slip by. You have to be on your toes, every day, with your eyes wide open and your ears taut, ready to seize every opportunity. In this I am fortunate, because I have a very good team working alongside me: a budget councillor with a great deal of experience behind him, and an administration made up of young people, almost all under 40. They are real “war machines,” each one has made his or her own contribution.
In the face of this scenario, everything looks rosy, but is there any worry? Something to be blamed?
Of course there is. We, too, have to deal with the continuing lack of funds for day-to-day administration. And it is an even heavier difficulty when you consider the conformation of the town: a very complicated village, all perched, made up of small streets and narrow alleys, with a very articulated water network and numerous springs that, often, cause flooding in the homes of some citizens. In short, there is still much to be done, and with great honesty I must say that precisely on the management of the ordinary we can - and must - improve.
Your proposals always seem to balance tradition and innovation. I am thinking, for example, of the Tiledda tribute, which you organize every year. Would you like to tell us about that?
Sure. It is a wonderful insight of Silvio Cattani, vice president of the Mart. He was on vacation in Sicily, and reading about the ongoing exhibition Segni (Signs ) in Centuripe, he decided to stop for a couple of days. He was fascinated by the village, and we hit it off immediately.
When he saw the Tiledda, the Centuripe canvas, a large painted silk work from the late 19th century, 7 meters long and 13 meters wide, which is displayed every year during Lent to cover the high altar of the Mother Church, he had an idea. And so this contemporary reinterpretation was born. We began to receive designs designed for the canvas format, albeit small (8x6 meters), made on fabrics that are resistant to the open air. The works are printed on these large fabrics and then displayed in the streets of the town, turning Centuripe into an open-air museum. And the best thing is that we get free works from all over Italy and from all over the world: from Germany, from Brazil, from China.
So in the meantime, you are also putting together a contemporary art collection. Is there a plan to make it a permanent museum?
My dream is just that: to continue building a municipal collection of contemporary art. And in fact today we already have an important heritage, which we manage and preserve with great care. As for the idea of opening a third cultural center or a new museum, it is not an easy choice. At the moment we manage to run two of them, also thanks to the support of the Civil Service, which allows us to guarantee the guard service. But I don’t want to open a museum if we will be forced to close it sooner or later. We are working on it, but we are not yet ready for a permanent solution. In the meantime, however, we continue to enrich our collection, both through this Contemporary Tiledda initiative and through other opportunities. Recently, for example, we received a magnificent work by the Lombard artist Armando Fettolini, and of course the impressive sculpture by Gerold Miller. The latter is set in a very scenic context. It is a work with a completely new, minimalist language, yet it manages to integrate with the landscape and the archaeological site. Here, I think, even if not all the community will be able to understand it immediately, it does not create a “disfigurement” to the place, on the contrary: it harmonizes with the environment while speaking a completely different language.
You have made culture your main vector of development, the axis around which your entire administrative action revolves. Yet, you have not sought shortcuts or easy compromises. I am thinking, for example, of exhibitions: these are never “blockbuster” operations or easy proposals, but complex, sometimes even daring projects. The latest minimalist art installation is an emblematic example. Aren’t you afraid that such a refined offering might be hostile to a community that, like so many others, has not historically had consistent exposure to certain art forms?
In the 1980s, when there were still funds available, attempts were also made in Centuripe to imagine new areas of employment. We were faced with a difficult reality: an inland town, isolated, not so much because of the distance from Catania, but because of the complexity of the territory, the impervious ascent to a center that is almost 800 meters above sea level. A choice was made then: to focus on agriculture and handicrafts. Agriculture, of course, is an integral part of our identity, but it cannot be enough to guarantee the livelihood of all families. As for handicrafts, a district was even built, but perhaps in an area that was too decentralized, far from the main arteries of communication. The truth is that this is a country with a millennia-old, layered, important history. If we do not take care of our treasures, archaeological areas, museums, we do not generate added value. Culture can become an engine of development only if it is thought of as a system, which includes the folk festival but also the music festival, white nights, cinema, contemporary art. In other words: you need a broad, attractive, never trivial proposal. And yes, we have chosen with conviction not to focus on easy events or safe appeal. We want to offer those who live here, but also those who come from outside, the curious tourist, those who come to Sicily not only for the sea, stimulating, even courageous projects. I think my cultural and professional background has been instrumental in this.
Let us return then to a central theme: art and culture as the key to your mandate. Have you encountered difficulties in getting people to accept investment in an area that, often, draws criticism, especially when there are perceived to be more “concrete” problems such as potholes in the streets or lack of ordinary services?
When I was elected, I certainly intercepted a protest vote as well, that of the disgruntled. But I don’t think I can be accused of inconsistency. I had presented myself with a clear and precise program on what we wanted to accomplish, and people knew my background and experiences-I did not come from health care or traditional politics. We carried out what we had promised. True, those who had not voted for me miss no opportunity to point the finger at the need to think about other priorities, but those who believed in the project knew from the beginning what our commitment would be. Today Centuripe has gone from being an almost unknown town to becoming a destination for educated tourism, certainly not mass tourism, but built on authentic experiences, culture and love of nature and landscape. I think of the beautiful badlands that surround us, once ignored and abandoned, now instead recognized as locations for films and video clips by artists such as Coma_Cose and Irama. We also offer different activities, such as trekking, and soon hot air balloon flights will start. We already have two exhibition centers, each with its own identity: one hosts major and high-profile exhibitions, and the other emphasizes young artists and emerging creatives. In short, focusing on culture and creativity not only draws the attention of visitors and the world, but is also good for the community. Older people see the city more alive, more cared for, with visitors moving in and a new focus on decorum. Young people finally have a few more opportunities, a chance, albeit a small one, to work and do business. Of course, what we have done is not a panacea to all problems, and there is still a long way to go.
Art historians from all over Italy, international artists, prestigious new partners such as Galleria Continua and many others. A center that aims to spar the tourist and cultural geographies of Sicily, funds recovered without waste. Can we see in Centuripe a counterbalance to what we see in Agrigento and its embarrassing delays as the Italian Capital of Culture?
I cannot say whether Centuripe is a counterbalance because I have not followed Agrigento’s affairs much. But I will just say this, when you choose a path, you cannot improvise. You need an awareness of where you want to go. In my experience when I tried to translate my vision, which I strongly believed in, I realized that where I don’t arrive, the collaborators I use arrive. It is not enough to batch a scope, but you also need the intelligence to transform what you have in mind by making use of professionals. That takes humility.
Mayor, it seems to me that you are a firm believer in the idea that art and culture can contribute to the development of the person, forging the citizen of tomorrow.
Certainly, culture has at least two missions. On the one hand it enriches the people who live there, and on the other it becomes an attraction. People thirst for beauty; they do not want to live in ugliness. It seems obvious, sometimes the opposite is believed, but almost everyone wants to live surrounded by beauty.
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