Roses, Miracles and Belmondos
Traces Between San Gaetano and Belmonte
Questa è la versione in inglese di questo articolo
Hi Squiddizzi,
Easter is approaching. The light is shifting, time stretches out, the days grow longer, and the balance gently moves—almost imperceptibly.
In the meantime, something has come to a close – and something else has just begun to open.
Signs of Folklore
Last Saturday marked the end of Cecilia Sammarco’s residency in the San Gaetano–Massa neighborhood, a chapter of the Permanent Experimental Lab within Cosmo – Cosenza Micromondi.
A quiet yet continuous process, made of listening, crossings, and visual notes.
Today, it settles on two shutters in the square—through a mural inspired by the figure of Saint Rita, reinterpreted via popular symbols, everyday devotions, and images that emerged from the neighborhood itself.
Around the mural, an evening shaped by presences, flavours, and small gestures woven into the narrative.
A platter as an extension of the painting: two glasses of Tenuta del Travale wine, cured meats and cheeses from Salumeria Occhiuto, and bread from Criscia, shaped like the roses in the mural. Alongside: a zine documenting the process, a screen-printed placemat, and a small retablo-style holy card.
The DJ set by Egeeno accompanied the entire evening, weaving sounds and images in dialogue with the visual research developed during the residency.
The TGR Calabria feature tells the story of Cecilia Sammarco’s mural intervention in the San Gaetano–Massa neighborhood, weaving together images of the artwork, the artist’s own words, and glimpses of the shared evening.
The report also includes “Fragili sospensioni”, a solo show by Giovanni Fava at Galleria Ellebi, which resonated with the same moment and energy, in the heart of the old town.
A small document to revisit – or discover – what took place.
Watch the complete video here:
Back at Casa BelMondo
Thanks to the open call Culture Moves Europe
While one residency comes to a close, another begins to take shape.
In Belmonte Calabro, a new residency has just started — supported by Culture Moves Europe — within the rooms of Casa Belmondo, now a space for study, cohabitation, and experimentation.
Living and working there over the coming weeks are artists from diverse backgrounds and geographies: Julia Rosner, Esmée Maluta, Keerthi Basavarajaiah, Antonella Fittipaldi, and Nico Angiuli.
Accompanying the process is Luke Vouckelatou, part of the hosting team alongside La Rivoluzione delle Seppie.
Together, they are exploring the theme “the map changes the territory”, building a cartography made of listening, walking, shared meals, and unexpected relationships.
A laboratory that questions conventional forms of inhabiting and researching space, and seeks to invent others — more porous, slower, more alive.
We live immersed in a time where images are no longer simple supports for words, but autonomous structures of thought—vectors of an immediate and accessible language, capable of embedding meaning with the speed of a neural impulse.
If the modern age was that of print and written text, and the twentieth century the era of audiovisual narrative, today we find ourselves in the Iconocene: an era in which the symbolic overtakes the discursive, and the meme becomes the most powerful form of cultural synthesis.
For this reason, we’ve decided to leave here a handful of memes and scattered images that either capture something from our recent days — or that we simply like — with no context attached.
