Il Terrenito 2023

From the 1st to the 22nd of July 2023, Il Terrenito reopened its doors to the Amantea community, hosting a summer program of 16 cultural events with free admission, including cinema, music, dance performances, painting exhibitions and thematic meetings.

Located at Via Mazzini, 32, in the center of Amantea, Il Terrenito is the center of a cultural project designed to provide gathering spaces and host activities that meet the needs of our community, with the aim of increasing the social capital and quality of life of the inhabitants of the target area.

The July 2023 cultural program has been built in cooperation with local associations, involving all citizenship through horizontal and inclusive co-design methodologies. The idea is to offer an open space, an adaptable container that can be filled each time with ideas and proposals for everyone.

Main sponsor of the program was Caffè Guglielmo, which believed in the importance and necessity of culture as an essential tool to increase the social capital of the territory.

THE EVENTS OF JULY 2023

PAINTING EXHIBITION AND OPENING CONCERT

On July 1st, the program was inaugurated by a painting exhibition dedicated to Amantea painter Aldo Bruno and a concert by Orchestra Di Fiati Mediterranea.

Twenty-five local artists, ranging in age from 3 to 75, picked up their canvases on the morning of the event, then delivered their work in the afternoon. The paintings were displayed inside the space until the evening, which then hosted a concert by the Orchestra Di Fiati Mediterranea, which has been collaborating with La Guarimba for ten years. On this occasion, the new members of the Junior Orchestra were introduced to the audience, who debuted with a series of pieces from the soundtracks of famous films such as Harry Potter, Jurassic Park and Beauty and the Beast. Afterwards, the full Orchestra performed songs from its repertoire in front of an audience that flocked in large numbers, filling the auditorium.

During the evening, music and visual art thus came together to offer the Amantea community the first taste of a program of sixteen free admission events that brought novelty and cultural variety to the town.

THE FILM PROGRAM

Once again this summer, we wanted to bring cinema to the country without movie theaters, presenting a quality offering that could satisfy a wide and diverse audience. Curated by the Cinemambulante Cultural Association, this year’s festival was divided into three different programs, to engage people of all ages and interests. Mondays were devoted to Jean-Luc Godard’s Historical Cinema, Thursdays to Women’s Cinema from Iran, and Saturdays to Laika Studios’s Cinema for Children.

In collaboration with the Institut Français, the historical cinema program “Godard pour tous!” dedicated to French director Jean-Luc Godard began on July 3. We started with “Vivre sa vie” and continued with “Le mepris” and “Pierrot le fou.”

Jean-Luc Godard’s cinema has inspired us since we were just a group of friends in Madrid with a desire to make a small festival to bring cinema back to the people. His intransigence, transgression and sense of humor have given us steadfast points to traverse the last ten years of guarimbera struggle. It was an honor for us to dedicate this program to him, with three of his essential films, and to receive from the audience, always participating and active, a more than positive response to great French cinema.

“Women from Iran” screening program focused on three contemporary works to shed light on Iran’s feminist art movement, which is actively working to give voice and visibility to the stories of oppressed women. From the very first screening, the audience was impressed and moved by the stories told in the three chosen films, “Son-Mother,” “The Art of Living in Danger,” and “Titi.”

The screening on the 13th was preceded by a meeting organized by the trans-feminist association Gynestra, based in Longobardi (CS), which, together with the collectives Colpo (Paola) and La Base (Cosenza), discussed the role of social activism in Calabria, to the importance of engaging in paths of resistance by creating safe spaces and making one’s voice heard. In addition to the gender issue, we talked together about labor and health problems in our region and how they were addressed by creating networks of active participation.

Children, who are often excluded from the already scarce offerings in the area, were the protagonists of the “Cinema for the Youngest“, a program that came to life on Saturday evenings dedicated to children and kids, without, however, excluding adults who are film enthusiasts. The selection consisted of three films from the U.S. animation studio Laika Studios: Coraline, Boxtrolls and Kubo and the Two Strings, works with unconventional language and mature themes, but suitable for all ages. Attendance was high, confirming once again the hunger of the children from Amantea for culture and socialization.

During each evening we were able to observe the wonder and amazement in the eyes of the young participants who, through this festival, were able to experience the magic of outdoor cinema, sharing it with their families and the new friendships created during the screenings.

DANCE AND MUSIC

Al Mantiah Ballet

On July 7th, the Al Mantiah Ballet dance company presented their fifth work “Dina“, a performance loosely inspired by Tinni Sequino‘s book “The Color of Magnolias,” which told the story of Dina, a free woman who spanned many eras and had a profound look at Calabria. The space was entirely filled by the audience: more than 150 people attended the performance, being fascinated by the steps, music and stories that brought this magnificent story to our stage.

Amantea Rap Session

For the evening of July 14th, we organized a collective concert with young rappers of the area. Emas$h, Nik, A2ndrea and 3gidioss, came together on Il Terrenito stage to perform songs they wrote and produced, and bring to Amantea a genre often the subject of misunderstanding and prejudice, especially by a more mature audience. We were happy to have built this cultural bridge and to see among the audience people of all ages, who came together to support and learn about emerging artists, facing a new reality and listening to live music produced in the area.

Peperoncino Jazz Festival

For the second year in a row, the Peperoncino Jazz Festival has returned to Il Terrenito to let Amantea rediscover the magic of jazz music. We are proud to be able to continue this collaboration with one of the most important music festivals in Calabria, and to share with it the desire to enrich the territory through art and culture.

This year’s traveling festival brought to Amantea the Japanese-Polish artists Yumi Ito & Szymon Mika. The richness of their voices and instruments captivated an audience of more than 120 people who, despite the heat of the Calabrian evenings, flocked to participate in such a fascinating event.

VINTAGE MARKET

On Saturday 15 and Sunday 16, the collective Vintage Market Calabria set up a market inside Il Terrenito, creating a space of beauty and encounter. Adults and young people thus came into contact with a new form of commerce and had a different experience than classic shopping, browsing through accessories, jewelry, natural products, books, comics, clothing and textiles, and finding something unique to give new life to.

Thus ended the July program of the Terrenito, a space that is growing and transforming, becoming the safe space, where people can feel free to express themselves, that we had envisioned.

A space of beauty ready to welcome the requests of a community otherwise abandoned by institutions, where art and culture come together to revive the town and its beauty.

IMPACT AND COMMUNICATION

To promote Il Terrenito calendar of events, we carried out a promotion campaign making use of both the print medium and our digital channels. We distributed in the town, among stores, clubs and homes, 6000 flyers with the program, divided into days and event category. The press office that handled the communication of the events carried out a communication strategy focused mainly on the Calabrian territory, which began with an interview on TGR Calabria by artistic director Giulio Vita, and then continued in the main regional newspapers. All information was, in addition, present on La Guarimba’s website and social media channels. On Instagram and Facebook, in particular, we shared daily event posters specially made for the platforms, sharing them in turn with the parties involved in the different projects.

By doing so, we managed to reach a wide and heterogeneous audience, providing them with all the necessary information about the performances and activities organized. For the 16 events that accompanied our evenings at Terrenito, we involved an audience of 824 people among locals and tourists of all ages.

ORGANIZED BY

WITH THE SUPPORT OF

IN COLLABORATION WITH