FOR ITALY, CULTURE IS THE ROAD INTO THE FUTURE
In the year of slow tourism, during a pandemic, Procida is celebrating. It was selected “Italy’s Culture Capital for 2022” with its project “culture does not isolate”
The small island of 10 thousand residents caressed by the sea, was chosen among 10 finalists (Ancona, Bari, Cerveteri, L’aquila, Pieve di Soligo, Taranto, Trapani, Verbania and Volterra). “An indication that we should look to the future”, said the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Dario Franceschini. “In 2022 we will be back to normal and culture and tourism will be as important and very strong as they were before the pandemic”. Tourism has been “in isolation” for over a year. According to the National Tourism Agency, in 2019 Italy was the fourth most visited country in the world with 94 million visitors; with about 432.6 million total travelers, of which 217.7 million were foreigners. According to the Bank of Italy’s 2018 estimations, tourism contributes to more than 5% of the national GDP (13% when also taking into account indirectly generated GDP) and in normal times this represents more than 6% of the employed workforce. The baton is passed on from Parma to Procida, as that part of Italy invests in culture. The island has been a muse to writers and poets. A natural set for motion pictures. It played a vital role in Academy Award-winning films such as “The Postman” by Michael Radford, starring Massimo Troisi, inspired by Neruda’s novel, and “The Talented Mr. Ripley” starring Matt Damon and Jude Law. The island where love is difficult, passionate, contradictory, imperfect as in Elsa Morante’s novel “Arturo’s Island” set around 1938. 1957 Strega Prize winner. This is when Italy discovered the small, fascinating island off the coast of Naples. There’s also a Procida depicted in Alphonse de Lamartine’s novel “Graziella”. An autobiographical love story between a young Frenchman and a woman from Procida, portraying the island as it was in the early nineteenth century.
Uninterested in mass tourism, Procida has always looked to quality tourism. It is loved by intellectuals, the world of politics and culture, which it charms with wilderness and simplicity. It maintains its own identity, yet it is also willing to open up to the world, including the international world.
It is the island of a rich and hard-working community. A venue for cultural and commercial exchanges. In the Middle Ages, it was inhabited by families of wealthy shipowners which had amassed sizeable fortunes. It was home to illustrious personalities such as John of Procida (in the13th century), physician of the Salerno medical school, diplomat and politician linked to the Swabian dynasty, and later a main character in the Sicilian Vespers. The island was also home to the politician Antonio Scialoja (1817–1877), distinguished economist and academic, as well as to Michele De Jorio (1738-1806), economist and jurist, and author of the very first maritime code ever written.
Why the coveted recognition to Procida today? It is the very first time in which an island is designated a “Culture Capital”, leading Italy and the sea to victory.
The island is the “elsewhere” par excellence, a desire for escape and refuge, openness and closure, acceptance and exclusion, proximity and distance. Procida is the island born from the eruptions of four volcanoes between 55 and 17 thousand years ago. Enchanting coastlines, some are low and sandy, others are cliffs overlooking the blue sea, and small bays of inimitable natural landscapes. An island personified by vivid colors of the houses and its scents. Much of the coastline is safeguarded by the protected marine area “Regno di Nettuno” (i.e. Neptune’s Realm), and the town is divided into nine town quarters.
Procida, however, is not just a series of beautiful places to admire. It is, above all, a heritage to be experienced and savored in its “intangible” dimension made of civic, urban and human authenticity. An impregnable secret. The authenticity to be preserved is the island’s precious cultural heritage. Even in the spotlight. “Arturo’s Island” is a place in the soul for those who discover this little gem of the sea, but also for those who live there all year round. Land of sailors, where the cultures of the Mediterranean blend in the architecture, dialect and hospitality of its inhabitants.
There are many evocative sides to this welcoming and delicate fishing village. Procida is the queen of a culture that unites. “Culture does not isolate”, the project’s main theme, is a challenge. In the words of the director for “Procida 2022”, Procida is a “metaphor of contemporary man. We are islands, we need to build archipelagos, and culture will enable us to build these bridges”. A vision that includes 44 cultural projects and 330 days of programming involving 240 artists, 40 original works and 8 cultural venues. Among these, Palazzo d’avalos, closed since 1988, a gloomy Bourbon prison citadel overlooking the sea and the village of Terra Murata, will become a cultural hub and will host “Sprigionarti. Visions of time and space” (with Sprigionarti being a play on words referring to being free from prison), with artistic installations of contemporary art. Italy therefore focuses on the smallest island in the Gulf of Naples to look to the future. With Procida, the island that unites. A bridge over the Mediterranean. A challenge, in the year of the pandemic, to share and communicate through the language of culture.