talent without show
Transcript
talent without show
DOLCENERA TALENT WITHOUT SHOW In a cozy, friendly atmosphere the art of eating well Via C. Battisti 4, Lecce | www.osteriadeglispiriti.it leccellente magazine #2 DECEMBER-JANUARY 2012/13 i n d e x DOLCENERA 6 CIOCCOLATO HISTOIRE 10 PIMAR 14 LUCA CAPILUNGO 18 NO-MISSPEND 22 PURCIDDHRUZZI 26 FEDERICO PRIMICERI 30 DIV.ERGO 36 città del libro 38 IL PUNTO DI PINO DE LUCA 43 COVER STORY Dolcenera photographed by Silvio Bursomanno PU B L I S H E R M U S TL A B DI R E CTO R L E DA CESA RI AS S I S TA N T D I R E CTOR PIN O D E LUCA NE WS E D I TO R M O N ICA N E GRO G R A P H I CS & w e b M UST LA B PHOTO S S I LV I O B U RSOM A N N O PR I N TI N G G R A F I CA ZE ROT TA N TA EDITORIAL STAFF [email protected] direCTOR [email protected] ASSISTANT DICRECTOR [email protected] ADVERTISEMENT [email protected] ENGLISH VERSION AVAILABLE ON WWW.LECCELLENTE.IT Waiting for 2013 with a heart full of hope It has been a very tough year, both on a personal and a global level. We have gone through a lot of bad things, and looking into the future, we cannot really see anything that may give us some hope, and hope is the only thing that would help us carry on in this dark, often incomprehensible world. And yet… at the end of such a complicated year, I want to think – and write – positive, because if you give in to fear and despair, you are only feeding that potentially dangerous collective fear. Therefore I wish myself and all of you readers of LECCELLENTE, a bright, peaceful, and loving 2013. This is not one of those rhetorical, cheesy wishes you text each other at Christmas, this is a wish from the bottom of my heart. Because we all need to feel alive again, we all need to make this our goal for 2013: make a collective, global effort to come out of this dark tunnel we are in, on all levels. A palingenesis that will force us to face the dark moods we have created globally, to hopefully neutralise them – but we have yet to make this happen. We have reached a point of no return in this classic game of “jump or die”. And so, in spite of the Mayan prophecy, I hope that at the dawn of 22nd December 2012, we will all be moving on to create a new, better world, or at least a less gloomy one. A world that will be saved by a giant and collective effort to change the state of things, a world that will be saved by beauty, as Dostoyevsky used to say: a beauty that everyone at “LECCELLENTE” will hopefully keep writing about. You will find many examples of beauty in this issue. So, let us try to enjoy all this beauty, because, as Oscar Wilde once said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”. «I wish myself and all of you readers of LECCELLENTE, a bright, peaceful, and loving 2013. This is not one of those rhetorical, cheesy wishes you text each other at Christmas, this is a wish from the bottom of my heart» F MUSIC IS MY DRUG or singer and songwriter Dolcenera, “Modern age” rhymes with… “Knowledge! This is a moment in time where you need to be aware of yourself and the world around you. You need to know what’s going on around you, and develop your own critical sense. A thorough knowledge of what is going on in the world is the only way for you to make the right choices, both on a personal and a social level”. Future on the other hand… “Future rhymes with…torture! Sad, isn’t it?”. The civilisation of a country is measured by its ability to create opportunities for its younger population in every aspect, not only job-wise. Work, sports, music, personal interests are nothing but ways to express your own personality. When you express yourself you truly feel like part of a community, you feel like you’re not alone”. What does it feel like to watch your colleagues – some being from the same latitude as you – become famous thanks to talent shows? What do you say? Do you thank God you have slowly climbed the ladder to success or curse yourself you didn’t grow up in the era of the famous talent show “Amici”? “It’s not necessarily a bad thing to climb the ladder from the bot- tom to the top; in fact, it’s highly formative: it’s like knowing you have to read tons of books, as many as possible, before you can write one of your own! It’s your personal artistic journey, where you haven’t got any audience for long periods of time – and you really don’t have to – but that takes you along hidden and intimate paths. Talent shows are a great opportunity as a starting point, and a good way to create your own musical path, but that’s about it. It’s not coincidental that all those talent show contestants that don’t follow a certain path, eventually disappear from the music scene. Success is very fragile: it peaks with talent shows, but when the lights go out, you need to have developed your own culture and your own musical awareness, or at least try to develop them with time”. What is your favourite talent show? If you watch any, that is. “I don’t watch any talent shows. I don’t really watch that much TV. I only watch informative TV shows and American series in their original language, on the internet”. Would you ever accept a role as a judge in a talent show? “I don’t know. Maybe not in those that have too many seasons behind. Well, if being a judge means becoming a sideshow fre- ak, then there’s no way I’d ever accept…But if being a judge is an opportunity to discover new talents, collaborate with them once the show has ended, write new songs, arrangements and artistic production with them, then yes, I’d like to be a judge. Actually, people often contact me and ask me if I’d be willing to collaborate with them or be their producer, but I always stress the importance of beautiful songwriting”. Do you think it’s good for music to be all about the show? “First of all, music isn’t about the show, even though it has been overused and abused for movies, TV shows, commercials…almost as a mere stopgap. This “American” trend has been going on for the past thirty years, and Italian and European music has obviously suffered from it. Whereas in Hong Kong, for example, the day after my own show, I went to the same theatre to see a classical pianist, and spotted a lot of families with young children in the audience. This is culturally unimaginable nowadays in Italy”. Why do female singers – but this is not your case – appear to be better at singing than at songwriting, even though they’re naturally good at conveying feelings and emotions? “This is an old and entrenched cultural problem – women have always been seen as perfect interpreters of Bel Canto, but never as autonomous artists: we have very few female songwriters in Italy, but we do have lots of female singers. This is why I always say that my musical path is, by choice, a very long one, both from a musical and a personal point of view: after all, you can’t write anything if you haven’t got anything to say. There is no definite road to follow for female songwriters, but a path you need to walk, day by day, carrying your credibility and beautiful songwriting with you. What is hideous about these new generation singers is that they read the lyrics to their songs from an autocue…If you want to sing a song, you have to know it in its entirety, from the tune to the story behind it. You can’t read a song from an autocue and just get away with it! Can you tell us something about your musical background? “Oh dear…where do I begin? I’ll just say that I’ve played piano and the clarinet since I was 6 years old, and that I can also play the guitar; I love playing the theremin and I listen to music so much that I feel autistic at times! I’ve always loved and studied the lyrics of the greatest Italian songrwiters: De Andrè, De Gregori, Vasco Rossi, Guccini, etc.; I’ve always loved the sound of early Litfiba, CCCP, The Cure, and used to jump on the sofa to David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and Genesis. I love Skrillex’s electro music and bands that feature bits of it in their songs, and anything written by Marquez, Proust and Pessoa is my Bible”. You live in Florence. What kind of relationship have you got with Salento, your homeland? “I love it, I go back whenever I can, and every time I’m there I feel a sort of primordial connection with it. I know everything not only about its beauties and contradictions, but also its unknown arts, literature and characters. I love Vittorio Bodini’s poetry and Carmelo Bene’s theatrical production…Musically, “Siamo tutti là fuori”, the song for which I won the Sanremo Music Festival in 2003, was nothing but a Salentinian “pizzica”, this is why we had tambourines on stage with us at the Ariston Theatre”. Yet you are not one of those artists who feel the need to bring their origins up any time they can…Is there any particular reason behind that? “I’m no sycophant, I don’t like to exploit my own people or origins to get more votes in music competitions, even though I know people from my homeland are – like many others – very generous when it comes to televoting. I’m very careful not to exploit my people’s finances with cheap parochialism! If they like my song, I hope they’ll support it and share it no matter what, without me having to proclaim my devotion for my homeland and speak dialect all the time” «To me music is like an arm, there’s no way you will ever forget you have one» Why do you think bands like The Rolling Stones are still big in the news today, in 2012? “For many reasons. Maybe because we’re all old-fashioned, nostalgic people, we love idols from the past but can hardly find any in this era of apathy; because The Stones are still pretty cool, because it’s cool to say you like The Stones, even if you don’t know pretty much anything about them, because no one digs into music and its new stars anymore”. How do you feed your hunger for music in everyday life, besides writing your own music? “To me music is like an arm, there’s no way you will ever forget you have one! Music is in every single moment of my life, and every time I’m thinking about something, I realise that there’s always music playing in the background of my head. I come up with lots of melodies in my head, and if only I could write them down instantly, I’d probably write many more songs. I personally listen to a lot of music: today, thanks to the internet, you can have access to a wide choice of music from all over the world. I especially enjoy listening to bands I come across while surfing the net, that are still unknown to the general public. The first listen is always very critical and scientific: I always analyse chords, melodies, arrangement and production”. Is it better to have a good musical background or a good manager nowadays in Italy? “I’m not going to lie: both. Granted, if you have a good manager but no artistic identity whatsoever, you career is not going to last long, although it may have a few high peaks. No hypocrisy here – in Italy, due to the small dimensions of local music business – now snubbed by all the other European countries (which is quite a humiliating defeat for Italian music and its glorious past) –, the role of the manager is losing more and more importance. We are finally going back to the way it was in the 1970s, when music was made by musicians, not labels and managers”. «MUSIC IS IN EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF MY LIFE, AND EVERY TIME I’M THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING, I REALISE THAT THERE’S ALWAYS MUSIC PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND OF MY HEAD» cioccolato histoire From everywhere, in every way, chocolate t The elite of the Aztec warriors were the Cuahchiqueh, endowed with ichuaipilli, chimalli and aacuahuitl; they were the only professional soldiers and often they left for war, as they could do only that. The “eagle” or “jaguar” warriors were warriors who used to fight in battle but then went back to their business. The legend tells about a prince Cuahchiqueh who set out against his enemies leaving the beautiful princess to guard his treasure. The enemies escaped the prince with a trick and caught the princess. They tortured her but she didn’t say a word, until she was butchered and from her blood, dropped on the floor, was born a plant with seeds as bitter as her pain, as strong as her virtue, as red as her blood. Cocoa was born. It is an Aztec story, clearly a legend. But the Maya used to prepare with cocoa a drink called “Xocolatl”. The first European who tried it was called Girolamo Benzoni, and in “Historia de lo Nuovo Mondo” (1565) he wrote about this plant and its use: “It doesn’t survive if the place isn’t warm enough, and shady, as if it is touched by the sun it would die..... its fruit is almond-shaped, and is born in a sort of pumpkin, very similar to a cucumber....they put it in the sun to dry and if they want to drink it, they dry it on the fire, and then, with stones, they grind it, put it in mugs and little by little add water, and then drink it, but it is actually a drink for pigs, not for men.” Benzoni was short-sighted; Colombo was sharper, as he grabbed lots of cocoa beans because they were used as money in the mesoamerican civilizations. The Aztecs sold 4 corn cobs for a seed, a pumpkin for 4 seeds, for ten, a rabbit and for 12, a night of sex. A canoe costed 100 beans, as a grateful slave, who, if not purchased, was destined to human sacrifice. Except for other uses, more or less private. In 1528 Cortes presented it to the Royals of Spain. He seized beans and tools to go back to central America with huge quanity of cocoa which would allow him to buy anything. But they used it for medicine and nutrition: energising, stimulating and aphrodisiac kept secret for years. the secret was later revealed: general of Spain Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia brought some beans to the capital of his dukedom, Tourin, which quickly became the european capital of chocolate. Founding also a school, where Francois-Louis Cailler studied, creating in Vivery the first chocolate factory. The growth is fast: the first load of cocoa beans coming from Veracruz to Siviglia dates back to 1585. At the court of France, under Louis XIII and Anne from Austria, his wife, people drink hot chocolate. It is 1615. In1657, in London, the first store selling chocolate was opened. And in 1659 Pope Pio V finds it disgusting, but cardinal Brancaccio says that also for chocolate “Liquidum non frangit jejunum” – “a liquid can’t break the fast time” and Antonio Carletti, Florence trader, starts to sell it to Abbeys, for the penitance time. The monks added sugar to sweeten it. After a while (1671) in the kitchen of the Duke of PlesslinPraslin the assistent of the chef drops some hot sugar on a mixture of cocoa and almonds.The delightful result was named by the Duke “praline”, and since then has the name. It was around 1700, when Charles VI moved his Court from Madrid to Vienna, and also the use of chocolate. Chocolate shops in Florence and Venice bocomes the most important in Europe and in the world. Except for Germany, opposing this product, the rest of Europe is invaded. One century later, the engineer Bozzelli finds a way to create chocolate bars. the method is used by a londoner, but it is Paul Caffarel who refines it and is able to produce up to 300 kg of chocolate a day. In Switzerland was created milk chocolate by Daniel Peter and his father-in-law, as their neighbour used to produce aliments for babies: he was Henry Nestlé. We are in Vivery… In tourin they mix chocolate and nuts creating gianduia; mixing nuts and a little chocolate, they obtain the famous chocolate spread. In 1879 Rudolph Lindt created the conching, starting the production of dark chocolate. Cocoa plantations moved from MesoAmerica to Africa (Ghana) and Philippines . In the XX century, chocolate, food of Gods, (Theobroma cacao) - as Linneo calls it and as Motecuhzoma meant when he offered it to Cortez, mistaken for the God Quetzalcoàtl - becomes a common food, in different forms, so that often we have lost its sense. Butter extracts, blending, toasting, chemical proceedings made chocolate something indefinable. LECCELLENTE 11 OUR GOLD MATCHES THE TRADITION www.lesaittole.com Risorgimento Resort, Lecce LECCELLENTE 14 pimar Giuseppe Marrocco, heart of stone, from Lecce. t he wide blacktop flows smoothly under the new tyres of the old, just washed Getz . Going from Lecce to Maglie, just a bit after- exit Melpignano - in front of a huge building : Pi.Mar.. We roam the streets to find the way in. There’s a wide parking lot and a little black dog welcomes us, and she alone is worth the journey. Then you enter a sort of “piled exposition” of real sculptures, some really precious, which in my opinion, would deserve a better place than resting against a wall. And attracting the greedy gaze of the customers. An office with people at work, and then comes Giuseppe. Giuseppe Marrocco: 50 years of intimacy with the bowels of the earth. He slowly tells his story, the story of his company and of Lecce stone. He’s calm and still, Giuseppe, when tells us the story of fifty years of life. He never says “I”, Giuseppe, he always says “we”, and then you ask yourself wether he is conceited or weird, wether he feels like a rector or the wizard Otelma. But Giuseppe copes with colossal sizes which teach you that without “we”, you can’t do anything. And despite his imposing weight and his hands, he’s sensitive when he talks about “ the boy who’s just in charge of dusting down the works of art.”, as if he was an essential element for the team work. Everybody as an important role, and each piece of stone brings a piece of culture and skill of each person. And you realize why architects from all around the world come here to Pi.Mar: Giuseppe’s Lecce stone is excellent for different uses, but it is also a living body, which tells a story. A century-old story, made of ancient traditions, of know-how stored in mind, in the hands of real Masters, And also Giuseppe, strong with his studies, formally incomplete, but actually very accurate, succeeded in using advanced technologies. So, at Pi.Mar.people design according to the need, with a skilled analysis, and after that, they go to the mine and choose the suitable block. Easy rule: by Michelangelo: “choose the block which contains your work and remove what you don’t need”. Powerful machines extract in the mine between Cursi and Melpignano, for centuries managed by Marrocco family, these giant blocks, and bring them to the workshop, where lots of precise machines change them into the desired product. Then the product goes into the hand of the master, who refines it with chisel and rasp, little by little, because the stone always need human hands. Like the sweet little puppy, who comes near to be pet. Giuseppe goes on still with his narration, and after a while he is fluent, his voice is placid, but his eyes are sparling while he tealls us about the stone which tells the story of salento. He talks about the need to change urban architecture, and wonders wether tourists need to live the beauty or choose to go around in areas of coucil housing. And talks about his cooperation with the Univeristy, all over the world, in order to use this stone as a modern building material. Advanced research allowed Giuseppe to create a protptype of house .which produces energy instead of using it, thanks to a mixture of carbon fibres and Lecce stone. the inyterlocutor, looking at the huge figure of this man , who lives next to the factory. The company is on the most important foreign markets and Hilton Garden Inn, Lecce this could lead to a certain tendency to presumption and arrongance. But the stone doesn’t lie, and reminds you that “a man, alone in not worth a dime.”, and if you have beauty and richness, is because somebody else, before you, has been working for it, leaving a mark in the eternal stone. Lecce stone is more than a witness of Salento, it is a basic feature of it. Showing it all around the world is just one way to tell the story of a beautiful land. Giuseppe Marrocco is the dictionary where many people finds the words to write their poems and stome novels, in the world. Also in Lecce, recently. Because, using Giuseppe’s words, those who come after us, have the right to discover salento, the sun, the sea, the wind and also the stone. «Lecce stone is more than a witness of Salento, it is a basic feature of it» «BUT THE STONE DOESN’T LIE, AND REMINDS YOU THAT “A MAN, ALONE IS NOT WORTH A DIME”» Eos Hotel, Lecce LUCA CAPILUNGO That unique pasticciotto of Via Bari LECCELLENTE 19 i n music, art and literature, the “Pastiche” is quite young. XVIII century, until in Italian the meaning is enlarged by Carlo Emilio Gadda. Pasticcio becomes “Pasticciaccio” and happens in Rome, via Merulana. Pastiche and patty, until pasticciaccio, are terms which Emerico Giachery (Motivo e Parola – Guido Ed. – 1990) analyses in etymon lliterature, music and arts, finding out that yet in the XVI Century there were “pasticci”, of colours. Pasticci that painters kept secret. But about the transition from patty (that is a dish in which past serves as a container) and pastry-making, from “le pastiche” and “pâtisserie” we know very little. Even because the basis of pastry-making has known a widespread recently. Before the growing of the beetroot, sugar was rare, precious and prerogative of the richer classes. Only in XVIII century the first maître pâtissier appear, as we intend them. Earlier, the sweet was created cooking the must. (caroeno, sapa or defrutum). Or, honey and fruits. Dried fruits or jams. Time generated the pastry-making art, which spread like wildfire. Above all in courts and cloisters of Europe. Patisserie, is actually, exclusively European. No other continent has a tradition in the field. In Europe there are thousands of spots where maîtres pâtissiers make practice and create delights. The best way to understand patisserie, is to go inside. A good pastry-chef is not afraid of fatigue, can communicate with the topic, can listen and waits for the answers. But is it true? Is pastry-making “chemistry, physics and monotony in the recipes?” Luca laughs. Loudly. “If this nonsense was true somebody will tell me why I sell 300 pasticciotti every morning, while somebody else sells 30. This means they are different, aren’t they?” When he was 13, Luca went to school at … Franchini (one of the oldest pastry-chefs in Lecce) and he doesn’t know anything about the definitions of pastiche, pies and patties, luckily. But now that he has got over 30 years of experience, he’s a bit stooped but he oozes passion. In the beautiful outskirts of Lecce (maybe beautiful thanks to Luca’s pastry shop) in front of a glass door, two huge stuffed animals: polar bears welcome you in a room whose scent could be a good anti-depressant therapy. A team of fast and very polite misses assist an infinite queue of customers. Wise customers, who know the names of every delight on display. There’s also a cultural exchange. Conversations between customers, or customers and salespeople about details which may seem unreal: “the colour of the pasticciotto of last night was a bit too dark”, “the almond of my cake wasn’t Filippo Cea but californian…”; “are you joking? Maybe we used a little less bitter almonds but we only use high-quality products from Puglia.”... These are conversations that you catch even if you don’t want to. Luca talks about his pastries, not just the ones he makes, but those he “imagines” because “I always think, whatever I make, I think over and over, and try many times”. His enthusiasm wanes when he talks about “common” sweets, those following the trend. Because in his opinion there are “our” sweets and the trendy ones. The latter are made as well, but go out of fashion quickly, whiule ours, always resist. For the trendy ones, they choose high quality ingredients, but they don’t need to be “imagined”. They are excellent but silent, they don’t have a story to tell, like that of the quince, or pears or figs. “I come from Franchini’s school, I make the jam from local pears which I buy from local farmers, many quintals of quince jam stored in capase … because we make “our” sweets, made with figs, come, come...” and enthusiasm comes out again. Finally we leave the small room called “ management” and takes me to the pastry workshop, with many busy people. He keeps talking, but I can’t listen any longer. I am captivated by tidiness, cleanliness and work of the teams”. I approach a team of 4 chefs making “130 almond fishes”. Two huge steel bowls, on a steel table, fone filled with pear jam, the other with faldacchiera, real one, made with 200 eggs, says Mister Gianni, in charge of stuffing the fishes with it, in a mould made by Luca 30 years ago. The job of pastry chef is hard, but I see in the face of those people the joy of making the same things in a different way, adding their own know-how and passion. Maybe such a place should have a touristic valorisation, I guess working here for a few hours could be a great experience. Then Luca tells me that they do that. A girl often brings tourists and he teaches them his art. times flies with Luca, it is hard to go out from this sweet trap of scents, flavours and kindness. A trap created by a young man who after junior high school went as apprentice at Franchini’s , where he learnt to “imagine” and work, learning tradition with his extraordinary ability of innovating and his obsession for cleanliness. In this trap real patisserie was born, which is not essential to life but adds joy, making a day, a feast day. A trap where almond paste and jams are the masters of the display case, and where if you ask Luca, the best product is “my pasticciotto” but you need to leave it for one day. But do that only with “my pasticciotto”, not with any. You can find Luca Capilungo, with his arms coloured as his marzipan fruits, 44 years-old and a story of hard work to sweeten other people’s life, in Lecce, via Bari, 7. I am happy as I leave with some purceddhruzzi… but this is another story . NO-MISSPEND Ecological Lecce: If you want it, you can achieve it i t’s not okay, it’s wrong. Look at that man, just look at him. He has been glued to his seat for years, like the parasite that he is. They are all incompetent. Dishonest and thieves, all of them. Corruption is spreading all over the country, and politicians are all the same. You have no idea how disgustingly rich bureaucrats can get at public expense, at the expense of poor taxpayers, as if we hadn’t already been squeezed and crushed enough. We could go on forever and still earn a lot of praise and appreciation - it’s always the same old song, after all. Who knows though, there may be some truth to it. Every contumely has some truth to it. But do we really live in a world where good and evil are so diametrically opposed? Are we all to believe that good people are really that different from bad people? The reality here, in our humble opinion, is that we need to take a hard look at ourselves, each and everyone of us, again and again. We need to take a look at the life we live and see if it is ethically correct, ask ourselves if we have always stayed on the trail or have ever been tempted to take any shortcuts, any easy-way-outs that our conscience tends to keep quiet. Good practices have actually nothing to do with ‘sacrifice’: in fact, they usually are worthwhile and amusing. But you have to be in the right frame of mind to understand that, and this can only be achieved with the right information and education, from childhood on. Paradoxically, some good practices are ingrained in us at an early age, but instead of developing them, we lose them as we grow up, leaving idiocy and rudeness as real indicators of adulthood, just like beard and breasts. These are scattered thoughts and sprinkled words that I sha- red with a few old friends on a November Sunday afternoon, namely last Sunday, while sipping coffee just off Sant’Oronzo Square. Lecce can be very mild even in late autumn, as in jacket-and-cotton-trousers mild. The few sparse clouds that chase each other across the sky cast a wonderful chiaroscuro effect on this magic-soaked place. Right in the middle of the square were a number of white stalls – what now, another fundraising event? A propaganda spot for this or that political party? Apparently not. “MissPend”, read the board, which was fairly self-explanatory. You would think it was yet another form of protest, but if you got a closer look you could find things that would make you feel like an idiot, like us adults can be sometimes. The truth is that “MissPend” marks a road, a path that is not only ethical, but also very interesting from an economic point of view. It brings human impact back to a positive interaction with the ecosystem, by reducing not only its extent but also its entropy. One of the stalls was a bicycle workshop, which was there to show how wonderful the velocipede is as a vehicle – it is very easy to keep maintained and is far more efficient than any other means of transport, as well as having beneficial effects on everyone’s health. Further down was the gift bazaar, where you could drop things you don’t want anymore and pick up things you might need that someone else didn’t want. The gift bazaar was promoted by “Il Formicaio” (The Ant-heap), a group of young, vibrant, well-educated people who have made social communication and recycling culture their main target, and with great success, no less. Looking further, I soon realised that we were in the middle of the European Week for Waste Reduction, and that although LECCELLENTE 23 Lecce is one of those cities where waste sorting is still far from being a common practice, more and more awareness and professionalism are springing up every day. Problems are tackled with a new holistic approach, and each activity is now seen as a system interacting with other systems, as well as a way to encourage fantasy and creativity – and in that respect our younger population is hardly second to any in the world. They came up with the idea of an award called “Riccio dell’Angelo” (Angel Curl), which saw the interaction of companies, institutions, artists and municipalities. Their main activity was to redistribute anything that couldn’t be sold anymore. For example, food that was still good to eat but had lost its commercial appeal was distributed to help people and pets, old and rejected clothes were used to create burlesque dresses, etc; it takes a lot of sensibleness and competence to organise a series of events without producing any waste, and this is what really deserves an award. The event, promoted by the Department for Environmental Policies, decided to give a “Riccio dell’Angelo”, Premio Efferidi 2012 award to Andrea Guido, the assessor for Environmental Policies of the city of Lecce; Fernando Bonocuore, director of the Environmental unit; Federico Zilli, director-general of Ecotecnica LLC; artist Mario Catalano, whose paintings “Mondo Fragile” (Fragile World) and “Cuore Fragile” (Fragile Heart) have been printed on merchandise t-shirts for the event, and Damiano D’Autilia, president of “Alba service”. The award was created by Effemeridi, and later developed with “Il Formicaio” and, - I’m very proud to say - with the amazing help of “MustLab”, which also happens to be the publisher of this magazine. Me, I haven’t got any awards to give out, but what I do have to do is give credit to those who have worked behind the scenes, and without whose help this would have never been possible: Luca Sanapo from Effemeridi, Monica Negrodi from MustLab, all the men and women from “Il Formicaio”: Umberto Cataldo, Francesco De Carlo, Roberto Ingrosso, Simone Linciano, Rosaria Lovecchio, Chiara Cota, and many more. Anyways, the activities of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, all taking place in Lecce’s most beautiful square, have produced carbon dioxide, and this debt, from a holistic point of view, needs to be paid. It can easily be paid by installing a 3KW photovoltaic system for our friends in Ortoporto. What? You haven’t got a clue what Ortoporto is? Ortoporto is a world of peculiar characters often labelled as mere dreamers. But these dreamers have shown us that dreams can become reality…a whole different story for the so-called pun-tastic ‘LECCELLENTE’ and its journey through those places – like this place – where we try our best to imagine a much brighter future than the dark and grim future the Lords of Fear want to show us. We do not wait for the future to happen to us, we construct it together. A brand which grows creating your emotions w w w. ba r ba r red i . i t purciddhruzzi You can call them, if you want.....temptations h Has autem terras Italique hanc litoris oram/ proxima quae nostri perfunditur aequoris aestu/ effuge; cuncta malis habitantur moenia Grais.?Hic et Narycii posuerunt moenia Locri/ et Sallentinos obsedit milite campos/ Lyctius Idomeneus; hic illa ducis Meliboei/ parva Philoctetae subnixa Petelia muro. (But these next borders of the Italian shores/ on whose rough rocky sides our ocean roars; avoid with caution, for the Grecian train possess those realms that stretch along the main. Here, the fierce Locrians hold their dreadful seat/ there, brave Idomeneus, expelled from Crete, has fixed his armies on Salentine ground, and awes the wide Calabrian realms around; Here Philoctetes from Thessalian shores/ rears strong Petilia fenced with walls and towers). From Virgil’s-Aeneid, Book III, where Virgil describes, to some extent, the portion of land once known as Magna Grecia. History as told by the book contains some inaccuracy, but this is not the right place nor the right time to shed any light on it. Magna Grecia is only a starting point for us to introduce the so-called “loukoumades”: flour mixed with water, milk and salt to form a sweet dough, which is then left to rise for a few hours, shaped to little balls and fried in hot olive oil, until well golden. Once the dough has been completely drained from oil, all that is left to do is add honey and sprinkle with cinnamon. The story takes place between the 6th and 11th centuries Before Christ, when from Cuma (Calchis) all the way to Ancona (Grecians from Syracuse), the Peninsula was dotted with Grecian colonies. These fried little dough balls literally followed these colonies on their journey across the area, and due to their round shape, they soon became known as “stroggoulos” (round) in the Parthenopaean area, and later on “struffoli”. The Grecians were installed everywhere in Grecian colonies, and as a result loukoumades were everywhere too: they soon became known as “ciciriata” in Basilicata and Calabria, “cicerchiata” in The Marches, “ciceriata” again in Abruzzo, “pignolata” in Calabria. But linguistically speaking, the loukoumade fever hit Apulia more than any other region. It was in Apulia that indigenous populations, - divided into thousands of other groups and factions, all established by ancient civilisations - came up with “pizzi cunfritti”, “sannacchiudere” and several other variations of the word pork: “purciddhruzzu”, “purceddhruzzu”, “purcidduzzu” and “purcedduzzu”. “Loukoumades” take their name from their shape, time and history. Pignolata is obtained by placing small dough balls in a paper bag which is then turned over; ciciriata or cicerchiata (made of small dough balls shaped as chickpeas or grass peas) is obtained by placing small dough balls around a glass in the shape of a volcano or a bundt cake, and so on. It is safe to say that every county, country, family and person has its own variation of purciddhruzzi. From the use of white wine for the dough, to personal choices when it comes to choosing and melting the perfect type of honey and shaping the purciddhruzzu (rounded, cylindric, curled or knotted); from the debate whether the dough should be thick and divided into uneven parts or soft and divided into perfectly shaped little balls; to the debate whether to add laurel or candied fruit, or even small anise seeds. And more, purceddhruzzu with powdered honey or proper liquid honey? Some people use fig vincotto instead of honey, or even cooked grape must. What to use, lemon, orange, or tangerine peel? Or bergamot peel? Some people bake them (terrible!), some add chocolate or “mendule ricce” (sugar-glazed almonds); in any case, starting from the Feast of the Immaculate Conception up until the Epiphany, purciddhruzzi can be found in every Salentine household; purciddhruzzi become “cartiddhrate” at Carnival. No other place is like Salento everywhere else, ingredients are randomly added to the mix when making purciddhruzzi: honey, marmalade, fried dough balls and sugar glazed pastry sticks. A little too elaborate. The purciddhruzzo is a whole different thing, it is social in both its preparation and his consume, it is a sign of cheerfulness and prosperity. The purciddhruzzo never lets you down, it tastes good even when it tastes bad, it never goes bad, and it gets better with time. You have to eat it slowly and taste it fully - you could go on forever. In the land of the Oikist Phalanthus, due to their overwhelming appeal, they were known as “sannacchiudere” (to be kept hidden) among the Spartans. For reasons unknown to us, San Pietro Island has its own “giggeri”, very similar in shape and preparation methods to struffoli. Very different are, on the other hand, the socalled “castagnole”, both in origin (much more recent) and preparation. We, for one, will keep making our golden Purceddhruzzo, as we have to protect its cultural background and long-time tradition. And then maybe, one day, the Loukoumade community will gather and decree, from time to time, who made the best version. Idomeneusís Sallentini can surely have their say about that. The golden “purciddhruzzo”, a prize for the winner of the third “P-day”, created by Lorenzo Primiceri, Luxury Project LECCELLENTE 27 Collier “Fantasy Travel” Collection Jewellery as a piece of art M umble, mumble…goes the brain of Federico Primiceri – a goldsmith designer from the prolific town of Nardò – who, following the huge success of his precious works, is now planning to conquer the United Kingdom. Next February. He will be moving to London for a while, “for a personal research”, contrary to what is in the nature of a Cancer man, that is a special bond with his homeland. He is planning to do what he likes so much to do: travelling (“Paris, Moscow, Barcelona, anywhere”), learning, importing, seeking inspiration and applying it to his own work, with the aim of creating more and more amazing pieces of work. If you look at his collections, you will likely notice a striking symbiosis between craftsmanship and avant-garde design, that Federico Primiceri conveys in his collections made of gold, silver and gem stones, through a detailed and meticulous search for exclusiveness; his aim is to fulfil every woman’s desire to wear ethereal, unique jewellery, whose class and personality are like no other in the world; a proper mix of values of the past and aesthetics of the future. Federico Primiceri’s jewels are like beautiful dreams. They tickled the fancy of the French at the “Designer Showcase” event organised by New York’s “National Jewelry Institute” in 2009; they delighted the Russians at “Flavours of Mediterraneo”, held in Saint Petersburg, in 2010; they inspired Italians in the halls of the charming Torrione delle Saline, in the town of Margherita di Savoia, in 2011 (the exhibition was dedicated to Queen Margherita of Savoy, and held in that modern work of art to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy); they dazzled everyone in Cavallo, Corsica, in 2012; they were celebrated – as it should be for every work of high jewellery – in the boutique of the famous “Hôtel & Spa des Pechêurs” in 2012. Last but not least, they were featured in “Fantasy Travel” and “Level 256” at the 18th edition of “Vendôme Luxury tradeshow” which took place during Fashion Week last September-October, at the prestigious Hôtel Park Hyatt Paris‐Vendôme in rue de la Paix. Quite impressive. Especially since these events may lead to possible future collaborations that would make your head spin with excitement. “Customers, journalists and buyers have always praised my jewellery, but they are not the only ones. A gallery manager I met recently asked me if he could display a few pieces of my work in his museum, as part of an exclusive exhibition displaying a collection of unique works made by artists from all over the world”. Luisa Via Roma, a prestigious boutique based in Florence, asked for exclusive rights to sell jewels from “Level 256”. “This was another important Italian success for me, being Luisa Via Roma one of the most prestigious and acknowledged stores in the world”, Federico says, sipping a cup of coffee. This is what you achieve when your mind flies high and comes up with unusual but appealing ideas: an example for this is “Tube”, a revolutionary wedding ring built as if made of hydraulic pipes but made of silver and a brown diamond instead, and created to convey the relationship between the two parallel universes that are art and design, “in order to connect creative and emotional flows of every man and woman who are ready to commit to each other”. LECCELLENTE 32 «THAT VERY WORLD HELPED HIM CREATE “FANTASY TRAVEL” – FAIRIES, ANGELS AND BUTTERFLIES RESTING ON A GOLD CHOCKER ENCRUSTED WITH 2712 PRECIOUS STONES, THAT CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF RUSSIA AND CHINA» Federico Primiceri, High Jewellery Designer Ramblings of an artist. That being said, Federico is still stuck in his “mumble mumble”, but this time, being the Cancer man he is, he digs into his own universe and crawls back inside his shell, like only a Cancer man can do: “If I don’t like what I see around me, I bury myself in my favourite place and create my own world in it”. «My mission and satisfaction is to make people fall in love with my collections, create emotions, make everyone feel special» That very world helped him create “Fantasy Travel” – fairies, angels and butterflies resting on a gold chocker encrusted with 2712 precious stones, that caught the attention of Russia and China; or Pac-Man eating the ghost in the asymmetrical collection “Level 256”. And “Tube”, and who- Anello “Fantasy Travel” Collection knows-how-many creative worlds yet to be discovered. Everything is dictated by the inspiration of the moment: “It is great to travel around the world, because you get to meet a lot of people from a lot of different cultures, open to art and innovation. I started in 2005; over the years, I have interacted with many foreign cultures, which helped me understand where Italy is going in the world of fashion and luxury, with an eye on all those changes happening outside of it”. On 16th December, famous concept store and art temporary museum “Anteprima” held a special exhibition to celebrate his avant-garde art and uniqueness of his luxury handmade jewellery. Federico launched the exhibition himself at the store’s gallery, in Altamura. Quite a lot of celebrities and music stars have shown their interest for Federico’s jewellery; Giuliano Sangiorgi and Andrea Mariano from Negramaro, who wear custom pieces especially created for them, American drummer Mylious Johnson – who absolutely loves Federico’s work – and Italian singer and songwriter Niccolò Fabi, to mention a few. But the joy of making customers satisfied with his jewellery is still there for Federico Primiceri: “My mission and satisfaction is to make people fall in love with my collections, create emotions, make everyone feel special. And every time this happens, I feel I have achieved my goal, both on a professional and a personal level”. Like a true Cancer man: astrology never lies. THE PLEASURE OF SAILING www.lhcat.com | [email protected] div.ergo The art of diversity, the art of smile LECCELLENTE 36 i t is not that difficult to live in a better world. Sometimes you just have to leave your grim and obstinate burrow, where all you do everyday is ramble about the ugliness of all that is wrong, only to find – just around the corner from home!!! – a happy place full of smile and commitment. A place where the difficulties of everyday life are not ignored (or worse, denied – typical of our time), but rather highlighted. They are seen as junctions that lead to a reassuring place, as dimensional gates that open into and unexpected and comforting world and help us reconcile with the entire universe: no limit or obstacle can stop you, if you really want to smile. And this oasis of genuine, tangible – not insincere, or just for the cameras – solidarity is all that it takes to overturn the situation the world is in. To save it all. This is all it takes. “Div.ergo” is what it takes. A little creative comet landed on Earth thanks to the brilliant idea a group of volunteers from association “C.A.Sa.” came up with on 8th December 2009, right when a series of other activities born a decade before were coming to an end. They guided and translated into practice their common wish to value everyone’s personal skills and abilities. This is Div.ergo, a place that welcomes every form of creativity and supports every kind of ambition, a paradise of widespread creativity, a place where “you can buy stuff and help us build a world where everyone’s dreams come true”, says someone from the lab, smiling. Everyday at the lab – to quote an old commercial – thousands of colourful, wonderful things take form: breakfast mugs, tea sets, fridge magnets, jewellery, photo frames, oil dispensers, nativity scenes and the brand new little owl collection. All items are entirely made by guests of Div.ergo, with their colours and little ovens, following their own creativity skills – you will be so surprised by their beautiful works, that you will want to buy them all. “A world where there is room for everyone, a world where your diversity is your strength”, a world that has just celebrated its third anniversary (third, that is, since the lab moved to a Council-owned building located in 36 corso Vittorio Emanuele II, Lecce). A cheery place – not that any place would actually cheer: but Div.ergo truly does – that even Rai, Italian’s national TV, celebrated in a long special broadcast on the day of its anniversary, featuring interviews with volunteers and guests with disability, as well as with a few of their parents. This year, works made at Div.ergo (mainly creativity scenes) will be displayed at the traditional Fiera di Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy’s Fair), held and promoted by Lecce City Council at the former convent of Teatini. And here is more: over the past three years, Div.ergo works have been exported to five continents, from New Zealand to Uruguay, from Egypt to Scotland, from Japan (“where we just delivered a clock”, someone happily tells us on the day of the lab’s anniversary), to the United States. The thousands of people who cross the door of the lab really seem to enjoy Federica’s talk, Tony’s wit, Laura’s kindness, and the passion every volunteer puts into their work at Div.ergo, every single day. And everyone’s smile. Div.ergo, where diversity is strength; a place for sensibility, expressive forms, art forms. This is what Div.ergo is about. A place where you can buy Francesca’s funny mugs, but mainly that one place that will give everyone a reason to smile again. LECCELLENTE 38 CITTà DEL LIBRO Where culture comes to life Almost twenty years have passed since Campi Salentina – under the guide of its then mayor Egidio Zacheo – first came up with the idea of Città del Libro. The first editions were marked by enthusiasm, difficulties, and an unattractive setting. A former colleague of mine – whose name was Franco Dell’Atti – literally begged us to “lend a hand…”. And we did. We brought technology into the fair, as well as a number of young students who were all very happy to leave school – even if only for a few days – , the place that contained their desire for freedom. Over the years, Città del Libro has got bigger and bigger, a proper national exhibition, where both big and small publishers are given a chance to display their books, in the very heart of Salento. Despite thousands of difficulties, mainly due to the fact that this small piece of land by the sea is – fortunately but unfortunately – far from everything, the event got bigger and was enriched by more and more people, life and energy. The fair can now count more than a hundred publishers – either participating in person or by proxy – and the collaboration with schools has strengthened over the years. Workshops now have their own building, and a large number of schools come to visit this cultural paradise everyday, during the fair. Cultural paradise has suffered from the huge impact of technology, which can be tough at times, but like many other things in this world, it is unavoidable: culture has therefore decided to follow the same path, moving through the same evolution: books have become e-books, and posters, flyers, and all door-to-door activities have become social networking activities. We talk about this with the woman behind this new form of communication, namely Marcella Negro, a young woman with brown hair and deep black eyes. When she tells me “I have been following Città del Libro since the beginning” it is hard to tell whose ‘beginning’ she is referring to – hers or that of the fair. The truth is that over the years, Marcella has witnessed the development of the fair as an exhibitor, a visitor and a supporter. At some point, she decided to actively help with its development, with full support from Maria Novella Guarino, President of the Foundation. Marcella has no hierarchical role, and you will not find her name in any organogram, but she is both an operator and an observer of a phenomenon that has finally settled down – although with many difficulties – in the small town of far Salento that is Campi Salentina. As she articulates a number of thoughts and ideas, Marcella shows her enthusiasm for the attention and participation of younger generations, but slips into pessimism when we mention the lack of participation from adults. And although she tries her best to find reasons to justify the idle, inert adult generations, she refuses to accept the fact that adults have never really grown up or matured, all they have done over the years is live in their crude, crass ignorance. With her incursions into social networks, Marcella has gathered quite a lot of people – both groups and individuals – and promoted Città del Libro and its many events. Something particularly interesting emerges from our sociological discussion, and we would like to focus our attention on it: her strong passion for literature and Chinese culture, for silky and scented tomo, for pixels, for bits, and a number of other off-limits fantasies from the Land of the Rising Sun, all tangled as warp and weft in the heart of a young woman. This is Marcella. She now sees Città del Libro with the eyes of someone who is ready to take action after a long-time observation. What do Simona’s eyes see? “When you have had enough, when you cannot stand anyone anymore, when you see hypocrisy everywhere, you do not picture yourself in an ivory tower, you picture yourself locked up in a little cellar hidden somewhere. It is there that you will see Simona’s eyes – we are not talking about a random Simona, we are talking about our Simona – , eyes as black as in the fur of a panther, eyes that will make you realise the ridiculousness of those things you call difficulties, as well as the importance of optimism and strength of willpower”. A pair of eyes is obviously not enough to understand, so I guess I had better go and look for more eyes. I am going to start with mine - it is time pay the fair a visit. There is an important event going on, with important guests, to present important writers of important books. The arena soon catches my attention – all those lights, those hostesses, those stewards. All dressed up, and as still as mannequins. The rather snobby elegance of the people standing next to a hall called Nostra Signora dei Turchi. I decide to leave and, through a corridor of debilitated plants, I start walking to the outbuilding. Here I find a number of “workshops” and, above all, Simona who works there and is the guest of a group called Ambarabà. She may not be dressed as a hostess, but she sure makes a formidable one. She shows me a few drawings made by herself and her friends, their little creations made of rope and fabric; this happens in that outbuilding where schools and people with disability can be far from hostesses and stewards, far from the publishing spotlight. There, right there is the culture that makes you feel alive. Città del Libro is beautiful, and so is everything about books. It is a very ambitious programme, a patchwork of initiatives, dialogues, performances, launches and discussions, that never fails to leave you breathless, year after year. Its only flaw is maybe its provincialism – it should develop a more international character, starting with the introduction of English in its events. Or maybe by transferring Marcella and Simona’s enthusiasm to all those young (or less young) generations that seem to be there as mere window decorations. Books and book fairs are always objects of debate and controversy, or maybe they are just self-celebrations whose purpose is to sell prestigious furniture for prestigious homes. We need to feed ourselves and the whole world with optimism. Us, we are optimist by nature, it is natural for LECCELLENTE to offer to help every Marcella and Simona out there, or everyone who cares for the development of a more cultural and a more important Salentinian enclave. For 10 years SBM has benn assuring efficincy, quality and continuous supply of products and services for the National Health system, thanks to the partnership with the biggest multinational groups w w w . s b m s r l . i t OUR DESIRE? BEING HIGH-VALUE WITHOUT BEING HIGH-PRICED Centro Assistenza Auto S.r.l. Organizzata ufficiale di assistenza Mercedes-Benz & Smart Lucugnano (LE) - S.S. 275 km 21, 00 Tel. 0833.784578 - www.centroassistenzauto.it WOMEN WILL SAVE US FROM THE CRISIS AND LECCELLENTE announces change by PINO DE LUCA By the time you read this editorial, you will have realised that that little Mayan thing about the end of the world was nothing but a giant joke. I find it strange that millions of people ñ including those with a certain level of education ñ would get all worried just for the heck of it, and believe urban legends and tall tales without even making the effort to ask themselves if they are true or not. Tall tales that involve the whole world can be seducing. They use your hopes and fears. There is a band of rogues ready to take advantage of those who have excessive, unnecessary hopes and fears, and those who have lost their trust in the only trustworthy people they know: themselves. Education, life and history taught me to be extremely rational. You may say I am missing the best part of being ìhumanî, I know. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe this just helps me appreciate its essence more. Let me just mention as an example the case of LECCELLENTE. I am not going to praise it, as we all know that no man can be a good judge of himself. But the LECCELLENTE experience tells us the story of a very difficult challenge, in a very difficult setting, at the worst possible time, otherwise known as THE CRISIS. Right. This is the Golem of our time. Our monsters have weird names: SPREAD, SPENDING REVIEW, GDP, etc. It is not up to me to explain the reasons and solutions to that, as I would never be able to do so anyway. But the main aim of an editorial is to indicate the way. A rational way, an extremely rational one, yet capable of unleashing the biggest possible power: the power of passion. The first approach to this issue was quite contingent: we wanted to explain what it was about the Terra díOtranto province that actually made sense, unlike the unnatural unification of all those colonies, that marked borders where there were no borders to be seen, and built bridges where there were no bridges needed. And then comes that moment when you go shopping for panettone and notice the sky is full of anger: you suddenly feel you have to stop for a minute and feed your soul instead of your body. Before me is a painting exhibition displaying works by artists of different social extractions: COEXI- ST is the name, as if to underline the point. Beautiful paintings. One of them catches your attention. I am no expert, and cannot therefore say if it is a good one or a bad one. It is dark and tormented, but dominated by such an intense light as if lit by a lamp, and to think that it is just oil on canvas. And the gloomy background is something else, it is just background. It was painted by an artist from Lecce, I think Carlo was his name. What profound hope and confidence. Crisis means change, you can either accept it or learn to put up with it. Or even reject it, if you wish. But it is foolish to think you can fight it. It is better to deal with it than build a wall to try and stop it. Change is about actually changing, both inside and outside, it is about overturning things so that you can build new ones. No one can say which one will work better than the other, but what is sure is that one of them does not work anymore. Artists are proper prophets, they see farther than our eyes can see. What a great exhibition. It was organised by two women: one of them is a beautiful, determined woman named Claudia, mother to two amazing young girls, both portrayed in one of these paintings. The sky has cleared, and so has pessimism. It is nice to go see exhibitions sometimes, other than just restaurants all the timeÖAnd when I think about Claudia, Mary, Letizia, my Machare sisters, I realise change is happening. Organisation and responsibility in the hands of women. Activities that carry on in spite of the crisis. Maybe this is the real change for us: women stepping up to take power and responsibility. Will it get better, will it get worse? I do not feel like making any prophecies, but I am dead certain that women can be more than mere ìolgettineî, and men can be more than mere ìend-usersî. But the road is long, and who knows if I will live long enough to see this change actually happenÖAnd that is it, I am going to leave you with this pessimistic note. I think I may have to send this article to Leda, my manager, and Monica, my editor very soonÖ.which makes me laugh. Change has come, for me. I have not quite realised it, but I feel very happy about it. LECCELLENTE 43 ORIGINAL VINCOTTO, ITALIAN DELIGHT KNOWN ALL OVER THE WORLD w w w. v i n c o t t o . c o m