AN ADOBE SCENOGRAPHY
La Macchina dei Sogni a Palazzo Riso

In collaboration with CRESM - Centro ricerche economiche e sociali per il Meridione and Design Zingaro in two weeks we have realized an ephemeral architecture that suggests the cultural syncretism possible in Sicily today, with problematics and conflicts that this process entails.

Just a few meters from the Moschea di Palermo we realized an architecture in clay, with the same technique used for Djinguereber Mosque, a technique we learned by migrants of Mali who participated in the Comunità Urbane Solidali project.
As an installation at the Museo Riso with La Macchina dei Sogni - Palermo of Mimmo Cuticchio we wanted to celebrate the Arab-Norman architecture with a symbolic scenography for contemporary culture.
In 2012, a faction of jihadists related to al-Qaeda invaded and attacked several sacred buildings of Timbuktu (part of Unesco World Heritage Sites), imposing Sharia law in a country where Islamic costumes were much more tolerant, bound to animists traditions. This is also a reason why many from Mali decided to emigrate. This reproduction wants to express the complexity of both processes of an encounter between cultures and mutual understanding.
The techniques were learned from guests of the SPRAR centres (Sistema di protezione per richiedenti asilo e rifugiati) and implemented in an ephemeral installation as means to rediscuss the Teatro dei Pupi (puppet’s theatre) narration, strongly characterized by a univocal vision on crusades, demonizing so-called Arabs or Saracens at the time.