Il Teatro è Il Teatro è Il Teatro

A small town is mobilized. The proposal to demolish the historic cine-teatro Le Fontanelle and convert it to a multifunctional center has polarized an entire community. Over several decades of sacrifices the building served as a theater and as a space for both–live theatre and cinema, before being abandoned for thirty years. It hosted different generations’ efforts to create and bring culture to the inland territory of the Madonie and the town of Castelbuono, Sicily.

The artist, Emanuele Sferruzza Moskowicz, with the guidance of Gianfranco Raimondo and the help of the cultural association Glenn Gould, conducted and collected through his art practice listening sessions. He collected listening sessions with twenty-seven people who were part of the building’s history and its surroundings and with those who have been denied the opportunity to do the same.

From a man’s remembrance of his first childhood encounter with movies to a teacher’s memories of Tornatore’s production of “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso.” From the sophisticated religious and folkloric works of the initial performers to the unbreakable will and desire of the new generation to bring the theatre of the absurd to their community. From the story of a man coming back to his town after his successful studies in the north of Italy to be part of its cultural empowerment to the stories of a building denied to the future generation and the ones to come. This inquiry contains an absolute love for culture and for a community that put culture at the center of its identity.

Il Teatro è Il Teatro è Il Teatro is a book that reserves the memory of a building, a building that for almost a century made culture shine for its community, and which apart from memory might be forever lost.