OPERA ASSOCIATION 2003

Ten itineraries for Molfetta, a pocket guide in Italian, English and German and a web portal, 2014. Graphics and communication by Gaetano Armenio.

"Why would a tourist stop in Molfetta? There is nothing here." The project cost twenty thousand euro. The town council put in three thousand, the other seventeen thousand I raised one by one from private operators.

"There's nothing here", famous last words

"Why would a tourist stop in Molfetta? There's nothing here." I heard this repeated often at the meetings with the city's tourism supply chain, while I was working on the tourism promotion project VISITMOLFETTA.IT. Every time I answered the same way, no place on earth is truly empty. Where there's a community there's a genius loci, a story, someone ready to listen to it if you tell it well.

From "there's nothing" to ten itineraries

I started looking at Molfetta as if I didn't know it. Out of the supposed nothing came ten cultural-tourism itineraries, each with a precise soul: "La Via per l'Oriente", "Al Centro della Terra", the Easter events, the September Feast, "il Respiro del Mare", "le Vie del Gusto", "La Vie en Rose", "il Saper Fare", "gli Eventi Culturali", "Bella di Notte". I turned these themes into a multilingual pocket guide, in Italian, English and German, distributed at the main international tourism fairs, and into a dedicated web portal that gathered itineraries, events and impressions. A project designed to prove, in fact, that "there's nothing here" was simply a wrong reading of the territory.

Twenty thousand euros, and only three thousand from the public purse

The project cost 20,000 euros. The Municipality put in 3,000, the rest I raised myself, one by one, from the private operators of the tourism supply chain. Seventeen thousand euros put together by knocking on the doors of hoteliers, restaurateurs and shopkeepers, the same ones who sometimes said "there's nothing here". Convincing those who don't believe in their own territory to fund its story is the hardest work, and the best proof that the story worked.

The guide reaches Berlin

The guide did not stay in the infopoints. In 2014 I took it to BIT in Milan in February, to ITB in Berlin in March and to TTG in Rimini, always inside the Apulia Region stand. That is why I wanted a German edition and not just an English one. The same year Molfetta made it onto national television, with Davide Mengacci and Ricette all'Italiana on Rete 4.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Concrete vision to share: no place is empty, every community has a genius loci waiting to be told
Look at your own territory as if you didn't know it, it's the only way to see what the locals no longer notice
Give each itinerary a name and a soul, "Bella di Notte" sells better than "evening itinerary"
A multilingual guide for the international fairs, speak the language of those who buy, not only your own
Take the guide where the buyers are, BIT, ITB and TTG inside the Apulia Region stand
Raise 17,000 euros from private backers and 3,000 from the Municipality, don't wait for the public tender to start
I handled the communication, the graphics, the guide and the web portal of the project

What I learned

"There's nothing here" wasn't a description of Molfetta. It was the way those who lived it every day looked at it. It only took a change of gaze to find ten itineraries where others saw a town you pass through. And those who said "there's nothing here" ended up reaching for their wallets to tell its story.

website > www.visitmolfetta.com

video > https://youtu.be/fLA4y8BhDes?feature=shared

Ten itineraries and a multilingual pocket guide to Bitonto, presented at the BIT in Milan in 2017. Graphic design and communication by Gaetano Armenio.

“Ch’ tande bitontini propri a taje a’ venne chiameu” (with so many people from Bitonto, they really should have called it after you), a chef told me at the first meeting. That same year, Bitonto reached the final of the Italian Capital of Culture 2020 competition, up against Parma.

"With so many people from Bitonto, you're the one they had to call"

That's how a well-known chef greeted me, in dialect, at the first meeting of Bitonto's tourism supply chain. I'm used to initial distrust, I always take it as one more challenge. The one who had called me was councillor Rocco Mangini, with a precise bet: to build a new awareness of Bitonto's tourism and cultural heritage among all operators, public and private. The aim was to build a territorial marketing project able to hold together history, art, traditions and food and wine, involving the Municipality and private companies in a shared path.

From hidden heritage to a multilingual guide

As I had already done with VISITMOLFETTA.IT, I looked at Bitonto as if I didn't know it. I worked to bring out the richness of the old town, the city's cultural identity, the chance to turn a stopover into a recognizable destination. I identified ten themed tourist itineraries, each with a name that is already an invitation: "Di chiostro in chiostro", "I giardini dell'Eden", "Pane olio e...", "La Settimana Santa". Ten different ways to walk Bitonto depending on what you're looking for, so that the tourist doesn't get a guide to read but a route to follow for each day of their stay. The result is a multilingual pocket guide, presented at the BIT in Milan together with councillor Mangini. Not a catalogue of monuments, a story of a living place.

The ending no one expected

That year Bitonto put forward its bid for Italian Capital of Culture 2020 and reached the final, challenging Parma to the very end. Mayor Michele Abbaticchio and councillor Rocco Mangini had built a precise trajectory. VISITBITONTO.COM was one of the pieces of that trajectory.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Concrete vision to share: turn Bitonto from a stopover into a recognizable destination
Take distrust as a challenge, "you're the one they had to call" is a starting point, not a problem
Look at the territory as if you didn't know it, the same method as VISITMOLFETTA.IT
Ten themed itineraries instead of a list of monuments, because the tourist doesn't want to know what to see but how to spend the day
A multilingual guide for the fairs, a story that physically travels
I handled graphics, the guide and the communication of the projec

What I learned

A pocket guide is never only a guide. In Bitonto it was the first time the town council and private operators told the city with a single voice, and holding that table together cost more effort than the ten itineraries. Leafing through it, you cannot see that part.

We conceived a photo exhibition that sets the Easter rites of Molfetta beside those of towns in Spain and Portugal.

Rome, Church of Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi, in the Jubilee year. Then Molfetta (Italy - Ba), Sala dei Templari, with the Embassies of Spain and Portugal to the Holy See. Scientific coordination by Professor José Luis Ponga of the University of Valladolid, Spain.

I bring the lights from home

The room's lighting rig was not enough. Postponing or scaling down was not an option. I loaded the lights from my bedroom into the car and brought them to the Sala dei Templari in Molfetta. It was not a perfect exhibition. It was alive.

 Spain sells its Holy Week, Apulia not yet

Medina de Rioseco, with fewer than five thousand inhabitants, carries twenty 16th and 17th century pasos on its shoulders and is a Festival of International Tourist Interest. In Peñafiel, a festival of national interest, on Easter Sunday a child dressed as an angel is lowered into the square on pulleys. Bercianos de Aliste, with the white mortajas (shrouds) of its brothers, has held regional recognition since 2011. In 2017 Braga welcomed almost 65,000 visitors from thirty countries.

Molfetta, the only Apulian town in the network, has the statue groups of the Friday of Sorrows and Holy Saturday carried on the shoulders of the confraternity brothers, and the funeral marches of its bands. Rites shaped largely during two centuries of Spanish viceroyalty, with the same confraternities and the same pathos. There, Easter is a reason to travel. Here, it is still a village feast.

Since 2008 I have been working on this with Holy Week in Apulia, a network of 22 municipalities. The next step was missing. Putting our rites beside theirs, in the same room, and letting visitors make the comparison themselves.

A network of five towns in three countries

The network of towns it activated links Molfetta, Braga, Medina de Rioseco, Peñafiel and Bercianos de Aliste. Two venues: Rome, in the Church of Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi, and Molfetta, in the Sala dei Templari. I handled concept, planning, communication and set-up, with the collaboration of the FeArt Cooperative of Molfetta and the support of the Municipality of Molfetta.

Ninì Vernola's performance

At the Molfetta opening, in the Sala dei Templari, I paired the exhibition with a theatrical performance by the unforgettable actor Ninì Vernola. A dense reading that touched on war and the suffering of the children of Gaza. It moved the audience. It drew criticism from the local institutions present at the opening. I do not regret it.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Build the network before building the exhibition: embassies, municipalities, confraternities and cultural bodies from three countries
The unexpected gets handled, not postponed: the bedroom lights lit the photographs because there was no alternative
Pair art with civic commitment: a performance that divides is a performance that touches something real
I handled the concept, organisation, communication and setup of the photographic project.

What I learned

The lights from my bedroom lit the photographs for a month in a hall in Molfetta. The comment I heard most often from visitors was: «I did not think an exhibition could be this involving». They were not saying it despite the home lights. Perhaps because of them.

Rome – Church of Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi

https://youtube.com/shorts/KZHbVOQgmJQ?si=fJcGicZmJt7Oc0F2

Molfetta – Sala dei Templari

https://youtube.com/shorts/SKtiV8vr7wk?si=G7-Fk8-yaSDw8cct

MASKS, a European project on traditional masks in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Romania. Twelve partners, three years. Communication by Gaetano Armenio.

Born from a WhatsApp chat between colleagues and approved by the European Commission: 12 partners, 4 countries, 3 years of activity.

From Valladolid to a European project

In 2019, during the exhibition Plenilunio di Primavera in Valladolid, some lecturers from the Spanish university (Maria Pilar Panero and Jose Alonso Ponga)had followed closely the work on communicating Apulian Easter rites. A few years later a message arrived on WhatsApp: they wanted to involve me in a European project on traditional masks, entrusting me with the international communication.

An informal conversation about masks and cultural identity. None of us thought that in a few months it would become a three-year project approved by the European Commission. MASKS was born this way, from an exchange between people who trusted one another before they even had a dossier to submit. From relationships built in the field, not from calls for tenders studied at a desk.

What MASKS is

MASKS works on the valorisation of the anthropological and zoomorphic masks tied to the age-old traditions of various European territories, bringing together research, training, visual arts and communication. The aim is to build a digital archive of the masks and the ritual practices connected to them, and to give international visibility to territories often outside the major tourist circuits.

The network brings together 12 partners among universities, training centres, research institutes and cultural bodies from Spain, Portugal, Romania and Italy. Two international exhibitions are planned in two European Capitals of Culture.

The lead partner in the project is the University of Valladolid in Spain, coordinated by Professor Maria Pilar Panero.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Know-how: the Spanish lecturers saw me work in Valladolid before they proposed MASKS to me
Building relationships in the field, not only by email: trust is built in person, project by project
Handling last-minute difficulties without making them weigh: it is part of the method, not an exception
I designed and coordinate the international communication of the project: website, video, photographic reportage, social media

What I learned

MASKS is still ongoing. What I already know is that five years separate an exhibition in Valladolid from a project funded by the European Commission. In between there was no call for tenders: there was the quality of the work done and the trust of those who had seen it.

Photo by Gaetano Armenio

- Official project website:

https://www.unveilingthemasks.uva.es

- Institutional video:

https://youtu.be/dJ8aUiIu-kI

- Documentary on Tricarico (Basilicata):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vs-8td0RSw&t=7s

Field interview:

https://youtu.be/epYecj80BM4