PUGLIAUTENTICA ASSOCIATION 2014

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 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

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

Fifty-two Apulians at the Palacio Real in Valladolid in 2019, with the Bitonto band and the confraternity of Vico del Gargano. Concept by Gaetano Armenio.

"Buenos días, hablo con el Sr. Armenio…" I said yes to a phone call I could not understand. Then the wrong catalogues, reprinted in Valladolid in twenty-four hours, and the return leg in four Apulian towns.

«Buenos días, hablo con el Sr. Armenio…»

One day the phone rings. On the other end, a voice speaking very fast in Spanish. For a few seconds I think it's an unusually persistent call center. Then I understand: it's an invitation to meet at the University of Bari to discuss a cultural twinning around the Holy Week rites of Apulia and Spain. That phone call is where "Plenilunio di Primavera" begins, a territorial and cultural marketing project that puts confraternities, bands, universities and institutions from both countries in dialogue.

Who held the two countries together

The twinning wasn't a handshake between two mayors. On the Apulian side the interlocutor was the Regione Puglia with Pugliapromozione and the University of Bari. It was the University of Valladolid, through Professors osé Luis Alonso Ponga and Maria Pilar Panero, that acted as an intermediary with the Royal Palace, opening the doors to us at a venue that does not usually host village bands and brotherhoods from the Gargano. Building this network meant months of phone calls, permits, and schedules to align between two different bureaucracies.

52 people heading into the unknown

In the end 52 of us leave for Valladolid. The "Cesare delle Cese" band from Bitonto, the confratelli of Vico del Gargano, regional officials, the FeArt cooperative from Molfetta, and me, whose Spanish stops at "buenos días" and little else. The morning we're due to leave, the Spanish side tells us the exhibition catalogues, the ones meant to be handed out at the opening, are wrong. In Valladolid I find a printer who reprints them within 24 hours of our arrival. The exhibition opens on time, with the right catalogues in the visitors' hands.

The second half, back in Apulia

The return isn't the end of the project, it's the start of the second half. Bitonto, Molfetta and Vico del Gargano host concerts and exhibitions inspired by the Spanish experience, creating exchanges and relationships between communities, administrations and cultural operators. Grand finale in Lecce, with a conference on Apulian and Spanish Easter rites, where the project leaves the dimension of a single event and becomes a space for dialogue between scholars, institutions and territory.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Concrete vision to share: take Apulian traditions across the border, not just tell them at home
Say yes to a phone call you can't understand, because opportunities arrive in languages you don't speak
Courage and creative madness as tools: you don't speak Spanish, you don't know where it leads, and you leave anyway with 52 people for the Palacio Real in Valladolid
Solve it on the spot: wrong catalogues flagged at departure, reprinted in 24 hours in Valladolid, exhibition opened on time
The second half in Apulia, because building a network also means bringing the guest home, not only going to them
Close in Lecce with the conference, turning an event into a space for research and institutional dialogue
I handled graphics, the layout of the photographic exhibition and communication

What I learned

Plenilunio di Primavera started with a phone call I couldn't understand. I said yes before I understood what I was saying. Then 52 people reached the Palacio Real in Valladolid and four Apulian towns hosted the return wave. When the catalogues turned out to be wrong, I found a printer in Valladolid and had them redone in time for the opening.

The projects that leave a mark begin with a voice talking too fast and keep going on problems solved.

website > https://www.settimanasantainpuglia.it/content/puglia-spagna.asp?lan=ita

video > https://youtu.be/ByBs7Kw1nG8?feature=shared

video rai3 > https://youtu.be/1ag-yqVeVE8?feature=shared

Nine companies from Molfetta's industrial area in a single stand at the Fiera del Levante, 2006. Self-funded. Naming and graphics by Gaetano Armenio.

"But we are different, we do different things." One at a time they said yes, each with a share of the cost and not a euro of public money. When the fair closed my office filled up with flowers.

The proposal

Molfetta industrial area, mid two thousands. Every company goes to the fair on its own, its own stand, its own clients, its own catalogue. It occurs to no one to show up together. I start going round the companies with a simple proposal, to share a space at the Fiera del Levante, Bari's international trade fair. Not a consortium, not a multi-year project. An experiment, let's see what happens if an industrial area presents itself as a single productive reality instead of nine separate stands. The initial reaction is the one you'd expect. Distrust, doubt, the usual "but we're different, we do different things". Then, one at a time, they say yes.

The nine companies

Nine realities from different sectors took up the proposal, all self-financed, Cattolica Popolare, Globeco, Gaudio, Giesse Impianti, Grossano Arredamenti, Inottica, Molfetta Outlet, Remec, Sitec. Each put in a share. No public call, no public contribution. Just entrepreneurs who decide to try.

The shared stand at the Fiera del Levante

NOVEMERCANTIinFIERA becomes a single stand at the Fiera del Levante in Bari, nine companies from the same industrial area presenting themselves as a network. The idea is that the visitor walks in for one and discovers the other eight.

The flowers

When the fair ends, before I even do the maths, my office fills with bouquets from the entrepreneurs. I didn't expect it. The commercial results had been good, the new contacts many, and everyone wanted to repeat the experience the following year. In the months after, requests to take part arrived from other companies in the industrial area who wanted to be there at the next edition. I never repeated it. The following year I was already inside the project of Holy Week in Molfetta and my energy had ended up there. But those flowers stayed the most concrete way I've seen to say "it worked".

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

A concrete vision to share. That the Molfetta industrial area would stop being an address and become a name
Door to door. A collective proposal is sold at single doors, not in an assembly
Take complexity out of the proposal. Not a consortium, not a multi-year commitment, but an experiment with a start date and an end date
Choose a naming that tells the project. NOVEMERCANTIinFIERA, nine merchants at the fair, says it all before the visitor even steps into the stand
Self-financing as a rule. Whoever puts in their own money decides more seriously
One stand, visually single. The visitor must perceive a place, not a sum of companies
I handled graphics and communication for the project, from the visual identity of the stand to the promotional materials handed out at the fair

What I learned

A single edition. But for one week the Molfetta industrial area had a name at the Fiera del Levante, not just an address on a map. Nine different companies that together filled a space as if they had always been there. The visitor walked in for one and found a territory.

Video > Watch the video