Vulcani Sacri

Vulcani Sacri è un progetto di ricerca iniziato nel 2026 da Laura Chatenay-Rivauday e Giuseppe Schillaci e che si amplierà grazie alle ricerche sul territorio durante il Festival Volcanic Attitude.
Vulcani Sacri getta un ponte tra i Caraibi e il Mediterraneo, esplorando i legami invisibili tra l’Etna, le Isole Eolie e la Montagna Pelée. L’obiettivo è creare dei video ex-voto – offerte contemporanee rivolte ai vulcani – che ne amplino le antiche tradizioni degli oggetti votivi. Combinando cinema, disegno e cartografia, tracciamo una geografia sacra reinventata, interrogandoci sulla memoria dei vulcani e sul dialogo tra gli esseri umani e le forze della natura.
Il Progetto di ricerca Vulcani sacri è in residenza al festival Volcanic attitude ed è a cura di Gaetano La Rosa

METAVOLCANIC

‘Sacred Volcanoes’, as an evolving research project, has given space to the – indeed, meta-volcanic – vision of a network of interconnected volcanoes stemming from the incandescent magmatic core at the centre of the Earth. Volcanic sanctuaries would thus give voice to the deepest and most hidden thoughts of planet Earth. It is an evocative idea, but we know this is not the case: volcanoes do not draw on the magma from the Earth’s core. Thus, what holds together the network of sacred volcanoes – which begins with Montagne Pelée in Martinique, continues in Sicily with Mount Etna, and includes the volcanoes of the Aeolian archipelago, Vulcano and Stromboli – is sacredness, pure and simple. Laura Chatenay-Rivauday & Giuseppe Schillaci introduce it as follows: “On the one hand, a spectacular volcano, the largest active volcano in Europe, surrounded by ancient myths and enigmatic forms. On the other, a mountain marked by fiery clouds, ruins, memory and ancestral tales. Between Mount Etna and Mount Pelée, what is at stake is not merely a story of volcanoes, but a profound relationship between the islands and their narratives. What invisible bonds connect the islands to one another, within our imaginations and our memories? And what remains of the sacred relationship with the volcano?”. These first two volcanoes have already been joined by those of the Aeolian Islands, and others will likely be added, starting with Vesuvius; yet what the project aims to convey through their fieldwork during the residency will be the ascent, the gaze upon the Empedoclean abyss, the crater, and the descent from the volcano, whilst recording, filming, gathering testimonies and artefacts, documenting natural and supernatural presences, and creating votive and symbolic objects that will form the documentary atlas from which the artistic interpretations will emerge.And they conclude: “In the Anthropocene era, in which humankind believes it dominates everything, volcanoes remind us of our fragility. They are the last places where one still experiences the awe and terror of the ‘sacred’. A work that probes the collective memory, blending documentary, historical narrative and dreamlike vision, allowing different voices and interpretations concerning volcanoes to coexist.” Gaetano La Rosa