We are not alone is an invitation to tune into the rhythms of rural nature alongside the artists who will be staying in August and September, in the two small rural houses, the atelier and the casina, located in the countryside within the Vanessa Cardui farm, in Contrada Pozzetti, Collesano.

The first residency, lasting 10 days, concluded on Saturday, August 31 at 6 p.m., when the works created by Genuardi Ruta and Angelo Leonardo were presented to the public.

The painting intervention by Antonella Genuardi (Sciacca, 1986) and Leonardo Ruta (Ragusa, 1990) on the exterior facade of the casina, titled Luce, calma e voluttà, is inspired by Matisse’s famous painting Luxe, calme et volupté, where the brightness of Southern France accentuates the color contrast, but also by the plants and scents that intoxicated the two artists during their stay in this agricultural and marine landscape.

The sea, visible in the distance beyond the prickly pears, sends a breeze up to the location, bringing relief on hot summer days and illuminating the surrounding environment. “To the emotions described in the title, we associated pink with voluptuousness, blue with calm, and yellow with the brightness of the freshly opened flower.”

çdo pyll ka derrat dhe kokëboshët e vet by Angelo Leonardo (Enna, 1991) is an Albanian proverb that literally translates into Italian as “every forest has its pigs,” suggesting that in every good there is some bad, and there is always something better left hidden or even protected.

The artist came up with this title when the foxes appeared on the first night of the residency: “I chose to focus on the secret relationship between Pippi and her foxes. Of course, for her, there’s nothing to hide, but I like to think that for the foxes, she represents that mystery to be kept secret, a treasure to protect, that bad which can become a resource.”

The embroidery on the bamboo curtains of the atelier draws inspiration from the drawings, notes, and scribbles created by the artist, encapsulating the effort to shift and distort language according to needs, testing technical limits, and considering the composition as the result of a series of mistakes.