On Sunday, October 28, 2018, at 6 p.m., the exhibition "I Want My Sea" opened at the Oratorio di Santa Chiara in Palermo—the result of an experimental participatory design project conceived by architect Angelo Dolcemascolo. The project brought together students from Professor Angelo Pantina's Industrial Design Laboratory (Industrial Design Program) at the University of Palermo and students with disabilities from the I.S. "E. Majorana" school in Palermo (Principal Melchiorra Greco). This large team designed and built small design objects from materials recovered from the Egyptian vessel Retag SZ-860, a ship used to transport migrants.
The initiative is promoted by the University of Palermo and the Sant'Erasmo Nautilus Association (President Santi Gatto), with participation by documentarian Luca Capponi. It is part of the I-Design program, curated by Daniela Brignone and running from October 25 to November 4 in Palermo, this year sponsored by Manifesta 12. The exhibition, which is free to enter, will be open to the public from October 29 to November 2. It will display objects designed and built by Angelo Dolcemascolo as well as prototypes created by university students. Small-batch production of some student designs has been entrusted to the "Missione di Speranza e Carità" Community, run by Biagio Conte, and is reserved for an online crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a boat. This boat was designed by architects Benedetto Inzerillo and Attilio Albeggiani, working with engineer Giuseppe Sieli, on the initiative of Sant'Erasmo Nautilus's president. The project is called "The Sea for All," and aims to give people with disabilities access to the sea for short daily excursions. Documentarian Luca Capponi has filmed the entire project for a documentary. On Friday, November 2, at 6:30 p.m., in the presence of Palermo's mayor, Leoluca Orlando, there will be a press conference presenting the project and a benefit auction, with proceeds going toward building the boat.
"I Want My Sea" is an experimental social and participatory design project—a means of learning about oneself and others. While it aims to create products, its deeper goal is to educate and raise awareness about social responsibility and the dignity of the other person. In this particular historical moment, that other person is the person with a disability, for whom Sant'Erasmo's boat is intended, and also the migrant—a guest in Palermo, Italy, and the world. The young participants were given wood and other salvaged materials from the scrapping of "hope boats," and through their work, we sought to foster genuine collaboration between the student designers and the students with disabilities, who became makers of the project themselves. Creating these objects thus became inseparable from a social mission: production contributed to making a tangible product while helping everyone involved appreciate one another more—and also their city and the society they inhabit.
Essential to the project was the participation of physician and experienced sailor Gianluca Giorgi, who in a few lessons taught the fundamentals of seamanship to university students and high school students with disabilities, developing their specific skills and encouraging active, complementary participation in the design work. In constructing these objects, the team replaced artificial adhesives and nails—present in the salvaged materials—with rope, used as a binding element that decorates the pieces while protecting the environment.
I Want My Sea supports the Sant'Erasmo Association's project "The Sea for All," which aims to give disadvantaged youth access to the sea—something many would otherwise never experience. The Association is dedicating a specially designed boat to them, built to accommodate young people with disabilities.
The current phase involves actively engaging these young people in fundraising for the boat's construction, bringing them into a pilot project that unites university design students with disabled students from Istituto Majorana. The university students were guided by Professor Angelo Pantina, assisted by Marco Serio and Andrea Spinella, while the disabled students' work was coordinated by teacher Rosa Bevilacqua and coordinator Francesco Lo Vullo. Barbara Arrigo, Mariangela Sammartino, Paola Salamone, Iosè Linda Pace, Samuela Cirrone, and Francesco Napoli are the support teachers who worked with the disabled students.
«Palermo has emerged as a Cultural Capital,» says architect Angelo Dolcemascolo, «and internationally holds a significant distinction for its recognized Arab-Norman architectural style. Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans from various parts of the world converged, merged, and integrated in this Sicilian capital. A first phase of inclusion was followed by integration, in which the new became part of the whole. And in Palermo, this has become a concrete cultural reality. The fusion and acceptance of the other's culture is woven into one's own, and from this collaboration arises a new product—a new cultural expression. To create this, we must look outward and not turn inward. Culture grows through external stimuli. It needs the other to develop.»
Source: Palermo Today