LericiPea “Angloliguria” Prize to William Wall
MOTIVATION
““William Wall is one of the most popular Irish poets and storytellers, known for a concise lyrical sensibility and a resentful and ironic gaze on the society of our hard times (his works include “Via Antonio Gramsci” and “Ballata di Lampedusa”). He also translated some Italian poets including Campana, Pasolini and Spaziani. Guest of the Bogliasco Foundation and of the International Poetry Festival of Genoa, he wrote a lot about Liguria, his second home – prose, verses, and also the novel-in-progress written only in Italian and titled “Ballata del letto vuoto” (“Ballad of the Empty Bed”). Given the emotional intelligence of his verses, as well as his passion for Ligurian nature and culture, William Wall is awarded with the LericiPea “Angloliguria” Prize 2021. He is the heir of a great tradition of Anglo-Saxon poets – from Shelley and Yeats to Lawrence and Tomlinson – who fell in love with Liguria and its Gulf”.”
Massimo Bacigalupo
LericiPea Lifetime Achievement Award to Tomaso Kemeny
MOTIVATION
“Tomaso Kemeny – Hungarian by birth, Italian by choice and love, and cosmopolitan as a vocation – is an important protagonist of Italian poetry and culture. At the beginning of his career, Kemeny was very close to the most libertarian 20th Century avant-gardes such as Dadaism and Surrealism, and then he gradually developed his own personal poetics of “Sublime” and “Beauty”. He became an apostle of Beauty, and his Byronic and mytho-modernist cry “Fight for Beauty” resounded a lot both in Italy and in Europe. Kemeny has an impressive gift for commanding different styles. He is a lyric poet and author of beautiful love poems, but he is also a dreadful writer of narrative poems: he ventures upon extraordinary, epic and dreamlike journeys as in his “Transilvania Liberata” (“Liberated Transylvania”), or upon a joyful, Bacchic, Rossinian metric and satirical exercise as in his “Poemetto gastronomico” (“Gastronomic poem”). Kemeny is also an illustrious English scholar, a translator, theorist of poetry, and author of novels based on poetry, a novel on the myth of Don Giovanni, one on his childhood memories in a war-torn Hungary. He is a free spirit, and a very sensitive, joyful, generous person – one of those rare poets who combine art and life, poetry and humanity. His battle for Beauty is aimed at making our existence more beautiful and human, and to show us the mysterious thrill of the cosmos”.
Giuseppe Conte
LericiPea “Paolo Bertolani” Prize / Singers-songwriters section to Pippo Rinaldi aka Kaballà
MOTIVATION
“It is a truth universally acknowledged since ancient times that poetry is born and goes well with music. The Homeric tradition testifies how fruitful has been, up to today, the combination of verses and sounds, words and “melos”. Acoustic poetry has remote, popular and oral roots. It comes from the orality of the spoken word, from the “phonè”, which was the voice of the community: the Greek “koinè diàlektos” recovered in the 20th Century by Pasolini and the greatest Italian dialectal poets. The artistic and songwriting experience of the Sicilian singer-songwriter Pippo Rinaldi, aka Kaballà, is inspired by tradition, but at the same time it aims at renewing it. Kaballà is an internationally renowned artist thanks to his memorable collaborations – from cinema to musicals, from opera to the “pop world” with a very positive reception from critics and public. He is an intense and refined author and musician who was able to combine the antique vocality of Sicilian language with contemporary sounds, international contaminations and Mediterranean notes.
His models and masters include De Andrè (who combines high literature and popular dialect), the “cantari” of the Sicilian tradition, the dialectal poets of the early and late 20th Century who have made Sicily great (Ignazio Buttitta, Salvatore Di Pietro, Santo Calì, Giuseppe Battaglia, Nino Pino, Nino de Vita, Salvo Basso, Biagio Guerrera…). Therefore, Kaballà’s songs are authentic poems – poems that wisely match with the ancient art of poetry and popular rhyme coming from the Sicilian octave, from “stornelli” and “strambotti”. Rhyme is a sensitive and sonorous side of memorability and singing. Rhymes hooking verses and stanzas in chains of refrains (the so-called “rime ‘ncruccate”). The lyrics of the songs “Sutta lu mari”, “Madonna di li duluri”, and, above all, “Nel fuoco” are particularly emblematic. They vouched for his particular care, the wisdom of his voice, the intensity of his music. A world of voices, moods, colors and sounds pervaded with Mediterranean culture, with black or lava stone, sea water and salt; with the smells of street food, as well as with intense and unique flavours. Kaballa’s songs are ancient and contemporary, hypnotic and engaging, as hospitable as the ancient language, good life-companions, following the steps of their roots. If there are still doubts, Kaballa’s artistic proposal is here to dispel them: the word meets the sound, the voice marries the music, the culture holds together popular expression and high-level music production, creating a sensitive universe that fascinates, convinces and captivates the public – like the persuasive song of the Sirens during Ulysses’s perilous and wonderful journey back to Ithaca”.
Manuel Cohen
LericiPea “Edito” Prize to Maria Grazia Calandrone
ONLINE FOR THE FIRST TIME
From June 1st 2021 to July 31st 2021, for the first time and due to Covid-19 restrictions, on the LericiPea official website took place the ONLINE VOTING for the “Edito” Prize 2020/21.
The finalists, selected by the Jury of excellence of the Prize, were the following: Maria Grazia Calandrone, Paolo Febbraro, and Beppe Mariano.
MOTIVATION
“Poets have many ways of relating to the world and to human beings. In her collection “Giardino della gioia” (The Garden of Joy) published in Italy by Mondadori, Maria Grazia Calandrone plunged into humans’ universe, shook their hands and shared their feelings because she believes that poetry must also be a civil movement, a sort of shock. In this collection, therefore, she raises her voice with an extremely rare lyrical and narrative persuasion. The object of her singing has no limits – a moving love song that “matches its voice / with the roar of intergalactic stars” composing the matter we and the whole existence are made of. It “captures the deep and uninterrupted chorus of this / force” – love. Some poets use their words as an echo and their verses to give voice to the multitude – and this is precisely what Maria Grazia Calandrone does, especially in her latest collection published by Mondadori. Finally, there is also an extraordinary energy in Calandrone’s pages, and this energy features not only her “Giardino della gioia”, but also her entire poetic journey”.
Francesco Napoli
LericiPea “Liguri nel Mondo” Prize 2021 to Mario Cresci
MOTIVATION
Since he graduated from the Art School of Genoa in 1960, Mario Cresci’s life and work have stood out for his incessant artistic research aimed at using photography to investigate reality. Photography becomes a proper language interacting with different artistic forms: drawing, painting, sculpture, audio-video. In 1969, for the first time in Europe, the Ligurian photographer created a photographic installation in Milan; in the early 1980s, his “contaminations” became a benchmark for international culture in the field of visual arts. From 1991 to 2000, he ran the Carrara Academy of Fine Arts in Bergamo, always dedicating himself with passion to training and teaching. He also went to the Venice Biennale many times: during the 1993 edition directed by Bonito Oliva, he exhibited his “Muri di carta – fotografia e paesaggio dopo le avanguardie” (“Paper Walls – photography and landscape after the avant-garde”), curated by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle.
Fundamental was his contribution to important institutions including the European Institute of Design in Milan, the Brera Academy, the NABA, the Oriental University of Naples, the ISIA of Urbino, the Ecole d’Arts Appliqués – he has always shown his open-minded view towards eclectic and unusual perspectives, aimed at demonstrating that the deep relationship between Art and Society has an effective impact on sociality.
Cresci’s art is always “moving”, is vital, present, contemporary, free, constantly communicating with technological evolution and, therefore, with young generations both in Italy and abroad.
Cresci is different from the great Italian photographers of his generation – he is not interested in empty cities, indeed his photography is often an evocative representation of anthropological “signs”. He is an analytical photographer, but the result of his work is also “poetic”. He himself admitted that reading poets such as Baudelaire, Montale, Ungaretti and Alfonso Gatto (whom Cresci met in person), as well as non-fiction and literature, was important for him: “literature enters my path more and more frequently. I think that a photo, just like a poem, is a text to read – it consists of many fragments that can both compose a unitary picture and be read singularly”.
The LericiPea Prize Association, together with Liguria Region, was proud to assign the LericiPea “Liguri nel Mondo” Prize 2021 to Mario Cresci for being the undisputed “ambassador” of Ligurian excellence – a homage to a very important figure and to his professional career.
LericiPea Poetry Prize 2021 – the Events, the Protagonists, the Artists
Press Conference 2021
The LericiPea Golfo dei Poeti Prize – 2021 edition starts on August 20th 2021. The Prize, born in Lerici 67 years ago, has always stood out for its integrity and its high-quality cultural choices of the poets and artists awarded; over the years it has become a benchmark both in Italy and abroad. The 2021 edition takes place from August 20th to 22nd together with the usual sections – Lifetime Achievement, “Paolo Bertolani”, “Edito” and the new “Angloliguria”– and the public will be surprised by international music and theater performances aimed at giving a message of hope to all artists and cultural operators, working in different art fields.
For six years now, the organization of the Prize has been run by Studio Nealinea – the project manager Lucilla Del Santo and her “female” staff – in collaboration with the Prize Owners, the president Pier Gino Scardigli and the Jury of Experts (Giuseppe Conte, Massimo Bacigalupo, Stefano Verdino, Roberto Pazzi, Manuel Cohen, Francesco Napoli, Giuseppe Benelli).
A special thanks goes to the partners of the award – the Municipality of Lerici, Fondazione Carispezia, Sanlorenzo Shipyards, Confindustria La Spezia, Euroguarco, Crédit Agricole Italia for Villa Marigola (which has been our “home” for 25 years now) and Liguria Region.
But, above all, a special thanks also goes to all the protagonists, who, for sure, will leave a deep trace in our public’s memory and hearts.
LericiPea Golfo dei Poeti Association
“This almost-70-year-old event is focused on the strength of words and poetry – underlines Ilaria Cavo, the councilor in charge of culture at Liguria Region. The longevity of this Prize also lies in its fidelity to promote, share and enhance poetic excellence both in Italy and abroad. Now more than ever we need cultural institutions, and this Prize is an authentic benchmark for the whole Ligurian territory”.
Ilaria Cavo – councilor in charge of culture at Liguria Region
Irish music medley by the violinist Eilis Cranitch
LERICIPEA “ANGOLIGURIA” PRIZE TO WILLIAM WALL – OPENING: IRISH MUSIC MEDLEY BY THE VIOLINIST EILIS CRANITCH
The poet was interviewed by Professor Massimo Bacigalupo
The actor Matteo Taranto reads some passages by Sanguineti, Luzi and Giudici (theatrical reinterpretations of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso)
On the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, the words of our “Sommo Poeta” become tragically relevant, now more than ever, since they reflect our human condition.
Each of us experienced hell, confinement, the urgent need of “coming forth to see again the stars”, pursuing a new path of light and hope after darkness, “as pure happiness of the gaze”.
Today more than ever reading and playing Dante is a moral duty – we’re living in a time where the impoverishment of language creates irreparable damage, especially to new generations. They have a vocabulary of fewer and fewer words and verbs, therefore their ability to express emotions and elaborate a thought is constantly decreasing.
Theatrical poetry – so magnificently represented by three great masters such as Sanguineti, Luzi and Giudici – made me extrapolate three extremely emotional moments from Dante’s Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, rereading them on a completely unusual and modern take, accompanied by a traditional fender telecaster played by Matteo Cremolini, an excellent guitarist.
Long reverbs and repetitions will create a sonic dimension where sound is assigned and delivered to voice and poetry.
Hungarian music performance by Ylenia Volpe (accordion) and Roberto Arnoldi (violin)
LERICIPEA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD TO TOMASO KEMENY –
The poet was interviewed by Giuseppe Conte.
As a homage to Tomaso Kemeny: Hungarian music medley by Ylenia Volpe (accordion) and Roberto Arnoldi (violin).