Catania ancient port city on the eastern coast of Sicily, situated at the foot of Etna, the Sicilian volcano originated in the Quaternary and the highest active terrestrial volcano of the Eurasian plate, always thanks to its history and the will to walk in step with the new trends have made it possible to consider it one of the most artistically active Sicilian cities; it seems that from every pore of the city one breathes art, walking along the main street, for example via Etnea, looking up we are struck by that characteristic baroque style, an unmistakable style that offers the tourist an entrancing vision along his walk. A city with museums and art exhibitions entirely new to the area, museums that host national and international exhibitions, but also spaces that tell the story of Catania not to miss even one of those pieces that has made Catania today a popular destination for every tourist, where art is mixed with everyday life. But in addition to so much history, to so many hands of artists who have signed the past of the city, today Catania seems perfectly to respond to what is the undisputed appeal of contemporary art and in addition to the new exhibition realities that give the opportunity to peek at the inside the complex and variegated world of the contemporary and that also allow those who are more to the south to keep up with the news, the city does not miss an opportunity to amaze through unique moments and artistic episodes.

Let’s talk about the Street Art Bus #Catania, an initiative welcomed by the AMT – Azienda Metropolitana Trasporti S.P.A. and the Municipality of Catania, recognizing in this event cultural depth as well as union. The event has been designed for the 15th edition of the 2019 Contemporary Day, promoted by AMACI, CityMap Sicilia (map of the city of Catania, active for more than ten years in the area with on and off line projects aimed at raising awareness and promoting the territory) and Alice Valenti, a warrior artist for the subjects and themes addressed in her works inspired by the work of Sicilian puppets and for the numerous social campaigns she carries out.

But what is the Street Art Bus Tour #Catania? A city tour to discover some of the most important public art interventions in the city, which aims to introduce the most significant public art interventions through a bus and partially pedestrian path and to bring together the inhabitants of different districts of the same city with the aim of ” exchanging and hosting ” in neighborhoods other than their own and then allowing citizens to meet with the City.

The tour started with the Ex R1 (via plebiscito 747 – Catania) where it is possible to admire the Alice Valenti mural of 2018 for the Emergenze Festival project created by internationally renowned artists and that made that public space an open-air museum. Among the other artists; CORN79 (Italy), Etnik (Italy), Gomez (Venezuela), Gue (Italy), Salvo Ligama (Italy), Pao (Italy), Fabio Petani (Italy), Ruce (Italy), Rasta (Iran), Seikon (Poland) and StenLex (Italy). The art bus, which follows a journey to discover the city’s public art, starts with the liveries designed by the artist Alice Valenti who travels through the various neighborhoods that, over the last few years, have been the subject of public projects and private, collective and individual, aimed at requalifying monuments and city streets through street art interventions carried out by local, national and international artists.

The stages / stops:

00_ Former Storeroom R1: an open-air museum where contemporary art finds its place between cement and warehouses and that gives new life to the places that have marked the history of AMT.

01_ Fortino: The shadow of Porta Garibaldi – intervention, in which adults and children get their hands dirty, created by the artist Alice Valenti together with the members of Acquedotte and the residents of the neighborhood; the work that comes out of it is the overturning of the same door on the pavement through the use and assembly of geometric shapes.

02_ San Berillo: The neighborhood of the Houses of Tolerance, closed in 1958, for many years continued to be the preferred refuge for delinquency and prostitution. But today, thanks to the intervention of various associations, it promotes its redevelopment and enhancement, embellishing the area with street art interventions along the walls and the doors of the houses (for example the Sicilian collective Res Publica Temporanea).

03_ San Michele: in the way of art, Demetrio Di Grado from Palermo with his collages, with hashtags and subjects in which eyes and mouth are covered, gave the city an intervention that is between mural and advertising poster.

04_ Lungomare: Salvo Ligama with the half-length and torsion portrait of the god Neptune seems to welcome the small seaside village of San Giovanni Li Cuti, characteristic for the presence of black sand and rocks of volcanic origin.

05_ Piazzale Sanzio: a completely new restyling for the AMT ticket offices, where the artist Alice Valenti wants to pay homage to Sicily through the choice of decorative elements taken from the typical Sicilian carts, bringing them back to the facades of the two structures in a macro version, as if using a magnifying glass.

06_ Nuova Dogana: again Demetrio Di Grado with his contemporary language and made of ‘’#” gives us half-length women, taken from vintage magazines, and with a covered look, non-sense with high ethical aesthetics.

07_ Porto (Silos) – from 2015 the most magnificent monument of Street Art is in Catania, with 8 murals on old silos of the artists Okuda, Rosh333, Microbo, Bo130, Vlady Art, Danilo Bucchi, Interesni Kazki, Vhils (behind a single mural overlooking the sea, the largest in the world created by the artist Vhils) signed by internationally renowned artists who take inspiration from Sicilian traditions for their stories.

08_ Porta della Bellezza and 6th District, viale Moncada, block 6, building A – project by Antonio Presti includes 12 works by Italian sculptors united by the theme of ‘’The Great Mother’’. Porta della Bellezza, the largest terracotta work, is located in the Librino district and provided for the realization of the involvement of the children of the schools in the related neighborhood, with the aim of sharing, respecting the territory and promoting it.

09_ Occhio di Blu (Librino) – Blu, the Italian Banksy, denounces through the use of the Etna volcano and its supreme strength and devastating the state in which the neighborhood is, hoping however in the same revival of the neighborhood.

Contemporary art and public art with a single purpose: that of redevelopment thanks to the involvement of the residents themselves who become protagonists of a long-term action. An intervention that demonstrates how creativity can dialogue with the place and its history and draw attention to a part of the city to which no one had ever looked or simply thought.