Masbedo: Resto

The sea belongs to those who know how to wait in silence for a sign. And precisely because it is open to everyone, it belongs to no one: it remains free, powerful and foreign. The idea behind the artist duo MASBEDO is rooted in a precious belief: art as rescue and hospitality, as a language capable of evoking—without violence, with restraint and respect—a theme that painfully recurs in everyday news.

A prayer is carried out to sea: an Andante sonata by Gianandrea Fioroni from the late eighteenth century, travelling across the Sicilian Sea on a boat with a large screen at its bow. The screen shows majestic details of an organ and the organist performing in the Church of Santa Maria della Passione and the Chiesa Rossa in Milan. Through poetry, every boundary is crossed to create a ritual of welcome: from Lombardy to Sicily, tracing a dream and a wake that unite the Mediterranean.

Sicily is a land of ambivalence, where one thought can embrace its opposite. The sea is both peace and fear: open arms and a threat to escape from. The title comes from the name of the boat: “Resto”—a verb, a choice, a political act.