The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

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THE ENCHANTE CASTLE IN SCIACCA

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca, created by Filippo Bentivegna, seems to resound with the words of a Fabrizio De Andr song: Try having a world in your heart / and not being able to express it in words The song, Un matto (literally, A madman), was inspired by a poem in Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. Its subtitle is Dietro ogni scemo c un villaggio (Behind every fool there is a village). Bentivegna did have a world in his heart, and expressed by carving the calcareous stones in his property, his village we might say, at the foot of Mount Kronio, in the province of Agrigento. He created hundreds of heads and faces crammed together, two-faced heads, big and small. The locals called him Filippo of the heads, or Master Filippo, or Filippo the madman. Born in Sciacca in 1888, Bentivegna had immigrated to the United States in 1913. There he received a blow to the head, perhaps by a love rival. After the accident he started suffering of a serious case of amnesia. Once he returned to Italy after the World War, he was first accused of desertion and then declared mad. At that point he took refuge in the property where he started building his Enchanted Castle. Real art is where nobody expects it, where no one thinks or speaks its name. Art is above vision, and vision often has nothing to do with intelligence, or with the logic of ideas: so thought French painter and sculptor Jean Debuffet (1901-1985), who invented the concept of Art brut (raw art) to include works executed by those immune to artistic culture, in which imitation has no role; in which the creators take all (subjects, materials, transposition, rhythm, style, etc.) from their own individuality and not from the base of classical art or stylish trends. Filippo Bentivegna died in 1967. Artists and experts visit his castle year-round, and are unfailingly amazed at how his world of art was born outside of academies and beyond any trend. Photos viawww.flickr.com/photos/22857976@N02/ www.flickr.com/photos/giuseppeboscarino/ www.flickr.com/photos/nettunessa/

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The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

http://www.italianways.com/enchanted-castle-in-sciacca/[16/10/13 18:33:44]

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

http://www.italianways.com/enchanted-castle-in-sciacca/[16/10/13 18:33:44]

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

http://www.italianways.com/enchanted-castle-in-sciacca/[16/10/13 18:33:44]

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

http://www.italianways.com/enchanted-castle-in-sciacca/[16/10/13 18:33:44]

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

http://www.italianways.com/enchanted-castle-in-sciacca/[16/10/13 18:33:44]

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

http://www.italianways.com/enchanted-castle-in-sciacca/[16/10/13 18:33:44]

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

http://www.italianways.com/enchanted-castle-in-sciacca/[16/10/13 18:33:44]

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

http://www.italianways.com/enchanted-castle-in-sciacca/[16/10/13 18:33:44]

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

http://www.italianways.com/enchanted-castle-in-sciacca/[16/10/13 18:33:44]

The Enchanted Castle in Sciacca | Italian Ways

THE ENCHANTED CASTLE IN SCIACCA

Sciacca (AG) Via F. Bentivegna 16 +39 0925 992064 +39 0925 992064 +39 339 2340174 www.castelloincantato.eu

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Angelini Design - Roma - 2012 - Registrazione n. 334/012 - Iscritto al n. 241/2012 del Registro della Stampa

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