WE WERE CHOSEN BY THE APENNINE – Angela Viola

Palermo / Milan/ Netherlands – Cereggio, Ventasso

Viola Angela, an artist born in Palermo, and Vianello Marco, from Seregno (MI), living in the Netherlands. They own a B & B in the village of Cereggio, Residence for artists “KAMart in residence”. In front of a coffee on a sunny January day they recall…

Let’s start from the beginning. Marco, my companion, works for an important international company and lives in the Netherlands, while I moved from Palermo to Milan in 2008 where I stayed for 9 years. I am an artist and I ‘ve taught drawing and art history in high schools for years. I must say I was rather tired of my life in Milan, of its frenzy and feeling of alienation, I had lost my artistic energy. Even Marco has always wanted to live in a place like this, where to live well and focus on the hospitality and hospitality of people. That’s how we decided to look for something new, to create a project, with the intention of moving in a context on a human scale. I still remember that in Milan, after 9 years I spent living in the same building, when seeing me move, the other residents asked me if I really had lived there for so long: here instead, we greet and call each other by name.

This is why the “we were chosen”: thanks to the help of our friends Nila and Giovanni of “Valico Terminus”, we chose the village of Cereggio and the Appennino Reggiano, rediscovering the value of sincere relationships, the interaction with the people, a dimension in which you can chat with the pharmacist, far from the Milanese speed and the less welcoming formalism of northern Europe. Someone still thinks that we have given up comfort: in my opinion we’ve just found a different balance, it’s a more authentic and autonomous lifestyle.

From these assumptions started our project in 2016: the B & B is open and ready to welcome Italian and foreign guests to whom we offer the possibility to “feel at home”, inviting them for example to stop over for dinner with us. With KAMart, the social promotion association we founded, we intend operating on the territory both socially and culturally. In the following months we will open the doors to two artists – Asako Hishiki and Paolo Di Rosa – who have won, thanks to two national awards, a residence us. Each artist will be our guest for two weeks and will carry out an artistic project destined to enhance the territory or the KAMart headquarters.

I currently take care of the project full time, while Marco continues to do his job living between the Netherlands and Cereggio: working remotely helps him reconcile his official work with the commitment that KAMart requires.

That’s why we were chosen by the Apennines: because it requires commitment, energy and willpower, but it gives us back every day the desire to share with the people the value of hospitality and authentic relationships.

Italiano