Me&Sea Festival Returns to Messina and Catania with Murals and Urban Renewal

The second edition of the Me&Sea Festival took place on May 28–29, 2016, in Messina and Catania, organized by FeelLand Group under the patronage of European Maritime Days (EMD). The festival aims to promote marine resource protection and territorial redevelopment, with the ultimate goal of nominating Messina as 'Capital of the Sea'. In Catania, artist Poki created a large mural at the Sicilian headquarters of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), depicting a cetacean swimming among submerged laboratory columns covered in eyes and neutrinos, referencing the KM3NeT2 neutrino telescope project. In Messina, the festival focused on the Maregrosso area, a former industrial zone now being revitalized. Artists including Kuma, Artisti per Caso di Patti, Poki, Inkfect, Rosamaria Crupi, and Collettivo FX created works to restore visual and symbolic access to the sea, which has been blocked by decades of construction. The interventions also honor the legacy of Cavaliere Cammarata, an early 20th-century outsider artist who transformed his home into a museum-laboratory in Maregrosso, dreaming of creating an 'Via Belle Arti' artistic avenue. The festival collaborates with local associations such as Lalleru.