Potenza's Creative Workshop Turns Waste into Art

In Potenza, the creative workshop Il Salone dei Rifiutati, run by Sara Stolfi and Rossana Cafarelli of Associazione Culturale La luna al guinzaglio, has been producing exhibitions and projects that use art as a response to contemporary challenges. Founded in 2008, the space experiments with artistic languages using reclaimed materials, offering an alternative to the throwaway culture. The collective draws inspiration from Gianni Rodari's poetry, the Salon des Refusés, and artists like Bruno Munari, Riccardo Dalisi, Tinguely, Maria Lai, Antonio Marras, and Niki de Saint Phalle. In 2018, they opened MOON (Museo Officina degli Oggetti Narranti) in Potenza. Current exhibitions include Le Patamacchine at Museo Tattile Statale Omero in Ancona, Biblioteca Errante traveling from Procida to Genoa, La Tavola Celeste at Osservatorio-Planetario di Anzi, and Da un Capo all'Altro at MOON. Their project M.E.M.O.RI. (Museo Euro-Mediterraneo dell'Oggetto Ri-fiutato) was produced for Matera European Capital of Culture 2019, involving artists Kaori Kato, Francesca Biasetton, Cyro Garcia, curator Maria Rosa Sossai, and architect Fabio Fornasari. The museum was exhibited at Centre Pompidou in Malaga, Commenda di Prè in Genoa, Matera, and Potenza.