Terramatta Residency in Salento: Street Artists Transform Waste into Art

The Terramatta artist residency concluded in the Parco Agricolo dei Paduli in Salento, involving street artist duo Cyop&Kaf and Fabrizio Bellomo for a week from September 25 to October 1, 2017. Located in the province of Lecce, the park spans 5,500 hectares of olive groves and was nominated in 2014 by Mibact to represent Italy at the Council of Europe's Landscape Prize. The artists were selected via a public call to address environmental degradation caused by waste dumping in the countryside. Bellomo created a votive shrine in Lecce stone dedicated to St. Rocco, transforming a calcified pile of trash into a devotional act. Cyop&Kaf built two Don Quixote figures at the edge of an abandoned quarry turned landfill, marking the territory as sacred and discouraging further incivility.