Arti Siciliana
Stefano Balistreri: sculturi sicilianu
Di Gaetano Cipolla
C
anuscìu a Stefanu Balistreri quacchi simana fa. Mi telefunau nta
l’ufficiu dicennumi cu era e pi fari n’appuntamentu. Quacchi jornu
dopu vinni cu so muggheri e cu n’autra signura ca l’avia ospitatu mentri si
truvava New York e mi purtau un libru intitulatu Le Cave dell’anima, ca è
The Twin Towers. Sicilian Onyx.
n’antologia di puisii e di sculturi ca a Regioni Sicilia ci pubblicau. Mi dissi ca si
truvava in America picchí avia vinutu a purtaricci una dî so sculturi ô paisi di
Lodi ntô New Jersey, pi esposizioni ntô palazzu municipali. Parrammu na
vintina di minuti e poi nni salutammu. Quannu pou happi na urata di tempu
mi misi a taliari ddu libru ca m’avia rigalatu e cuminciaiu a apprizzari u so
talentu, un talentu ca si sviluppau quasi senza scola. Infatti iddu mû dissi ca
non avia fattu tanti studi e si sinteva di comu parrava ca non era n’accademicu,
128
Sicilian Art
Stefano Balistreri: Sicilian Sculptor
By Gaetano Cipolla
I
met Stefano Balistreri a few weeks ago. He telephoned saying he
wanted to see me and we set up an appointment. A few days later he
came with his wife and a woman with whom they were staying while in New
York, and he brought me a book entitled Le cave dell’anima which can be translated as The Quarries of the Soul. It was an anthology of poems and sculptures
Liberty. Sicilian onyx.
published by the Region of Sicily. He told he had come to the US to present
one of his sculptures to the town of Lodi in New Jersey which would be
displayed in Town Hall. We talked for about twenty and we said goodbye.
When I had some time I started looking at the book and began to realize that
Mr. Balistreri was a talented sculptor who developed his art almost without
any schooling. In fact, he told me that he had not gone to school much and I
could tell from the way he spoke that he was not an academician, but I also
129
Man, the world and the
beast. Sicilian Onyx.
ma si capeva puru ca non era comu a ddi cristiani ca avennu tri laurii non
hannu nenti di diri. Balistreri mi pari, ora ca haiu avutu l’opportunità di studiari
i so sculturi, comu n’autra espressioni di dda criatività siciliana ca pi tanti anni
declamu nta sti pagini. E’ na criatività ca si esprimi cû travagghiu, cû cuntinuu
riturnari supra o stissu puntu dâ petra pi livaricci dda anima selvaggia, pi
domarla, e faricci diri chiddi ca l’artista voli. Ma cchiù chi travagghiu l’opira di
Balistreri mi pari n’opira d’amuri, un amuri ca si manifesta chiaramenti quannu
pinsamu a li tanti martiddiati e chî scappedda di la so arti, a ddi tanti raspati e
stricati ca ci happi a dari a dda petra dura e risistenti ca si ribbedda e ca non
voli piegarisi davanti u disidderiu di l’artista. Ma Balistreri rinesci in quacchi
modu a fari parrari ddi petri chî so sintimenti, lassannu spissu la petra cu tutta
a so forma e modificannula sulu quantu basta pi faricci diri chiddu ca iddu voli
diri. Spissu si vidi ntra la petra e li figuri ca Balistreri tagghia a tratti semplici,
a linii essenziali, na specii di lotta cu la materia, un cummattimentu tra a materia rozza e dura e l’intelligenza ca voli nasciri, ca porta a nostra mimoria
130
Hand. Sicilian onyx.
understood that he was not like many people who having three degrees have
nothing to say. Balistreri looked to me, after I had had a change to study his
work, as another expression of that great Sicilian creativity that I am always
praising in these pages. A creativity that expresses itself through work by
continuously returning to the same point to take away the savage soul of the
stone, to tame it and make it say what the artist wants to say. But perhaps
more than work, I can say the Balistreri’s work is an expression of love, a love
that manifests itself clearly when you think of the many blows of the hammer and chisels of his art, those many touches with the file to make that hard
and unyielding stone that sometimes rebels and refuses to bend to the Artist’s
will. But Balistreri succeeds somehow to make the stone speak with his own
sentiments, leaving the stone often intact and modifying it just enough to to
make it say what he want to say. Often you see between the stone and the
figures carved in it with straight and simple lines, a sort of struggle with
matter, a fight between unfeeling matter and intelligence that yearns to be
born, and this brings to mind memories of the famous “captives” of
Michelangelo who struggle to be free of the tone. Perhaps Balistreri too had
131
immagini e ricordi di ddî famusi “priggiuneri” di Michelangelu ca lottanu pi
nasciri da petra. Forsi puru a Balistreri l’idea ci vinni l’idea ca i petri hannu
dintra di iddi tutti li formi possibili e immaginabili. Esistunu dda dintra e
gridanu pi essiri libbirati. Ma iddu stissu nta l’introduzioni dissi na cosa simili:
“A scultura a e puisia sunu parti di mia. U titulu di stu libru “Cave dell’anima”
non fu sceltu pi casu picchí di quannu era picciriddu haiu sempri avutu a
sinsazioni ca a natura avissi l’anima, ammatula ca la trattu mali cû picu e câ
mazza. Ma u me rapportu cu idda ha sempri statu di granni sensibilità, giacchí
haiu sempri circatu di truvari a vita in ogni petra c’haiu travagghiatu. E’ dda ca
trovu u passatu e u prisenti ca mi fannu capiri comu i petri dintra d’iddi
custodisciunu n’anima.”
Balistreri allura voli truvari l’anima ntê petri. A mmia mi pari però ca
l’anima ntê petri ci la metti iddu. E’ l’artista ca tramiti u scarpeddu e a lima
c’impresta a so anima e appuntu li anima facennuli parrari comu fannu ddi
facci ca spuntanu fora di dda massa di ferru unfucatu c’havi la forma di na
lacrima o d’un focu addumatu didicatu ê Turri Gimelli di New York, vittimi di
l’odiu. E si pò vidiri puru nta dd’autra scultura intitulata “libertà” unni si
ricanusci sulu na facci cu mani nesciunu fora dâ petra comu in stissiru circannu
di emergiri di na priggiuni.
132
the idea that stone contains in it all possible and imaginable forms. They live
in it and yearn to be free. In fact he said in the introduction to the work
something similar: “Sculpture and poetry are part of me. The title of my
book Quarries of the Soul was not chosen by chance since from childhood I
have always had the sensation that nature possessed a soul, in spite of the fact
that I treat it harshly with my hammer and scalpels. But my relationship with
it has always been one of great sensibility because I have always tried to find
life in every stone I have worked with. In them I find past and present that
make me understand how stones harbor a soul in them.”
So Balistreri wants to find the soul in stones. It seems to me, however,
that it is the sculptor who breathes a soul into the stone. It’s the artist who
through his file and chisel lends his soul, makes his figure talk, as he does with
those faces that emerge out of the mass of melted steel that has the shape of
a tear, or a burning fire dedicated to the Twin Towers of New York, victims
of hatred. And you can see it in another sculpture entitled “Liberty” where
you can recognize only a face with hands that emerge from the stone as if
they were trying to escape from a prison.
133