Meeting in Favignana: that romantic intertwining of art, music and nature

The butterfly of the Egadi hosted the last appointment signed Pic Nic Affair, the itinerant event format that combines dream places, fascinating experiences and the pleasure of sharing. Within an imaginary Trans-Romantic Republic, where you can rediscover the concept of belonging: connecting with each other and with the territory.

June 2019, Tuscan countryside. About sixty people meet in a historic farmhouse, on the hills of the Maremma , to spend a weekend together in contact with nature . The occasion is the fortieth birthday of Jacopo Pizzicannella , cardiologist and entrepreneur from Abruzzo, who plans with friends to recreate an impressionist canvas and bring it to life. Animate it . All in early twentieth century clothes , then, to have a picnic in the middle of the lawn. As in a Renoir painting . 

A theme party, it makes you think. In fact, much more. Or rather, that was the spark of a project that in just three years has experienced a sensational evolution , keeping in the name the enthusiasm - and the figures - of the debut: Pic Nic Affair . After that first event organized a bit for fun, in fact, others, gradually more structured, followed. In which conviviality and suggestive locations have remained the backbone around which art, music and good food are intertwined. 

"The turning point came in Mothia last summer, the abandoned island in the Marsala stagnone ," says Pizzicannella, creator of the format. “For one night, thanks to the grant from the Whitaker Foundationof Palermo and immersed in the Post Atomic theme , we have revived a Phoenician city destroyed in 400 BC . For me, who do something different from my job, it was supposed to be the last appointment, but it had such a powerful media impact that we decided to go on ».

The encore in Siena in autumn, then Abruzzo in spring with the inclusion of the artistic experience: «We understood that people were looking for culture, in a context of total sharing . Where to meet, get to know each other and discuss ». The sense of belonging to a community, a cornerstone of the Pic Nic formula, finds refuge and expression in the Trans-Romantic Republic , an imaginary place with a flag, passports and even ministers. More than a member of a club, here you become a citizen. 

« Trans-romanticism is a neologism, a word that does not have a single meaning but must be interpreted»Explains Pizzicannella. "To join the Republic you have to write your definition of trans-romanticism on the site". No economic discrimination, therefore, only sensitivity . "Attendance at two events is enough to obtain a passport, we have already distributed about two hundred". Numbers in constant growth, which this summer in Favignana have reached their peak. 

On the first weekend of July, on the Egadi butterfly, Pic Nic Affair brought four hundred guests to Mangia's Resort, with almost 10 percentcoming from abroad. Three days of music - at the international DJconsoleof the caliber of Simone De Kunovich, Franz Scala and Marvin JAM - and of art, with performances and installations curated by Maria Abramenko . All, of course, within the crazy natural frames of the Sicilian island, including beaches, stacks and old tuff quarries.

It ranges from Emiliano Maggi , who brought his The Nymphis Orchestra to Camparía combining psychedelic scenarios with mythology, to Agnes Questionmark, who staged Sirenomelia at sea , land and sea united just like fish and man. Then again Edoardo Dionea Cicconi with his Mirror by day, transparent by night , a monumental installation dedicated to the phenomenon of refraction, and Lilli Moors , a Berlin director who presented her latest film, Mistress Of The Inner World. Finally, on Saturday evening, the Clouds of Atlantis party, the theme of the weekend that recalls the dialogues of Timaeus and Critiasin which Plato tells the legendary Atlantis, which many have tried to locate on the maps. A hidden world which, thanks to the skilful work of professional stylists and make-up artists, has re-emerged from the abyss and came to life in the spaces of Cibo Chiacchiere e Vino. From myth to reality. "The evening, however, is not the center of our events", Pizzicannella is keen to specify. 

Mind you, there's that too. Which involves and unites. «But we are neither a party nor a vernissage. We are an unprecedented formulathat unites in the same place experiences linked to art and nature ». A proto-festival in which the magic word is connection, with others and with the territory. "For me Pic Nic was a sort of personal cure for depression ," concludes the founder. «Creating something, the importance of giving back: giving to those who, in turn, give you their emotionality Of him». 

The (romantic) power of exchange .