The FASE Festival aims to engage in dialogue, not just exhibit.

Not just exhibit and admire, but reflect, understand, and – above all – recognize. Recognize in images, whether printed or in motion, things that exist, have existed, or could exist. And, in doing so, project within ourselves the things that will come to be. Recognize the present, recognize the flowing of time. While time itself is relentless, the way we experience it is, quite literally, what defines us. This is not a retreat into materialism but rather a search for meaning, acknowledging the existential value of the intangible, of imagination, of lightness, of play, and of joy.

We are interested in people, in how they navigate their existence, in the choices that shape transformation or adaptation, in decisions of preservation or resistance. We care about the meaning of things – and things that do have meaning. We are drawn to relationships and connections: between people, between people and their environment, their land, nature; between people and work; between people and the passage of time; between people and themselves, and the consequences of their choices.

We are not interested in innovation for its own sake, nor novelty for novelty’s sake – unless they carry value. We reject the pretentiousness of those who try to assign meaning to what inherently lacks it, whether in art or in human relationships. We find more meaning in a trenino on New Year’s Eve than in empty artistic posturing. We want artists to tell us a story, to have an idea, to truly understand what they present to us – to have studied it, investigated it, or at the very least, thoughtfully imagined it. And even when we recognize what we see, we want the artist to show it to us in a new light.

We embrace different perspectives because we seek knowledge, understanding, and the ability to change our minds. We need stories that make us think. We do not fear simplicity or tradition – but we do fear banality. We do not fear frivolity, lightness, or carefree joy – in fact, these are essential to a balanced existence – but we reject superficiality and emptiness. We do not fear provocation if it challenges thought, customs, or morality in a meaningful way, but we reject provocation as an act of mere aggression. And we do not fear violence when it means struggle and resistance, but we oppose oppression and domination.

For us, beauty is not mere aesthetics, sensory pleasure, intellectual abstraction, or artistic pretense. We seek and find beauty in intention, in storytelling, in experience, in craftsmanship, in skill, in vision, in labor, in lived lives. Also in imagination, in what is yet to come, in perspective,in direction.

FASE was born to restore meaning and beauty to a city that has undergone profound changes in recent decades, changes that have had a significant impact on the lives of Otranto’s people – and our own. Otranto’s transformation in the new millennium has forced us to reflect on our identity. Our childhood is distant but still exists – within us, in our bond with this land, this city. Confronting it leaves us with a sense of incompleteness, a need to fill the void.

We have seen a world of people, professions, and relationships disappear. We have seen meaning vanish – and we have never accepted it. Twelve years ago, with friends, we covered the city with giant portraits of those who live in Otranto year-round, calling the project Twelve Months Without Summer. Not as an act of mere local pride or belonging – on the opposite, we reject parochialism and want Otranto to remain a crossroads of diverse cultures – but to affirm the right of Otranto’s residents to enjoy their city all year long, not just to serve as winter custodians – and cleaners – of the overflowing streets of August (which, incidentally, are growing less crowded each year).

FASE seeks to restore meaning and beauty to Otranto – culture and reflection, which already belong to this place. More than an artistic and cultural initiative, FASE aims to engage the local community in rediscovering its own sense of identity. The artists who exhibit and perform at FASE will present their vision of the world, their questions, their perspective. They will tell us stories worth knowing. And together, we will broaden our own perspective, will ask new questions, and will be open to shift our point of view –  to turn it into a decentralized one.