Progetto

Vattene Nuvola Nera: Magic and the South
Symposium with Grazia Amelia Bellitta
Sunday, March 30, 2025
13.00 lunch / 17.00 open discussion with food and wine.

On Sunday, March 30, 2025, Progetto presented Vattene Nuvola Nera, a symposium exploring magic, care, and ritual inherent in food. A lunch for 21 guests, symbolizing ‘The World’ in tarot, inspired by the maternal act of nourishment as a form of protection, healing, and rebirth.

As a child, my mother transformed every dish into a daily spell, a medicine that fought weakness and illness, an act of love meant to restore my energy and vitality. But also her despair when I wouldn’t eat. She would suffer too, taking on my discomfort so that I could heal.

In this project, I sought to recreate that gesture of care, transmitting the same protective and regenerative energy to my guests. Every dish became a portal to a symbolic dimension, where food was not just sustenance, but a magical practice that heals and unites. The table, set to evoke the intimacy and imperfection of a home dining space, became the altar of this collective ritual.

The public was invited to observe the ritual, participate in the transformation of the table, and at the end of the meal, reflect and discuss the meaning of this act: food as magic, the meal as a spell, the table as an altar.

Vegetables, cheese, cured meats, meat, and wine were produced by Grazia Amelia’s father from their small family farm in the countryside (Stellosa) in Oriolo, Calabria, and brought to Lecce to be prepared at Progetto. A punk zine menu was created for the event, with a publication to follow.

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Sunday, March 30, 2025 at Progetto:
13.00: Lunch followed by an open community talk at 17.00 with food & wine.
17.00: Progetto opened to all to speak about magic, the South, food as healing, and more.

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Zine Menu / Publication: Panopticon Publishing, Grazia Amelia Bellitta, text by Enrico Camprini. Culinary support: Giulia Baglivo (Apulian chef, Tricase)

Photos by Gianluca Pisicchio

photos by Gianluca Pisicchio

Niloufar Emamifar
The Wolves, 2025
Polyurethane resin, soil, asphalt, dust 
402 x 203 x 2.75 cm

Niloufar Emamifar
The Wolves, 2025
Polyurethane resin, soil, asphalt, dust 
380 x 47 x 3.5 cm

The Wolves and Manduria are casts of sites in Puglia characterized as zones of indeterminacy. These spaces are materially present yet juridically unsettled, and thus excluded from conventional zoning regulation. These sites were identified in Manduria and Marittima through a process of fieldwork that relied on local knowledge and oral accounts.

Niloufar Emamifar
Disjecta
July 27 - December 31, 2025


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