We Are Not Alone is an invitation to attune ourselves to the rhythms of the rural landscape, together with the artists who will take up residence throughout August and September in the two small countryside houses—the atelier and the casina—nestled in the campagnetta within the Vanessa Cardui organic farm, located in Contrada Pozzetti, Collesano.

The first residency, lasting ten days, concluded on Saturday, August 31 at 6:00 PM with a public presentation of the works created by Genuardi Ruta and Angelo Leonardo.

The mural intervention by Antonella Genuardi (Sciacca, 1986) and Leonardo Ruta (Ragusa, 1990) on the external wall of the casina, titled Luce, calma e voluttà (Light, Calm, and Delight), is inspired by Matisse’s famous painting Luxe, calme et volupté, where the brightness of Southern France intensifies the contrast of colors. Their work is also influenced by the plants and scents that filled their days, immersed in a landscape shaped by agriculture and the sea.

The sea, visible in the distance beyond the prickly pears, sends up a breeze that brings relief on hot summer days and brightens the surroundings. “We associated the moods in the title with specific colors: pink for delight, blue for calm, and yellow for the brightness of a newly opened flower.”

çdo pyll ka derrat dhe kokëboshët e vet by Angelo Leonardo (Enna, 1991) is an Albanian proverb meaning “every forest has its own pigs,” suggesting that within every good thing there’s a touch of bad—or something best kept hidden, or even protected.

The artist thought of this title after foxes appeared on the very first evening of the residency: “I chose to focus on the secret bond between Pippi and her foxes.

Of course, for her there’s nothing to hide, but I like to think that, to the foxes, she represents that mystery worth keeping secret—a treasure to guard, a kind of danger that can become a resource.”

The embroidery on the atelier’s bamboo curtains draws from the artist’s sketches, notes, and doodles, reflecting an ongoing effort to shift and distort language based on need—testing technical limits and treating composition as the result of a chain of errors.