"WE HAVE EVERYTHING, THE REST IS MISSING": A JOURNEY TO THE FARM CULTURAL PARK OF FAVARA

Once upon a time there was a small historical center in the Sicilian hinterland, located 10 kilometers from the sea of Agrigento and destined for abandonment. We are in Favara di Sicilia, a baroque-style village where one of the most visionary cultural experiences in Europe stands: the Farm Cultural Park .

I had the opportunity to visit it for the first time last May 2025 and in this article I will take you with me through regenerated courtyards , picturesque houses and artistic provocations that have the courage to rewrite the destiny of a forgotten place .

Primo edificio di mattonelle colorate all'ingresso di Farm Cultural Park

Art as urban redemption: what is Farm

These days we are celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of Farm: it was June 28, 2010 when Florinda Saieva and Andrea Bartoli opened this magical space to the public for the first time, with the aim of restoring beauty where there was only emptiness, through art and experimentation. They purchased some abandoned housing units to transform them into exhibition areas, regenerating what already existed and introducing new languages.

The heart of Farm is the "Seven Courtyards" in Arabic style, commonly known as Cortile Bentivegna , surrounded by some inhabited houses and others whose white walls contrast with murals and colorful works . It is an open-air museum, where art can be felt in the details.

Walking among the regenerated architecture and geometric gardens in Arab riad style, one encounters colorful installations and alien shapes: not decorative objects, but tools of disruption, created to question and shake consciences.

The internal buildings are dedicated to artistic activities, such as the "Sou" - School of Architecture for Children" , where subjects are studied to become aware and creative citizens, to ensure that the new generations continue to take care of what we have.

Every year, temporary exhibitions are organized by artists who arrive by invitation or participate through a call for proposals, who are given the opportunity to live and work in Favara for months, in order to create site-specific works in close dialogue with the place.

Collage di immagini della mostra di Terry Richardson nel 2010

Do you know who was the very first artist to exhibit? The provocative fashion photographer Terry Richardson , with a retrospective bordering on porn that got a lot of people talking in little Favara.

“We have everything. The rest is missing.”

Inside there is the Excel Gallery , 8 exhibition areas which house the exhibition based on the famous phrase by Pino Caruso: "We Have Everything. All That's Missing is the Rest . "

This phrase echoes in every corner, becoming a sort of permanent moral manifesto of Farm.

Every four years this theme is celebrated and reinterpreted through a temporary exhibition, currently underway, which involves several artists, dedicating a space to reflection on Sicily and identity .

It is a profound and provocative reflection, which extends in a broader sense to all those territories of the Italian hinterland and all those areas that are rich in potential but paralyzed by a chronic lack of vision, infrastructure, jobs or collective trust.

My generation knows well what it means to feel abandoned by a place we love. "We have everything. The Rest is missing": this phrase has a thousand shades and comes to mind every time we think of leaving, every time we feel invisible or forced to choose between dreams and roots.

The journey continues...

The route continues beyond the Seven Courtyards : just a few steps away is Palazzo Miccichè , a historic residence brought back to life thanks to the energy of Farm.

The building houses several installations, one of the most fascinating of which is an interactive work where a series of suspended spoons rotate in the air , creating a hypnotic and poetic rhythm.

It is an invitation to slow down , observe, let yourself be transported by a banal detail that becomes meaning.

Each room of the palace has been reinterpreted by contemporary artists, who have transformed the decadent past into a new visual grammar.

Here too, the dialogue with Sicily returns, its memory, its contradictions, through the titles of various crime news articles and the written testimonies of women who have suffered the injustices of a land and an Italian law that did not protect them enough in recent times.

Uno dei manifesti con testimonianze scritte da donne

Looking out of one of the windows of the building, a breathtaking view opens up of the dome of the mother church of Favara : a glimpse that unites the sacred with the everyday, tradition with the present, with all the strength of the unconventional beauty that characterizes the Farm project.

Vista della Chiesa Madre di Favara da una belle stanze con installazioni artistiche all'interno del Palazzo Micchichè

Farm Cultural Park is an alternative vision of Sicily , far from stereotypes, capable of challenging alienation with imagination that becomes a creative act.

It is a gentle push towards a South that does not give up, towards a culture that creates the future.

It is a laboratory of ideas, a place where art is still care, a political act and revenge.

In these last days of June there have been several events and other exhibitions are starting in July; visit the official website of Farm Cultural Park to find out all the detailed information.

If you've never been there, maybe it's time to get inspired. If you've already been there, tell me about your experience in the comments: what struck you the most?

Leave your thoughts, because every dialogue can become a seed for the future .

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