Sicilian waste dump houses art show

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 7 - A Sicilian waste dump is housing an unusual and eclectic art show The municipal dump at Sambuca di Sicilia near Agrigento now plays host to a wide variety of paintings hung on its walls, together with small sculptures, miniatures and statuettes.
    It is not an actual gallery but an exhibition combining the vintage and the kitsch.
    The works include old 'crusts' and copies of famous artists ranging from Renaissance masters to French Impressionists, reproductions of archaeological sites like the Valley of the Temples and Segesta, and votive objects and holy images including those of Padre Pio and Pope Francis.
    There are also pencil and chalk drawings of children.
    Among all the recycled works is a disquieting coloured plastic sculpture of a women's head that seems to be coming out of a rubbish bin.
    The creator of the exhibition is the local 'ecological island' chief, Franco Di Prima, 62, who has for years been putting together this zany collection of objects plucked from among the local rubbish.
    "I love my work," says the municipal waste area employee with an artistic bent.
    "That's why I keep the dump spick and span, like a mirror, and I have also tried to embellish it with these pictures. Among the rubbish I have found all kinds of things, even a gold bracelet and a pair of ancient candelabra. Not forgetting furniture and old furnishings and decorations that can be restored and find new life".
    Experts have likened his collection to the Trash Art of famous artists like Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Burri and Piero Manzoni.
    Di Prima is keen to get everything into the waste cycle so he can glean all he needs.
    The unknowing epigon of Trash Art even admonished a local councillor recently for dropping a cigarette butt on the ground, saying "no, pick it up at once, that goes into the undifferentiated waste!" (ANSA).