In a Former Mafia Stronghold, Art Remembers, and Warns

PALERMO, Sicily - Until recently, this city was infamous as one of the world's organized crime capitals. Warring mobsters gunned down rivals in the streets and built ugly high-rise apartments with public funds while much of the historic center was left to crumble.

Palermo authorities have since managed to clamp down on the Mafia, and the city, Sicily's capital, feels like a very different place today. Anti-Mafia posters are a common sight on the fronts of buildings, and the streets now throb with tourists. But Palermo's bounceback is fragile, and many remain wary that the Mafia could stage a comeback.

A key point in Palermo's turnaround was the murder of Giovanni Falcone, a judge who pioneered new methods to combat Mafia influence and paved the way for the restoration of law and order.

The Mafia had its revenge in 1992, killing Falcone in a bombing that horrified residents and united them against the mob.

To mark the 30th anniversary of Falcone's murder, Palermo on Monday unveiled a series of art installations reminding people of the city's grim Mafia years and encouraging local residents to resist creeping organized crime influence.

The works are part of a public art program called Spazi Capaci, and they were inaugurated on a day when Palermo also hosted a remembrance ceremony for Falcone, attended by dozens of dignitaries, including President Sergio Mattarella of Italy. But the art initiative was anything but a stately affair. Instead, a number of the works generated heated debate.

The Spazi Capaci project has been organized by the Fondazione Falcone, an anti-Mafia organization, with funding from Italy's Education Ministry as well as private donors.

"We have always known that culture is one of the best weapons against the Mafia," said Maria Falcone, the sister of the murdered judge and president of the Fondazione Falcone. "Repression alone is not enough," she added. "You also need social and cultural work for that.

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Across town, in the Church of San Domenico, which holds Falcone's tomb, Velasco Vitali's sculptural collection of over 50 life-size dogs

- made from rusted metal, peeling concrete and stained paper - were mostly heaped in a pile near the entrance. Titled "Pack," the roving work had been displayed in several locations around Palermo over the past year before being moved to the church.

"As soon as the work crosses the threshold of the church, it will change meaning," Vitali explained by phone before the work was installed. The "contrast between the sublime and the profane," he said, would evoke "humanity's ugly nature, its capacity to reduce life to rubble."

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