Franco Battiato, a small, small thought for a great, great artist
The day after. It is the day after a very sad day. The day he took Franco Battiato's body away. 24 hours certainly cannot be enough to metabolize a deep regret. The regret of no longer seeing an artist who for over forty years has constantly fascinated, amazed, enchanted us with his art. The condolences for his disappearance were unanimous. The world of culture and entertainment tweeted messages of sincere and profound condolence. Even the world of politics, on this sad occasion, seemed cohesive. There have not been those ill-concealed and hateful silences, which often follow the disappearance of an artist, by some politicians only because the artist himself had a different political idea from theirs. Right, center, left for him, Franco Battiato, they are even. It would do his extraordinary intelligence and sensitivity a disservice if he were to be wedged into these old, worn-out mental categories. Franco Battiato was beyond. Beyond human misery. He had chosen to live his life as a great climber. Its mountains were not the peaks of eight thousand meters and more, scattered around the world. The peaks he wanted to conquer were those of the soul. The spasmodic search for the most intimate part of us, the deepest and most unknown. He used as a tool for his climbs not pickaxes or ropes, but music, painting, philosophy, art all at 360 °. In his hermitage of Milo he breathed that wonderful air of his Sicily, which filled his mind and heart. He breathed it to the end. Until that magnificent theater, where all Franco Battiato's works were born, where there was his piano, his countless books, audio and video cassettes, his records decided that it was time to drop the curtain. Forever.
And so, as always happens when a great artist dies, one immediately thinks of the artistic legacy he leaves. Who are his heirs? Who will be able to continue that path following the footsteps traced by the Sicilian master? The answer? Nobody. Nobody will be able to collect Franco Battiato's legacy, nobody will be able to continue that earthly journey interrupted on May 18, 2021. You can imitate a musical style, you can try to take ideas from the texts of other great songwriters, you can even try to ape the thought political - social of an artist. Nobody will be able to inherit the art of Franco Battiato, because his was an inspiration that led him there where others cannot and will not be able to reach. In him there was something that was born from within, from his soul and through the incessant study, driven by a devastating curiosity, he reached artistically unexplored and unexplored peaks for all others. For this reason his legacy will remain inaccessible, while his Art, fortunately, will continue to be accessible to all, at least to all those for whom the soul is not just a word but the essence of our humanity.
Goodbye Master, may the earth be light to you.
Article by Stefano Vori
