Projects for Casole Val d’Elsa Sislej Xhafa, 2000

Sislej Xhafa, invited by Roberto Pinto and Gilda Williams to take part in the 5th edition of Arte all’Arte, created three works for the city of Casole d’Elsa.

"Sislej Xhafa created three works for the city of Casole d’Elsa: a gigantic “Welcome” sign laid out on a hillside; the apparent “transformation” of a large building announcing the construction of a mosque; and, inside the church in the hamlet of Mensano, a sculptural work depicting two life-size alabaster cats.

Casole d’Elsa does not have the traditional welcome sign to greet its visitors, so the artist chose to create one by digging into the earth and forming gigantic letters. Xhafa inscribes into the land a friendly and inviting word that he, as a Kosovo immigrant, has rarely had the chance to hear. The message is simple and direct, even though the artist shifts our attention to the changing landscape of a country that has only recently begun to experience — and resist — large-scale immigration. The second work is also related to the introduction of a new and distant culture into a traditional landscape. Xhafa placed an image of a large mosque on the plastic netting covering the scaffolding next to the church of Casole d’Elsa, as if the tarps were concealing a presumed, hidden Islamic place of worship under construction. The work recalls the lack of mosques in Italy for many Muslim immigrants, and is symbolic of the hostility toward cultures from the Near and Middle East, often labeled as aggressive or fanatical. A smaller installation is located at the entrance of the church in Mensano, where two alabaster cats are depicted. One appears docile and inviting, the other arches its back in an aggressive pose. Xhafa shows us the coexistence of good and evil even within religion, symbolized by the contradictory nature of the cat: at once domestic and threatening, loving and cruel."

Roberto Pinto and Gilda Williams, Arte all’Arte V, 2000