Palermo moves

“The memory of that enchanted garden had remained too deeply impressed upon my soul: the dark waves to the north of the horizon, their overlapping in the sinuosity of the gulf, even the characteristic scent of the sea’s evaporation—all called forth the sense and memory of the blessed island of the Phaeacians.”
W. Goethe, “Italian Journey”, Palermo, Villa Giulia, 1787

“An unheard-of orgy of colors, scents, and lights, a great delight; it is an abundance of pleasures. I cannot tell you how much beauty I have seen and smelled today. The magnificence and fragrance of the flowers make one forget it is autumn.”
S. Freud, letter to his wife Martha, Palermo, 1910

In 1989, the performance “Palermo Palermo” by Pina Bausch and the Wuppertal Tanztheater was dedicated to our city. The German choreographer and her company moved to Palermo for a period to capture its colors, inspirations, and essence, which she then transformed into a magnificent choreography that achieved great international success.
In particular, one image from the performance metaphorically expresses the soul of Palermo and the spirit of its people: six pianos lined up, old and out of tune, yet playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with vigor and passion.

After Berlin and Lisbon, Wim Wenders chose Palermo as the setting for his 2008 film “Palermo Shooting”. Campino, singer of the band Die Toten Hosen, stars as a photographer in an existential crisis who seeks the meaning of life in the face of death—a cathartic journey from Mannheim to Palermo.
The city, with its millennia-old history, impresses the film with the depth of its soul.
“The negative is the other side of life, the other side of light where life and death have the same face.”