Author’s tin – Arcà Line

Damiano Rotella and Biagio Castilletti – Cinnabar Carters
are the authors of the 2022 edition of Arcà author’s cans – by Tumminello.

The new limited edition collection of the author’s cans is the result of the skill and talent of Damiano Rotella and Biagio Castilletti, among the few master artisans of painting and restoring these symbols of Sicily, a traditional art of which they are proud continuers and popularizers under the name of Cinnabar carters. The Sicilian cart is part of the island’s cultural heritage that is unafraid of the challenge of time. It is a collection of sensations and feelings dear to us Sicilians, representing the essence of our way of life, conveyed through an art form that communicates pride in belonging to this land.

Here is the idea of Sicilianity that we want to convey with these new versions of our signature tins: the pride of being sons of this land to face new challenges starting from the beauty of tradition, emblem of the unbreakable bond with our land. These new collectible tins communicate in images and shapes the essence of our craftsmanship: a living past that is renewed with research and creativity.

In Damiano and Biagio we have found fertile ground in which to make this authentic Sicilianity flourish again through some of its mythical elements by innovating them but without neglecting that link with the past. The Sicilian cart was not just simply a means of transportation,” Damiano and Biagio explain, “but a true art form that served to draw attention to the carter, I was a true medium of promotion.

Seeing the world through the lens of tradition does not mean having a flat perception of it. In Ragusa Ibla, in fact,

past time relives in an explosion

of colors, inside a workshop immersed in baroque, in which it flows proudly in its powerful flow. It was here that Damiano and Biagio devoted themselves to the painting and restoration of Sicilian carts, making themselves continuators of the true identity of this traditional art, declining it in the forms and balances of the school of eastern Sicily. A lofty way to claim that the Sicilian cart is history, with a capital S, far removed from those souvenir reproductions in which the mélange of colors and decorations conveys a twisted idea of Sicilianity. To enter their workshop is to find out how Sicilian carts are made the old-fashioned way and to hear from their voices the stories associated with this folk tradition. But carting is an art that does not

you can improvise.

Like any self-respecting craft and artistic trade, it must be handed down from master to student, and that is how Damiano and Biagio learned it, at different times, by going to workshop in the province of Catania from Domenico Di Mauro and Antonio Zappalà, among the last Sicilian cart painters of the older generation. This is the late 1990s. For a while their paths parted: Damiano opened his workshop in Riposto while Biagio traveled around Sicily among the old masters to hone his knowledge more and more, also visiting his old colleague.

But in 2011 came a massive commission that would give little life to their partnership, which took the form of Cinnabar Carters. Plus major collaborations with fashion and jewelry houses and other brands in the food & beverage industry and press attention.