Edited by Gianfranco Molino

Antonio Presti is a Sicilian, president of Fiumara d’Arte Foundation, that has decided to dedicate himself, his patrimony, to prevail the Art in all its aspects. Since years he’s committed to create a conscience related to the culture, above all to an ethical spirit that is created trough a different relation with the beauty.
Born in Messina, on 12 May 1957, he studies building engineering at the University of Palermo before to abandon the attendances to take care the building yard of the father passed away, an important company at Castel di Tusa specialized in the matter production for roads constructions. On 1982, at the age of 29 years, he understands that the way opened from the father doesn’t represent his future. The exceeding value of the money is in contrast with his life philosophy. He understands that is very important to give a sense to the human existence and chooses the art like a dimension that allows the continuity of the life. Therefore, he decides to dedicate himself, spirit and body, to its vocation of "artist" and realizes Fiumara d' Arte Cultural Association. Art and ethics become the two objects, conductor of all its choices. In memory of his father, he imagines an artistic way that expresses continuity between the life and the dead, to symbolize the conservation of the memory through the contemporary art. Therefore, the Park of sculptures Fiumara d’Arte is created.
Since the beginning, even though the sculptures, were realized with the approval of mayors and local administrators (and also donated to the towns of the territory), the founder of Fiumara d' Arte received a judicial action for building illicit. After 23 years, the process is concluded positively, because the Cassation has recognized "the extraordinary of the case", releasing Antonio Presti from every accusation and preventing that those "illicit" art works could be demolished.
Untiring, although all the endured attacks, he doesn’t stop his way in the name of the art. From 1990 to 1996, at Pettineo, a town in the ‘Fiumara’ territory, he organized the singular One kilometer of canvas, uan extemporaneous painting event on a longest canvas that crosses the roads of Pettineo, with hundred of artists and the inhabitants of the town involved. After which, characterizing the job of every artist, the canvas was cut and every artist work was donated to the families of the town, whose houses became therefore Domestic Museum. On 2001, the same event is organized at Castiglione di Sicilia and in 2002 at Carnate (Milano), at Librino (Catania) and at Gubbio (Perugia). On 1990, attacked and swept up from controversies, he decided to withdraw at Castel di Tusa, a delicious fishermen village few kilometers from the park of Fiumara d' Arte. It bought a hotel of 40 rooms, he altered it and entrusted the transformation of every room to an artist: He get a precise point of view on art: he’s convinced that in order to appreciate it, instead of watching it only is necessary to live within it, it must be part of our daily life. The Art Hotel Atelier sul Mare is created.
On 1990, the first artist to take part of this project was Mario Ceroli with La bocca della verità (The mouth of the truth). On 1991 have been realized Il nido (The nest) by Paolo Icaroand Mistero per la luna (Mystery for the moon) by Hidetoshi Nagasawa. On 1992-1993 six art rooms have been created:Linea d’ombra (Line of shadow) byMichele Canzoneri; Energia (Energy) by Maurizio Mochetti; Stanza del mare negato (The room of the denied sea) by Fabrizio Plessi; Trinacria by Mauro Staccioli; La torre di Sigismondo (The tower of Sigismondo) by Raúl Ruiz;Su barca di carta m’imbarco (On a paper boat I'm boarding) by Maria Lai.
From 1994 to 1996 other four art rooms have been completed: Sogni tra segni (Dreams between signs)byRenato Curcio and Agostino Ferrari ; La stanza del profeta (The room of the prophet, tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini) by Dario Bellezza , Adele Cambriaand Antonio Presti; La stanza della terra e del fuoco (The room of the earth and the fire) by Luigi Mainolfi ; La stanza della pittura (The painting's room) by Piero Dorazio and Graziano Marini. On 5 February 1999, in Catania created the Devotion to the beauty, with the Candle of S.Agata, byArnaldo Pomodoro and the first edition of Art-House Stesicorea titled The artist's house,12 contemporary art rooms realized by various artists from Catania, curator Giuseppe Frazzetto.
On 2001 he organized the poetry event The offer of the word – poets on the train, , with the major names of the italian poetry, such as Sanguineti, Spaziani, Portinari, Erba, and many more. The project included the realizzation of the second edition of the Art-House Stesicorea titled The poets's housewith various sicilian artists, curator Paola Nicita. On 2002 presented the project Terzocchio – Meridiani di Luce Luce (Third eye – Meridian of lights) for the suburbs Librino of Catania, where he’ll involve some of the most important photographers and movie directors, with the assignment to shot the suburbs soul: the people. Third eye – Meridian of lights is oriented on the beauty like means to acquire the right on the citizenship and to find again the identity through the pride of being citizens, supporting the respect on the territory of Librino (redesign the suburbs in its urban appearance in order to give it back a new central role regarding the city) and regarding the inhabitants (to express the identity with the beauty asserting the knowledge of being beautiful and donating a "truth" that destroys the anonymity of the consciences, common problematic of all the suburbs in our contemporaneity). On May 2002, during the XX edition of Montale award, presided by Maria Luisa Spaziani, he’s invited to Gubbio for Librino-Gubbio Twinning, with a series of initiatives, like meetings with the poets and let the student of Gubbio paint a kilometer of canvas. On December 2002, the third edition of the Art-house Stesicorea titled EXTRA-ordinario, is inaugurated, curators Teresa Macrì and Paola Nicita. The new twelve art rooms realized between the encounter of the different ethnic cultures present in the city of Catania and the artists (national and international) involved by Fiumara d' Arte Association, with the participation of all the schools of Librino and the socio-cultural reality of the suburbs. The day of the inauguration, Presti received deep thanks from Sig.ra Franca Ciampi (Italian President’s wife) for his commitment and the seriousness on the job done with the schools of Librino.
On January 2003, Presti invited Claudia Cardinale at Librino to meet the students of all the schools of the suburbs of Librino. In this occasion the students of Librino have given homage to the great actress, manifesting the desire to have her as godmother of the future museum Third eye - Meridians of Light. From September 2003, began the shots for 500 Commercials for Librino, directed by Fedora Sasso, video realization to value and to promote the identity of the suburbs through the commercials in order to manifest and to assert the right to the full citizenship. The project had the collaboration of the broadcasting stations Antenna Sicilia and Telecolor of Catania and Telegiornale di Sicilia (TGS) of Palermo, with the involvement of the schools and of the inhabitants of Librino, video makers and directors, and 150 poets. On 2004 Presti realized Journey in Sicily... towards Librino. Some of the major writers - coming from different countries of the world - visited the Sicily and the reality of the suburbs of Librino, following everyone a different itinerary through the territory of the island in order to testify, through the written word, the emotion of this original Grand Tour of Sicily, that, first of all, is a journey in the deep heart of the Island, searching the forgotten roots, the lost reasons. Therefore, a journey in the time and in the space, in a double dimension, that is principally dimension of being. During the school year 2004-2005 is presented the project I am the Oreto river of the Humanity dedicated to the river Oreto of Palermo, a moral commitment, cultural and educational project in collaboration with the Giornale di Sicilia. Oreto: a symbolic choice, a forgotten place from which start again in order to wake again the need of emancipation, a river that choosing the value of the Beauty rebirth to new life with the realization of an open air museum along the banks, a river that becomes the long-lasting symbol of a renewed collective conscience.
During the scholastic year 2004-2005 Presti realized flags for being city, , a plan of education to the citizenship that asserted itself to be a city, not identifying itself in that center far away from the periphery, but joined in the sharing of a conquered moral identity. The artistic event involved the schools of Librino and 44 schools of the city of Catania. On summer 2005, the 500 flags were exposed first at the Convent of the Benedictines in Catania and then installed on all the light poles of the motorway, from the playa area to Bicocca area.
22 April 2005 is a crucial day in the history of Fiumara d' Arte and of Antonio Presti: the mecenate opposed a refusal to the indifference of the government institution about the park of Fiumara d' Arte. With the event The refusal of the refusal, he dropped a blue curtain with the word “closed” translated in many languages, over the sculpture of Tano Festa. With this symbolic gesture, he opened a new curtain on the cultural scene of the Sicily, in order to ask respect and gratitude. On January 2006 The victory of the Art arrives:After twenty years of battles and various sentences that arranged the demolition of the sculptures of Fiumara d' Arte,  <imgsrc="/images/biografie/presti4.png" width="160" height="215" alt="presti4" style="float: right; border-width: 0px; margin: 6px;"/>the monumental art works are recognized and supported by the Regional Government who approves the cultural-turistic itinerary institution of Fiumara d'Arte (Regional Law 6/06 titled " Tourist improvement - Use and conservation of Fiumara d' Arte’s artworks ", signed by the parliament members Beninati and Fleres). In the meantime, on summer of 2005, with the collaboration of the Civic Museum of Castelbuono, organized inside the splendid castle of Prince of Ventimiglia, the art showTelepass, curatot Ida Parlavecchio andAnna Guillot. The artworks exposed were from the young artists of the Accademia di Belle Arti "Abadir" of Palermo and the Accademia di Belle Arti of Catania.
In Catania, during the school year 2005-2006, organized the event Don’t waste the bread. The 500 ethic flags previously realized from the schools of the city, were transformed from the students in patch-work panels. Parallel to this project he presented: the Grand Tour of the poetry is realized also in Palermo and involved 80 schools. It’s the first event of the project I am the Oreto river of the humanity.
Subsequently, it realizes at Atelier sul Mare the Room of the Water Bearers together with Agnese Purgatorio,Danielle Mitterrand, and Cristina Bertelli.
On March 2006, Madame Mitterrand meets the leaders and the school references of Palermo, Monreale and Altofonte and the students of Palermo with which went to the mouth of Oreto river. During the event is presented the didactic project The Water Bearers.
On summer 2006, at the civic museum of Castelbuono again, he realized the collective art show Parallels Meridians, the painting techniques in Palermo 1980-2000, curator Marina Giordano, that proposed the ricognition/ricostruction of an important aspect of the artistic reality of Palermo, the painting, through the eye of two generations.
During the school year 2006-2007, with the project I am water, , together with the students of Palermo and Catania, asked in a loud the respect and the acknowledgment for the right of the water. This artistic event involved 80 schools in Palermo and 45 in Catania in the realization of flags that had the same topic: the water. The project involved the students on the importance of the donation and the solidarity, creating a symbolic connection of values and energies between the beauty, the joy and the positivity of the life and the suffering places, like a hospital. In fact, on April 2007, other flags, inspired to the life and to the beauty, realized by the schools and by the Accademia di Belle Arti of Catania and Palermo, are donated toGaribaldi Hospital of Catania and theCivic Hospital of Palermo, in order to testify the joy of the greater gift: the life. On June 2007 in Catania 500 flags were installed on all the poles of light of the motorway, along the tangential motorway that connects the Airport Fontanarossa and Librino. In Palermo, the flags were quite 1000 flags and were installed on all the poles of light from the airport of PuntaRaisi to Villabate and the way of the sea between the Foro Italico and Via Messina Marine. The days from 25th to 27th May 2007 will be remembered like three days of festivity dedicated to a great anniversary: the 25 years of Fiumara d’Arte. After 50 years, half of them used for love of the art, Antonio Presti can assert to have won his own battle, fighting with the arms of the culture and of the constant and strong commitment. And for this commitment this event is realized: - The first Italian monumental restoration of contemporary art is presented with the restoration of of La finestra sul Mare (The Window on the Sea) by Tano Festa, curator Antonio Rava, on the beach of Villa Margi, ideal beginning of a program of restoration of all the other sculptures donated by Antonio Presti to the earth. Through a careful operation the art work has finally the possibility to be protected from the attacks of the weather and have its original splendor. During the ritual of the mermaid, reproposed after two years from the refusal of the refusal, were presented hundred of journalists and artists, invited by Antonio Presti, and more than two thousand students of the schools of Palermo and Catania. On 26th May organized an important convention titled Fiumara d’Arte - Signs in the landscape: improvement, conservation and planning, curator professor Giuseppe Basile,at Trabia Palace - Museum of the Ceramics at Santo Stefano di Camastra. On 27th May have been presented to the public three new rooms at the Art Hotel Atelier sul Mare: The room of the water bearers, realized by Antonio Presti, Agnese Purgatorio, room texts written by Danielle Mitterrand and Cristina Bertelli, Hammam bySislej Xhafa and Lunaria - Contrada without name, room texts written by Vincenzo Consolo and realized by Umberto Leone e Ute Pyka.
In occasion of the anniversary the Foundation Antonio Presti - Fiumara d’Arte that means to create a collaboration with the University, the Academies and Institutions to be in charge as safeguard, so that Fiumara becomes active workshop, alive place in which the young people can be educated to the conservation, the valorization and the planning of art works. Presti, it wants therefore donates to the new generations the cultural patrimony he created, and an ethical commitment of true devotion to the beauty.