Mario Artiaco, “I am a writer of memory with Maradona in every novel”
His "Io, Lauro e le rose" is the first self-published novel to be presented at the Turin Book Fair
NAPLES – “The only thing I know how to do is write. I dreamed of it as a child, I wanted it with all of myself. I had chosen it within myself. I have read and continue to read a lot and I write in a pathological way. Reading and writing are a total addiction and in each of my writings I have made a promise to myself: I speak and will always speak about one of the loves of my life that I always find difficult to name because, I think, we need to have a lot of respect in pronounce his name: Diego Armando Maradona“. This is how Mario Artiaco introduces himself to Dire, the Neapolitan writer who has decided to make the written word his “profession” while remaining outside the logic of the market, of publishing houses. Who, in short, also set the rules for creativity. Artiaco is a craftsman of the word who, from the titles to the covers, from the characters of the text to the contents and up to the entire structure of the novels, is the only one “responsible”, the sole creator of his editorial activity.
“IO, LAURO AND THE ROSE” FIRST SELF NOVEL PRODUCED AT SALONE TORINO
Three novels have been published and, beyond the number of copies sold, two goals have already been achieved. His first work, “Io, Lauro e le rose”, is the first self-produced book to have been presented at the Turin International Book Fair. For the same title, and this is the second great success, Artiaco has exceeded the quota of one hundred presentations around Italy.
MARIO ARTIACO THE WRITER OF MEMORY
“I am a writer of memory who – he confesses to Dire – has chosen to self-publish despite the many editorial offers that have arrived. I believe and write in the love of truth and often the commercial dynamics are different. We have to make compromises For now, I have managed to remain free to write what I feel, what I have experienced, what I feel, the places I have been, the adventures that I have sought in some way and that are linked to my paths in the social sphere, in prisons, in communities for recovery from drug addiction, in the Rems, in the former opg, in hospitals. Places of meeting with the least fortunate because I believe that the meaning of life is to kneel next to the least and start walking with them again “.
WRITER BUT NOT ALONE
Artiaco, in fact, as well as writing, is involved as an educator in prisons and drug addiction communities. Furthermore, he is the national manager of an anti-bullying association. Among its activities there is no shortage of awareness campaigns in favor of organ and marrow donation brought to schools.
NOVELS TO GIVE VOICE TO THE LAST. THE NOT ‘EASY’ STORIES OF ARTIACO
“My writings – he underlines – all have a common thread. They are essentially novels or collections of fictionalized stories. They describe or try to restore life and dignity to people who have not had it or who have lost it or who had no voice.” To link “Me, Lauro and the roses”, “When she had to leave” and “21 stories that have no voice”, the three novels by Artiaco, love is also a feeling expressed in all its facets, “as infinite as the faces of a diamond can appear. However, starting from an absolute assumption – specifies the writer – Loving is letting go. No form can exist Property”. In all three writings there are difficult stories, blows to the heart, punches in the stomach that are difficult to digest. If in the debut novel the masters are three friends and their antics, naivety, dreams, unconsciousness, illness, homosexuality, abuse and “the death that puts an end to a life, not to a relationship”, in the second one lets oneself be enveloped by the greatest form of love common to every man, that for one’s mother. An all-encompassing love that doesn’t give up even on leaving for elsewhere, on definitive separation. Finally, in “21 stories”, released last January, Artiaco’s story becomes choral. The protagonists, told in 7 stories which each bear the name of a color and divided into three chapters, are the fruit of the writer’s imagination or perhaps not. Whether they are fragments of real encounters or more simply transpositions of an artistic thought is difficult to say, so much so that the book opens with the warning “any reference to existing people or to events that actually happened is purely coincidental”.
ARTIACO AND THE IMMERSURE LOVE FOR DIEGO ARMANDO MARADONA
Class of ’75, Artiaco is a Neapolitan who hopes to stay in the city in the shadow of Vesuvius: he draws inspiration from here, nourishes his stories and draws heavily on them. And even when they are the result of elsewhere it is through its Neapolitan nature that they are read and romanticized. His love for Maradona is no coincidence. This boundless passion “strongly ties my activity as a writer to this city, to what he represented on the playing field, outside the playing field, for his thoughts and for the man he was despite all his shadows the ones that we all have.” “He is so deeply linked to this city for social redemption through that talent that was granted to him, which in my opinion – he remarks – is only a pretext. That talent that God granted to him only so that he could be planetary. The message of his soul I think it’s shocking, very strong. Through football, which I repeat is a pretext for me, his message has reached as many people as possible. This strength of his in always opposing the powerful, in being close to the least of the Earth, for me as I write Lastly, it is an inseparable connection of souls that I have never felt with anyone in my life. With him – concludes Artiaco – there is a bond that goes beyond”.