Cabine d'Autore a Procida 2022

Five cabins painted across Procida — the island of culture, captured in five images.

Cabine d'Autore a Procida is a series of five electrical distribution installations created by artist Neve in 2022 across Procida, Naples, for E-Distribuzione (Enel Group), on the occasion of Procida Capitale della Cultura Italiana 2022.

"Cabine d'Autore a Procida 2022" is a project commissioned by E-Distribuzione for Procida, Italian Capital of Culture 2022. Five electrical distribution installations across the island were painted by Neve — each one a distinct mural, together forming a visual itinerary across Procida's streets and seafront. The project was inspired by Elsa Morante's novel "L'isola di Arturo" (Premio Strega, 1957), whose heart is set on Procida. The unifying visual element across all five works is the thread — "il filo" — taken in its many forms and meanings: the thread of a fishing net, of embroidery, of weaving, of the horizon line, of sunrays, of the boundary between sea and sky. In Neve's reading, the thread figures simultaneously as literary motif (Arturo's thread of dreams through childhood and the island), as identity symbol (the material culture of a fishing island, its nets and looms), and as the metaphor E-Distribuzione uses for its own network — the electrical cable as the thread that connects. The five works are: **Il filo d'oro della libertà** — The golden thread of freedom. The thread as liberation, as the line that leads out of the labyrinth. **Il riccio di mare** — The sea urchin: the signature creature of Procida's seafront, rendered hyperrealistically in cross-section — the spiny black shell opening to reveal the red-orange interior. Painted on a small street-level electrical cabinet integrated into the everyday life of the island. **La rete dei pescatori** — The fishermen's net: monochromatic hyperrealist hands engaged with a vivid red fishing net against a white ground. The labour of the hands, the weight of the net, the colour of work. **Le mani di Arturo** — The hands of Arturo: the hands of the novel's protagonist, bound by the red thread that runs through the book — childhood, desire, island, limit. **Sul filo delle stelle** — On the thread of the stars: a single hand, index finger raised, with a blue thread wrapped around the finger that extends upward to trace a constellation — the stars connected dot by dot, the sky as a net, navigation as poetry. The project also extended to 17 street boxes across the island, decorated by students of ABANA (Accademia delle Belle Arti di Napoli), each inspired by one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. From the official project text: "Il filo come metafora di legami e di connessioni, come quelle che guidano il nostro lavoro quotidiano. [...] Neve riesce, rimandando ad alcune visioni e dettagli del libro, a rappresentarli in forme e significati diversi: nelle cabine vediamo i fili delle reti, come pure quelli del ricamo, delle trame e dell'ordito, ma questi elementi possono pure disegnare l'orizzonte e delimitare il mare o raffigurare i raggi del sole e le linee di confine." — E-Distribuzione, "Cabine d'Autore a Procida 2022"