Down a side street in Catania’s Borgo district there is a workshop worth finding.
It is not an atelier and not a tourist shop: it is a place where papier-mâché becomes a language, and salvaged paper — newspapers, cardboard, offcuts of wood — is turned into light, gentle objects. Sculptures, lamps, little figure theatres.
Cartura has been here since 1998. It was founded by the illustrator Alfredo Guglielmino, on the idea that working with your hands can become a way of thinking. Inside there is also Tattà, a small theatre for intimate performances — for children and adults, with paper puppets and stories built out of poor materials and a great deal of care.
It does not announce itself. There is no showy sign. It is a place you find, or that someone tells you about. People who visit tend to come back — for the quiet that settles around the paper and the hands.
Workshops are open to anyone who feels like trying. No particular skill required. Just the curiosity to look at ordinary things differently.
Borgo district, Catania. Current opening hours on Google Maps.