Art therapy: How one man transformed an abandoned Italian town to help his son

A handful of American and Neapolitan tourists stand on the dirt side of a road overlooking the valley below them. Giovanni, a flamboyant 57-year-old is in the middle of the road wearing a collapsible black top hat and a green military jacket. He’s about to begin the tour of his art village.

In-between the mumbling of the tourists, someone screams and jumps out of the way of something on the ground. Someone exclaims “Oh, it’s just a worm, relax.”

Giovanni lunges forward and gets on his hands and knees, and says: “No, no, no, don’t touch it!”

He starts to pretend to kiss the worm and explains that worms are good for not just the town but nature as a whole.

“Does anybody want to kiss him? Maybe, if you’re lucky, you can turn into a princess.”

Giovanni Casale is the founder of a unique art project in the foothills of the Apennine mountain range in the southern Italian region of Campania. Over the past several years, he and the many artists he has invited to his adopted village have turned this once grey and depopulated place into an outdoor museum. His inspiration? Partly to bring back life to the village where his family came from, but also as to create art therapy for his son Pasquale, who suffers from encephalitis.

Encephalitis is a condition that causes brain swelling and most commonly effects young children and the elderly. Its causes aren’t always known, but can be caused by bacterial, fungal or viral infections, as well as issues stemming from a person’s immune system. 

Pasquale has undergone multiple surgeries as part of his treatment. This resulted in him losing some of his cognitive abilities and a spark that his father said was once there.

After moving to Valogno more than a decade ago, Giovanni noticed that Pasquale was