What does contemporary art mean and above all how (and to what extent) does the definition of contemporary adapt to the continuous change of time and history? What relationship does the creative idea maintain with the historical, social and environmental context? With the present, past and future? The new edition of the Arp itinerant training residency will delve into the notion of White Cube, or the idea of exhibition space.
ARP-Art Residency Project is a cultural and training and exchange programme in the field of visual arts, now in its 11th edition. The programme is conceived and promoted by the Documentation Center of Contemporary Artistic Research Luigi Di Sarro, with the contribution of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) and other partners, aiming to provide the beneficiaries with an opportunity for training, career development and promotion.
The winners this year are Ludovica Tata as curator, and Monika Milosewski, Xanthe Scout Lardner-Burke, Pierpaolo Perrone, Anna Tappari e Jakub Zawadzki as artists.
The ARP – Pack & GO formula challenges young artists to conceive and create a work that represents its own idea of contemporaneity and is transportable everywhere, in order to allow maximum mobility. The work submitted by each participant was evaluated and chosen by a jury composed of Alessandra Atti Di Sarro, who directs the project, and professors Simone Ciglia and Carlotta Sylos Calò. A young curator was also selected and tasked to work in dialogue with the artists to create the concept for exhibition events.
The heart of this project formula is the Hic et Nunc workshop, conducted by teachers, researchers, curators and art historians. The workshop opens with the revealing of artworks hidden in the physical and emotional luggage of the participants and pushes the group to confront and discuss the most current themes of thought on the contemporary. Over the two weeks of talk, visits and meetings the “giving back” exhibition is born, with its first location at Center Luigi Di Sarro, offering new life and sense to the artworks, according to a multidisciplinary approach and respecting the exchange of ideas, techniques and languages.
The first location for the public to meet the artists and see the works is then Rome, on 1st October at the h.6 pm with the opening of the first iteration of the exhibition. The Pack & Go circuit will continue with two international events, under the umbrella of the 21st Day of the Contemporary – promoted by Amaci, Maeci and Mic, in Italy and in the world – fully welcoming the theme for the 2025 edition which is “training, understood as a broad and plural process that crosses education, research, exchange of experiences and knowledge”.
“Giving back” exhibitions are unique events of a single evening (or a little more), where the works are presented, inviting the public to enjoy the art and offer a feedback in conversation with the artists. This suggests a path that emphasizes the need for a kind of theoretical and practical nomadism – an approch that keeps contemporary artistic research open to new ideas and opportunities. The second iteration of the exhibition will take place at Kulturno Informativni Centar (KIC) in Zagreb on the 7th of October at 5pm, made possible by the contribution of the Italian Cultural Institute of Zagreb. The final event will follow on 10th October at 7pm at the Turnus Gallery in Warsaw, thanks to the contribution of the Italian Culture Institute of Warsaw.
This year’s Hic et Nunc workshop is conducted by Giulia Bordi, Simone Ciglia, Barbara D’Ambrosio, Matteo Piccioni, Carlotta Sylos Calò and Alessandra Troncone, with the participation of Michaela Limberis in Zagreb and Ilaria Bernardi in Warsaw.
What does contemporary art mean and, above all, how -and to what extent- can the definition of contemporary adapt to the continuous flow of time and history?
ARP returns with a new edition of its training residency to explore the notion of the contemporary. The White Cube will be at the center of the discussion. What relationship does the creative idea maintain with the place in which it is realized? What urgencies or motivations lead the Artist to position themselves inside, outside or beyond the White Cube? Is it the artwork that gives meaning to the space, or the spaces that gives meaning to the artwork?
Are you a young artist or curator with a multidisciplinary approach who is eager to engage with diverse perspectives?
As an artist, do you have the ability to create a work that can travel with you -one that represent your poetics- in an exchange of ideas, techniques and languages?
Discover the ARP- PACK AND GO!
Francesca Brugola – Italy, Rebecca D’Eramo – South Africa/Cyprus, Natalie Hasan – Cyprus, Biel Llinàs – Spain, Pia Truscott – South Africa and in the role of curator Angelica Piras – Italy, are the six young winners who will arrive in Rome to participate in the residency Hic et Nunc workshop n.3 which investigates the concept of contemporary.
They were selected by the jury composed of the Director of ARP Alessandra Atti Di Sarro, the curator, critic and art historian Simone Ciglia and the art historian and professor Carlotta Sylos Calò.
The workshop talk program is an exciting cavalcade between the most discussed themes of contemporary art debate, and will take place with a group of esteemed professors, scholars, researchers and art critics and curators. Most of the programs will take place at Centro Di Sarro and in Museums, archeological sites and other locations in Rome, but thanks to the hospitality of Fondazione Morra Greco the workshop will take the opportunity to have also a stage in Naples.
Return of the residency is the Pack and go circuit which allows the winning artists to show and discuss their work and the curator to create the concept of the events. Thanks to the participation of the Espronceda Institute of Art and Culture and the support and collaboration of the Italian Cultural Institutes of Barcelona, the 10th Edition of ARP, after Rome, will move to Spain with a new show that will fall within the initiatives of the 20th Contemporary Day promoted by Amaci-Mic-Maeci.
Young artists/curators, under the age of 30, from Europe, Africa and the Balkans can participate. Applications by 14 July 2024. Focus of the program, which will take place in September-October 2024, is the Hic et Nunc workshop which delves into the concept of the contemporary with a series of meetings and visits. Return of the residency is the Pack and go circuit which allows the winning artists to show and discuss their work and the curator to create the concept of the events.
With the theme HIC ET NUNC (here and now) and the pack and go formula, this ninth edition of the ARP-Art Residency Project continues the investigation into the concept of the contemporary by putting young talents to the test in relation to the handling of the work, the discussion of practices and methods and the search for a set-up solution that adapts to each different circumstance. The pack and go has planned three stages for the 9th Edition of ARP: Rome, Bienno in Val Camonica and Tirana in Albania. The exhibition events were created taking into account the peculiarities of the environments, whose spatial articulation made it possible to highlight the projects and requests of the five protagonists, who present distinct, but not distant from each other, points of observation of the contemporary. Preceded by moments of substantial discussion with experts in the sector on fundamental themes, such as the role of art and that of its innumerable actors, the first exhibition stage at the Centro Di Sarro in Rome was organized into thematic sections, based on language, materials and poetic. This is how Azzurra Pizzi (Italy), winner of the curator selection this year, introduces her presentation of the events. And in her presentation text she leads us to discover the 5 winning artists and their works.
Showing her intimate sphere, Samela Balazi (Albania) makes known her drawing practice and the use of natural pigment, ideal for transferring immediate authenticity to the raw canvas. Making her own the widespread practice of dry stone wall construction, Beatrice Caruso (Italy) presents her assemblages made up of irregular wooden wedges and collages to address the challenging topic of repositioning elsewhere. Convinced that art is a tool for answering questions relating to our personal growth, Anna Martynenko (Ukraine-Germany) with her deck of illustrated cards triggers an investigation mechanism aimed at exploring our personality between static and consolidated positions and new openings of acceptance of the most rejected side of ourselves. Disciple of the ritual of walking Cheriese Dilrajh (South Africa) presents photographic montages, whose composite aspect reveals simultaneous visions elaborated by synaesthetically experiencing the melting pot offered by the Fordsburg market in Johannesburg, a place with a difficult past now full of lively realities. Trespassing into the field of performance and using the sound medium, Miriro Mwandiambira (Zimbabwe) intends to bring attention to the role of the woman-artist free from conventions and capable of fighting for social redemption. (from the text by Azzurra Pizzi in the ARP9Ed catalogue)
A work that reflects the contemporary to be carried with you in hand luggage. This is the challenge for 5 winning artists and a curator of the ninth edition of the ARP – PACK AND GO competition: a residency-workshop that questions and investigates the notion of the contemporary.
ARP – Art Residency Project is the artistic residency programme, conceived and created by the Luigi Di Sarro Centre, with the aim of promoting a disposition towards intercultural dialogue and the comparison of practices and methods in the world of art too. For its ninth edition it once again proposed the PACK AND GO formula, that is, the challenge of conceiving and creating a work that represents one’s idea of contemporaneity and which is easily transportable to allow maximum mobility.
We live in difficult years and even for artists, especially emerging young people, the slowdown, if not the forced blockade, of social relations created by the covid-19 pandemic, wars and the economic crisis has represented and represents an obstacle. The ARP program has always worked by promoting educational trips, but with this formula it wants to go further and attempt to cross not only geographical borders, but also emotional ones.
It was thought that a project that started from the analysis of the idea of the contemporary would offer fertile ground for returning to dialogue, confrontation, opposition and sharing.
The young artists selected Samela Balazi, Beatrice Caruso, Cheriese Dilrajh, Anna Martynenko and Mirino Mwandiambira and Azzurra Pizzi as curator come from European, Balkan and African countries.
The jury that selects the artists is made up of Alessandra Atti Di Sarro, Simone Ciglia and Carlotta Sylos Calò.
The Hic et Nunc workshop n.2 will be attended among others experts by Angelo Capasso, Simone Ciglia, Heidi Erdmann, Carlotta Sylos Calò, Matteo Piccioni and Alessandra Troncone, curated by Alessandra Atti Di Sarro.
The jury, Alessandra Atti Di Sarro, Simone Ciglia and Carlotta Sylos Calò, has chosen the young winners who will arrive in Rome at the end of September. The group of winners will participate in the workshop which will investigate the notion of the contemporary. Here you can read the profiles of the winners.
ARP is the cultural and educational exchange program in the visual arts, conceived and promoted by the Centro di Documentazione della Ricerca Artistica Contemporanea Luigi Di Sarro, with the contribution of MAECI – Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Media Aid Onlus and with the collaboration of Rainbow Media NPO.
