POZI: places and landscapes of tomorrow. Curated by Giggs Kgole, with a text by Buhle Mathole. From 2 to 6 July 2024.

The folds of the void, is the exhibition that concludes the CL/PA – the travel project created thanks to the support of the Italian Council (X Edition 2021). Giulia Fumagalli + Aran Ndimurwanko. Opening 19 November 2022 h.17-20.

How to tell two distant places after having had an intense experience of them?
What shapes can they take? What in them can be considered full?
What, instead, empty? And how these entities so different can dialogue?

These are some of the questions that revolve around The folds of the void, the exhibition by Giulia Fumagalli (Carate Brianza – MI, 1990) with Aran Ndimurwanko (Trento, 1991) which take place at the Centro Luigi Di Sarro in Rome, from 19 November to 23 December 2022. Critical text by Alice Evangelisti.

It is a heterogeneous selection of works resulting from the double residency that the two artists experienced during the spring 2022, first in Chile and then in Panama.
The result is thus their personal and artistic vision of these two places, geographically close, but completely at the antipodes. On the one hand, the Chilean landscape, visually open due to the immense desert expanse, which, although empty, is capable of triggering continuous connections. On the other hand, the Panamanian one, visually closed due to the presence of the impenetrable jungle, which fills the eyes and the mind, overpopulating them with images.

Two completely opposite experiences, which mutually activate sensations of fullness and
of emptiness, opposing them but at the same time making them also become the consequence of the other. Thus, focusing on the extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics of these two places, Fumagalli and Ndimurwanko give their interpretation. If Fumagalli investigates two natural elements water and air – which materialize in light and poetic installations able to evoke their presence, Ndimurwanko shapes the earth, giving life to works full of daily rituals.

The exhibition is part of the project CL/PA – the travel by Giulia Fumagalli, created thanks to the support of the Italian Council (X edition, 2021), a program for the international promotion of Italian art of the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture.

CL / PA – the travel. Giulia Fumagalli’s project, created with Aran Ndimurwanko, between Chile and Panama is among the winners of the Italian Council 10 – Development of talents. The trip took place as part of the La Wayaka Current residency program. Centro Di Sarro, which is one of the cultural partners of the project, will host the final exhibition next fall.

CL / PA – the travel is a nomadic artistic residency project in remote natural environments and among indigenous peoples.

CL / PA – the travel took place as part of the residency program at @lawayakacurrent.
The project is supported by the Italian Council (2021), Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity #DGCC, Ministry of Culture @mic_italia, @creativita_contemporanea, with the partnership of Spazienne @spazienne and Centro Luigi Di Sarro @arp_art_residency_project.

In a world marked by fast times, limitations and rules imposed by society, CL / PA – the travel represents a possibility of returning to the origins, to a personal time and to new possible visions. An archive on time, form and materials. A search for comparison and dialogue with different artistic personalities, which today is less and less.

The project of Giulia Fumagalli , who won the Italian Council Edition 10 – Development of Talents and therefore enjoys the support of the MIC Contemporary Creativity General Direction, it will be built in collaboration with Aran Ndimurwanko, an artist from Trentino Region of Italy, whose practice is linked to African culture and use of natural materials. The need to face the path in a continuous comparison with another artist arises from the curiosity to understand if formally and conceptually different practices, inserted in the same situation, can create an exchange that goes beyond a simple dialogue.

CL / PA – the travel will begin composing images, drawings, sketches, writings and works of art along the way: the residence La Wayaka Desert 26 ° S (Chile, Atacama Desert 5-26 April 2022); the itinerary in northern Chile (26 April-4 May 2022); the itinerary between Panama and Panama City (May 5-9, 2022) and finally the residence La Wayaka Tropic 08 ° N (Panama, Guna Yala Archipelago 10-31 May 2022) developing a research in dialogue with other artists, curators and collaborators of the plan.

This itinerary will be an opportunity to explore new artistic perspectives, to reflect on the current situation in the world, on one’s position in the social / relational system and on the ecological question. An archive in the making, which will take shape gradually, with interventions of various kinds, the result of which could materialize in visions and works that are formally distant or in works made even by several hands.

At the end of the travel period, all the materials collected will flow into a publication, produced with the support of Spazienne – Garbagnate Milanese and the works born even later from the maturation of the experience will be exhibited at the Centro Luigi Di Sarro – Rome (15 November – 15 December 2022).

We followed the stages of the journey, both here on the website and on our IG account @arp_art_residency_project, as the artists sent us updates and previews.

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THE STORY of Giulia Fumagalli: 🦙 Desert 23 ° S – Atacama Desert, Chile

Why did you go to the desert?
“I started to feel the need for a time interval that was only mine. Most of all I needed to breathe and the desert is the perfect place to stop the state of apnea and start listening to your body.
I was told that we keep time in our hearts, that our beats mark a rhythm that we must learn to respect by living, walking, breathing “.

What did you do while you where in the desert?
“I walked far and wide, trying to follow it in every possible direction, because only by walking can you savor its essence.
There is not much to do in the desert.
What you see are sand and stones, sand and stones in a succession of surfaces that constantly change patterns.In the desert you are alone, but you are never really alone.
Pachamama is everywhere: in the stones, in the sand, in the salt. A void so full that it made me feel extremely good.”

What did you learn from the desert?
“I have learned to consider things as a whole, appreciating their duality.
Like that night in the desert, lying on the sand, when I was told about the Licanantay constellations. They told me not only of bright stars, but of black shapes whose outlines are outlined by light.
A lama, a snake, a fox, and many other characters draw the celestial vault without illuminating it and it was the first time I realized that I had never been able to observe the sky in its complexity.”

Desert 23°S – Deserto di Atacama, Cile

Return. Rome-Berlin The exchange project with Verein Berliner Künstler will exhibit 5 italian artists. Opening 13 September, 6pm.

The project Return Berlin-Rome | Rome-Berlin, born from an idea by Susanne Kessler, promotes the collaboration of Centro Luigi Di Sarro with the VBK-Verein Berliner Künstler and aims to start an exchange between the artistic realities of Italy and Germany, through the dialogue between the two capitals where the proposing associations are located.

Andrea Aquilanti, Angelo Casciello, Veronica Montanino, Pamela Pintus and Sara Spizzichino are the italian artists on show at the VBK-Gallery, from September 13th to October 6th 2019.

The project, carried out in two stages, brought the works of 5 German artists (Birgit Borggrebe, Jürgen Kellig, Susanne Kessler, Nele Probst, Marianne Stoll) to Centro Luigi Sarro in Rome in April 2019.

RETURN Berlin/Rome 2019 April 4th – May 4th. Exchange project with VEREIN BERLINER KÜNSTLER under patronage of Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Berlin. Opening 4.4.2019, 6-8pm

The project RETURN Berlin-Rome | Rome-Berlin, born from an idea by Susanne Kessler, is curated by the Centro Di Sarro in collaboration with the Verein Berliner Künstler, and under the patronage of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Berlin, with the intention of starting an exchange between the artistic realities of Italy and Germany through the dialogue between the two cities where the proposing associations are based. The project involves two parts: RETURN Berlin-Rome will exhibit the works of 5 German artists (Birgit Borggrebe, Jürgen Kellig, Susanne Kessler, Nele Probst, Marianne Stoll) and the works at the Centro Di Sarro, from 4 April to 4 May 2019 subsequently RETURN Rome-Berlin will see the exhibition of the works of 5 Italian artists (Andrea Aquilanti, Angelo Casciello, Veronica Montanino, Pamela Pintus, Sara Spizzichino) at the Galerie VBK-Verein Berliner Künstler, from 13 September to 6 October 2019.

Birgit Borggrebe.Born in Arnsberg, lives and works in Berlin.
“The harsh and abstract character of our cities, the globalization of the modern world, are in contrast with what remains of Nature: here a tree, a herd of goats there, yet even the clouds themselves shine with suspicious colors. Borggrebe’s images are kaleidoscopes, poetic encounters with a nightmarish reality that could soon cover a large part of our planet. An aesthetic protest spreads from the paintings: that our world is not as it should be. Although it seems strange, the futuristic and apocalyptic landscapes depicted in his paintings are permeated by something that could be described as a “nostalgia for Paradise”. (Kai Michel, Zurich)

Jürgen Kellig. Born in Berlin where he lives and works.
My drawings deal with rhythm and structure, in particular with the interaction between chaos and order, with the similarities between micro and macrocosm. Although reworked in a concrete way, these works can recall organic networks, as well as technological networks. (Jürgen Kellig)
Jürgen Kellig draws freehand. The accuracy of its graphic elements does not follow a program, a pre-established scheme. It simulates the certainty of geometric laws, as in a free zone between micrological proximity and macrological distance: a subject already addressed by the author in previous works. Consequently, the titles of his drawings suggest conceptual clarity: “notation”, “score”, “interconnection”, “civilization”. They transform images into conceptual associations. Images that are the result of associative processes related to a graphic self-referentiality, fixing point as point, line as line and plan as plan or their arbitrary succession. (Wolfgang Siano, from the text in the catalog “Implacable, between line and line and beyond”)

Susanne Kessler. Born in Wuppertal in 1955, she lives and works in Berlin and Rome.
She studied painting and graphics in Berlin at the Hochschule der Künste (UDK) and in London at the Royal College of Art (RCA). She prefers large installations, both indoors and outdoors. She has taught at California State University (CSU) and at the City University of New York (CUNY). Business trips have taken her to Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mali, Pakistan, India and Iran. All these places have left traces in her work. Her installations, sometimes ephemeral, are published in numerous catalogs and books.
The former director of the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Raimund Stecker describes the artist’s method as follows: “Susanne Kessler constantly plays with separation and contact, closeness and distance, reality and illusion. The tangible is sometimes lost in the incomprehensible and the inconceivable becomes tangible, the chaotic becomes cosmic, the messy sometimes rational, and the certainties seem confused “.

Nele Probst. Since 1995 he lives and works in Berlin.
From 1989 to 1993 he studied Visual Communication, Fachhochschule für Gestaltung, Mannheim with Prof. Günter Slabon, Prof. Wolf Magin, Prof. Roland Fürst, Prof. Eckhard Neumann. From 1993 to 1995 he lived and worked in Hamburg.
In the works of Nele Probst, both in painting and in sculpture and installations, the additive process, understood as collection and thickening, plays an important role. The narrative moment and its associations are reflected both in the content and in the structure of his works. Color and material are in the foreground. His playful, experimental and sensitive relationship with materials and composition creates a sense of lightness and joy that characterizes his work and involves the viewer.

Marianne Stoll. Born in Darmstadt, lives and works in Berlin.
She studied art history with Prof. Uwe M. Schneede, Ludwig Maximilian Universität of Munich.
Through sculptures and drawings (…) Marianne Stoll explores in a playful but always serious, lucid and surprising way the many facets of living, of the house, of the origins – and of the constant threat of loss of a dwelling, of a shelter. In her compositions, Marianne recalls the question of how one should inhabit the World-Home, how to settle into this dwelling, which has not been handed over to humanity on a turnkey basis. With daring changes of perspective, the small and the large, the solid and the fragile, the dangerous and the harmless come together in the act of drawing (…) the graphic forms satisfy and nourish each other, in a strange analogy with creating a habitat for humans. (Dorothée Bauerle-Willert, from the text in the catalog “Dream Houses”)

Thanks to Giorgio Benni for photographs of the exhibition in slideshow.

CUBA – Erik Chevalier and Mauro Magni in Havana

Havana / An experience in barrio Cantarrana

between cooperation and culture Centro Luigi Di Sarro and CISP-Sviluppo dei popoli together for the upgrading of a popular district in cuban capital

Nadia Angelucci e Tiziana Bartolini  (extract from NoiDonne 2 gennaio 2012)

One of the interventions made during the Italian Culture Week in Cuba is what created the Centro Luigi Di Sarro and the CISP – International Committee for the Development of Peoples. Two women, Alessandra Atti Di Sarro – journalist and vice president of Centro Luigi Di Sarro – and Paola Larghi – responsible for Cisp-Development projects of peoples in Cuba – have been the protagonists and builders of this visionary idea that combines development with culture and art.

To Alessandra Atti Di Sarro we asked how this project was born?
CISP brings in the Cantarrana barracks in Havana, with the artists of the Huellas group, an urban redevelopment project through art painting houses according to the inhabitants, which I had to visit last year. From that afternoon passed between the painted houses of Cantarrana, a reportage was born that was then transmitted by TG2 Stories and a collaboration with Paola Larghi that was developed thanks to the invitation of the Italian Embassy in Cuba to present a project with the Centro Luigi Di Sarro for the 2011 Culture Week. We brought two artists selected by Centro Di Sarro, Erik Chevalier and Mauro Magni to Havana for the “VISUS” exhibition, painting and photography works (which was held on 22 / 11 to 4/12 at the Provisional Center of Design Luz y Oficios) and connect the two italian artist with the group of Cuban artists Huellas to propose the sketch of a mural to be made on one of Cantarrana’s houses as an interaction / workshop between Italians and Cubans . Chevalier and Magni have made a real site-specific with 4 hands. The work for the project, with the participation of the Cuban group, lasted 3 days, at the end of which there was a large party with music groups in the barrio that animated from the afternoon to night the alley where the mural was discovered in the evening by the  Italian Ambassador Marco Baccin. Also part of the project was a meeting of artists and cooperation actors dedicated to the theme “art and urban transformation” to talk about a new international cooperation that goes for a concept of development increasingly linked to the cultural factor.

So, all comes out from a meeting of women …
We had an instant understanding! Perhaps because we are of the same generation and we have in common cultural background and also many ideals. She loves art, theater and music, and she’s convinced that one has to fight for a better world, that’s why she works in the field of cooperation for development. I have always pursued a serious commitment in the world of international cooperation, I make my personal volunteering through my journalism profession to the South of the world, and in addition in my experience there is culture as a skill, I have been working on it in Rai, italian television for years, and culture is also the mission of my family’s activity with the ‘Centro Luigi Di Sarro’ in Rome, entitled to my uncle, whom I care about international exchanges.

Are you satisfied with the result?
To see hundreds of people attending the festival for the inauguration of the mural and to see that during the final concert people was busy all the time to photographing or getting shot in front of the opera … well, it was amazing! Collaboration among artists was rich in ideas; Chevalier and Magni (the first works as a restorer and decorator with tromp l’oeil, the second as decorator and set designer) have been able to offer many technical information and receive interesting information on recycled and alternative materials that we do not usually use. And more: at the exhibition opening and at the round table there was lots of participants, especially young people, a sign that we also focused on the theoretical point of view. And in times when culture is considered irrelevant or even useless, it was, yes, a real satisfaction.

 

CUBA – Un Projecto Especifico – Paolo Bini and Catherine Biocca in Havana

Un Projecto Especifico is the installation made in Havana by Paolo Bini and Catherine Biocca for the XIII Weeks of Italian Culture 2010.
The two artists selected by Centro Luigi Di Sarro at the invitation of the Italian Embassy in Cuba exhibited their works in the halls of the Convent of Saint Francis at Old Havana and during their stay they designed and built a site-specific that represented their encounter with Cuban reality. This prolific experience has been made with a catalog that collects the photographic narrative of the exhibition done in Havana, accompanied by the texts of Ambassador Marco Baccin and Alessandra Atti Di Sarro who curated the project. For some years, the Centro Luigi Di Sarro has carried out such artistic initiatives in different areas of the world with the aim of promoting the encounter, knowledge and confrontation. The exhibition was repeated in Rome, to account for the Cuban experience, but also to open the debate on the importance of cultural dialogue, especially in the field of contemporary artistic research and experimentation.

 

Artist Proof Studio (APS) in Rome. “YOUTH, DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL COHESION”.

Opening  18 june 2013, 6 pm

in collaboration with South African Embassy in Italy  Themba Khumalo, Minekulu Ngoyi, Nompumelo Ngoma e Nkosinathi Simelane,  young artists from Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg, show at Centro Luigi Di Sarro to celebrate the South African Youth Day.

It has been 37 years since the Soweto (an acronym for the Southern Western Townships, Johannesburg) uprising, and to commemorate the day, officially called Youth Day, the Embassy of South Africa will celebrate under the theme “YOUTH, DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL COHESION”.

The June 16, 1976 youth fought for freedom and the creation of a democratic state. Today’s youth activism is focused on successfully tackling the challenges of poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, personal development and economic freedom.

It is under this premise that the Embassy of South Africa has collaborated with Artist Proof Studio’s who have sent four highly talented artists: Ms Nompumelelo Ngoma, Messer Themba Khumalo, Nkosinathi Simelane and Minekulu Ngoyi to showcase their skills and talent to an Italian audience.

From 19-22 June, the artists will be painting panels under the aforementioned theme at Isola Tiberina in commemoration for Youth Day. The show will be interactive, meaning that whilst the artists work, the audience will have the opportunity to meet and engage with the artists and discuss what the theme means to them, this will then be captured visually by the artists on their canvas. Ultimately, what is left behind is an illustration that has been captured by South African artists about how people view the youth, democracy and social cohesion in their everyday society. In the same days the APS artists show their works at CENTRO LUIGI DI SARRO.

The Government of South Africa believes in the empowerment of its youth, and having the artists present, in Rome, during youth month (so-called as Youth Day falls on this month), projects like this help expose our youth to a different perception about the world and opens up their minds creatively, which in turn leads to job opportunities.

LINDEKA QAMPI SHOWS AT 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP VILLAGE IN ROME ‘DAILY LIFE’ PROJECT

It’s called “Daily Life” and is a self-presentation project. The picture of Africa seen with the eyes of Africa itself. Lindeka Qampi‘s photographs will feature, from June 22, 2010, at Fifa Fan Fest, in the magnificent location of Piazza di Siena. The event, organized by the Centro Luigi Di Sarro and Erdmann Contemporary together with the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Rome, proposes the work of the South African photographer, known beyond the boundaries of his nation, just for the talent and heart that puts in every shot. Qampi lives in Cape Town, in Khayellitsha township, a huge suburb where more than a million people live.

In the Lindeka Qampi’s pictures formal areas and slums, but also gestures and glances in which misery, joy of life and great dignity are mixed: everything is enclosed in her shots that capture the most salient features of daily life, in a still poor context, but with deeply rooted habits and traditions. The selection chosen for the occasion portrays the passion of the black community for football.

The Daily Life project promoters will sell Qampi’s photos and will send the full proceeds to the artist to allow she to continue her work. With these funds, in fact, her self-presentation project will be able to go on. As the same said: “After graduation, I sold my clothes all my life, just like my mother did. I started taking photos only a few years ago. I started photographing my family. Then I went to weddings, though I was not invited, and sometimes the people were surprised, seeing that I was taking pictures and not knowing who I was. I did this to learn. ”

 

 

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