On Monday, Nov. 7, at Hubout (a coworking space and laboratory for social innovation of the Municipality of Matera) we were guests of the Matera-Basilicata 2019 Foundation and Open Design School for the official start of the project “Creative Communities,” Euro-Mediterranean Co-creation Residency Program – In Memory of David Sassoli
Creative Communities
Launched on June 26, the call for proposals promoted by Fondazione Matera-Basilicata 2019 and Open Design School saw the selection of four creative groups from all over Europe who, over the course of a three-week artistic residency, from Nov. 7-27, 2022, in Basilicata, will develop artistic projects “through a process of co-creation with the community and local creative and cultural enterprises.”
These are the common elements of the creative projects that will be developed:
- Activating Communities;
- Leaving a mark on the territory;
- Art as a tool to change the perception of rural areas;
- Cultural production in the service of social benefit.
The local communities and the creative projects
At the meeting, in addition to the young creatives selected by the call, were the mayors and the creative and cultural organizations of the hosting municipalities and the enterprises of the Lucanian creative scene (already Project Leader co-producers of Matera 2019) that will foster the co-creation process with the communities, including Casa Netural, which has been working for years on regeneration and social innovation projects in rural areas.
Forenza, Rionero in Vulture, Stigliano and Tursi are the four Lucanian municipalities selected by the committee to host the residencies.
Forenza (PZ), an example of a small inland municipality in Basilicata, will host the project ‘[R]existenzminimum – Resisting depopulation, decolonising imagery and reclaiming a narrative’ by Italian artist Marco Piscopo. A project of community self-narrative, through the theme of the existence of certain cities and the resistance of their inhabitants. Compagnia teatrale Gommalacca and the local Pro Loco will support him.
In Rionero in Vulture (PZ), protagonist of the Nazi-Fascist massacre of September 1943, will take place “Last Things” , project about historical memory from the Italian artist Anna Serlenga: an investigation that starts from the collection of the memories of some citizens, protagonists of the micro-stories that marked the evolution and radical changes that the city went through. Accompanying Anna in her documentation work are the Allelammie association and the Vulcanica cultural association.
The public art experience developed in Stigliano (MT) by the association organising the appARTEngo Festival will be intertwined with the project combining food and art by the Dutch duo Anne Fehres & Luke Conroy. An initiative to celebrate the village’s cultural heritage through food, sharing and art, the end result of which will be the presentation of several large-scale photomontage artworks installed in the community’s public space. Also in Stigliano, the Artepollino association will map and catalogue the wall art works already present in the village, and the art installations that will come to life during the residency.
Basilicata Calling
In Tursi (MT), Casa Netural will join the Tursi Digital Nomads association, which has set up a beautiful reception project for digital nomads in the village, in supporting the Italian-German collective Happy Place in the development of the project “Basilicata Calling – A personal link with rural Italy”.
After an initial online meeting with the collective a week ago, yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting its members in person: Lucia Balestri, Emanuele Benincasa, Alexander Bock and Umberto Pinoni, who in the coming weeks will become temporary citizens of Tursi.
“The name Basilicata Calling,” the creative collective told us, “has two meanings: literally, to see an incoming call, reminiscent of how the older generations were waiting for us to stay in touch after we moved; and figuratively, to experience a strong impulse for a particular lifestyle – like a vocation – that reflects a desire to connect with the value of our tangible and intangible cultural heritage. In November, we want to take the cultural heritage of Basilicata abroad with a series of video calls. Our project opens a digital pathway for European teleworkers and Italian expats to engage with the cultural heritage of rural Italy by meeting and interacting directly with its citizens. Within the local community, it triggers a creative and participatory process of storytelling and knowledge sharing, in which young enablers use technology to interact with experts and help convey their knowledge to an international audience”.
For Casa Netural, artist residencies are a very useful tool for fostering the development of small villages (here an article on the recent experience of our partner Wonder Grottole), and involving citizens in the co-creation process is always an exciting adventure. We are now looking forward to three intense weeks of immersion in the culture of small villages and can’t wait to tell you all about the development of this new project. Keep following our channel to stay updated!
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“Creative Communities. Euro-Mediterranean co-creation residency programme – In memory of David Sassoli” is a project promoted by the Fondazione Matera-Basilicata 2019 and Open Design School in partnership with GO!2025 (Nova Gorica-Gorizia), the European Youth Capital Tirana EYC 2022 and under the patronage of the European Capitals of Culture 2022 Esch (Luxembourg), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Novi Sad (Serbia).
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