Residence in Salento / “Vinculum”
In collaboration with Casa delle Agriculture in Castiglione d’Otranto (LE)
With the participation of Luigi Coppola and Grupppo Gbr (Berlin)
Workshop curated by Prof. Anna Muskardin
The workshop aims to experiment with the potential of art connected to agroecological processes, through an approach focused on caring and repairing, building a necessary connection between humans and the landscape.
The educational residency, which combines artistic practice, permaculture techniques and political ecology, will take place in Puglia, where a landscape and environmental drama is unfolding that involves millions of olive trees suffering from rapid desiccation. Contagion, epidemic, infected area: words that have been part of the vocabulary in Salento for a long time now. The landscape has been shaped by a relentless monoculture of olive trees, and now only their ghosts remain. Everyone commonly speaks of dead olive trees, but most of the time these trees still have living roots. Even if they are no longer productive, it is necessary to live with these ghosts and take responsibility, thinking that we are the landscape.
The only possible pacification is to work in a generative way, recovering direct contact with the ecosystem to which we belong.
Luigi Coppola is an artist, researcher, agroecologist, and promoter of participatory projects and public art. His artistic practice is united by an innovative relationship to the commons through actions capable of activating collective potentials and imaginaries, starting from the analysis of specific social, political and cultural contexts. He is a co-activator of the movement linked to the Casa delle Agriculture in Castiglione d’Otranto (Lecce) with which, in addition to participating in the artistic direction of the Notte Verde: Agriculture, utopie e comunità festival, he develops the long-term projects of the Parco Comune dei Frutti Minori (since 2013) and Scuola di Agriculture (2018).
Grupppo GbR (Berlin) is a transdisciplinary creative studio spanning visual communication, videomaking and storytelling, founded in 2022 by two Italian professionals and one Brazilian. The aim is to help institutions, artists and communities communicate values and tell stories, transforming different media into visual strategies. Grupppo collaborates with local and international organisations, especially in the cultural sector.
Casa delle Agriculture is an organisation active in the defence of agro-biodiversity, in inclusion practices and in the experimentation of new models of resistance in marginal territories. It has been operating since 2012 with the objectives of reviving abandoned land, repopulating the countryside, generating a sustainable economy and strengthening community ties. Among the various cultural activities organised, the “Notte Verde: agriculture, utopie e comunità” festival has become an unmissable event for all those interested in natural farming practices in the Salento area. The association is very active on the social inclusion front through the projects “Scuola di Agriculture” with young people and migrants, “Verso l’agriludoteca di comunità” for the inclusion of children and people with different abilities, workshops, residencies and educational visits by schools of all levels.
The association experiments with the circular economy and acts in symbiosis with the agricultural cooperative of the same name, which is based at the Mulino di Comunità, a stone mill as well as a multipurpose cereal processing centre and a creator of good employment (considered for this reason a symbol of resistance).
Communications Office of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome
Coordination: Prof. Guglielmo Gigliotti g.gigliotti@abaroma.it
Collaboration: Chiara Picco, Martina Macchia, Marianna Pontillo comunicazione@abaroma.it