How did you begin your artistic activity and how do you finance your activities?
Sustainability, upcycling, architecture and participation: these are the keywords that condense my work. I graduated in architecture with a focus on urban planning and I currently live and work in Italy, in Santarcangelo di Romagna. During university, I began my artistic experimentation, cultivating various personal experiences in parallel with the academic training, investigating the expressive potential of waste and how to reuse it in artifacts and architectural works. Since 2003, I have been designing and creating art installations, works of environmental art and upcycling, interactive installations and stage sets using recycled materials, through the methodology of self-production and co-designing, with a focus on the link between places and their history and traditions. I dedicate myself to creative workshops, environmental education, training and participatory design processes with a special focus on children in collaboration with public institutions, schools, associations, cooperatives, art collectives and private individuals.
What is the Grumento Partecipata Project?
Grumento Partecipata was born in 2019 from the public commission of the Matera Basilicata 2019 Foundation and the funds made available for Matera European Capital of Culture 2019 in which several municipalities in the Basilicata region were involved, in order to expand the cultural offer at the regional level. The project envisaged the creation of several artistic installations participated by the citizens through self-construction workshops. The itinerary was designed to enhance the historical center of Grumento Nova (a town in Basilicata) and relate it to the territory, in particular to the archaeological site of the ancient Roman city of Grumentum, which is located on the slopes of the hill, where the new town stands, creating a connection with the small medieval village and the new town library to become a widespread attraction for the territory.
What are the goals of your activities in general and the Grumento Partecipata project?
My art practice always has the goals of raising awareness to reduce the environmental impact through art and engaging citizens in creative processes. Grumento Partecipata was an important experience to work in. Paying full respect to the landscape we thought about integrating innovative elements that could be both functional and decorative.
The 3 works realized in the project were:
1. Aerial Stomáchion: suspended sheets that shade the walk along the streets of the historic center, decorated with original geometric compositions inspired by the Stomáchion, an ancient puzzle game also practiced by the ancient Romans. The decorations were sewn by a group of women from the village with recycled fabrics and were designed by the boys and girls during educational workshops in the primary school. Many of the women who made this action possible had already participated in several of my projects, including PARTE DI NOI.
2. The amphitheater seat: a walkable structure on the village belvedere overlooking the archaeological site, from where you can admire the Roman amphitheater itself, creating a visual and emotional bridge where ancient and contemporary meet and enhance each other.
3. Archaeological trail in the historic center: a trail that maps out the spaces where some of the archaeological materials or artifacts that have been recovered from Grumentum and reused throughout history are clearly visible.
What target was included in this project?
The project involved the entire citizenry of Grumento – from schools, where about 100 students, teachers and parents were involved, to municipal staff, third sector organizations and all other citizens. The co-design and construction work included different targets with the aim of creating inclusive installations and pathways.
What is the impact of your activities so far?
In the case of Grumento Partecipata, it was very important to continue to collaborate with people who had already worked with me in the past on similar initiatives, giving continuity to the participatory processes of self-construction from recovered materials. The challenge of connecting different points of interest in the historic center to create an integrated route capable of promoting the town itself and reinforcing the value of the archaeological area was a complex process that led to the exploration and discovery of different spaces.
The valorisation and reinterpretation in a contemporary key has been an important result, also achieved thanks to the workshops focused on the modernisation of ancient games, forms and rituals.
How was the activity promoted locally and internationally?
The great communication work at the local level was done in collaboration with local associations, allowing the population to become followers of my modus operandi and my aesthetics. I have been collaborating for years with the Grumento community, in particular with Legambiente Val D’Agri, which has always promoted and supported me. On a national and international level, the biggest sounding board is my website, my social profiles and the community, where my good practices are always taken as inspiration.
How could your practices inspire others? Are there activities that could be easily used by other organizations?
In my opinion, working with art means researching contemporary languages, which can’t forget to consider the history and peculiarities of places, human resources, environmental and social sustainability and the pedagogical aspect, intercepting the educational needs of schools, for example holding workshops in which geometry and history are experimented together with environmental and active citizenship topics.
What would you give as advice, what is needed to set up similar activities?
Several factors are crucial: creating active community participation processes through synergetic work of schools, organizations and institutions, working together already from the conceptual and design phase. As far as environmental sustainability is concerned, it is important to start from a survey of the waste material available in the area, and then build possibilities and design hypotheses.
What would you like to achieve within the following two years?
Over the next few years, my aim is to expand on things that have already been achieved, creating new ways of using it to broaden the audience, new ways of storytelling, dissemination and quality events to improve management, also to include usually less considered targets, with ever greater involvement of communities especially the youngest, as an investment in the future of our society.
