This year the project will take place in the Province of Cosenza for the first time, to engage with the history of the Archaeological Park of Sibari. This area of the Calabrian territory, topographically known as Sibaritide, saw the rise, expansion and decline of the great polis of Sybaris. Following the destruction of the Greek city, the Classical center of Thurii and the Roman city of Copia were founded, partially overlapping its ruins. This exceptional stratification makes Sibari one of the largest and most important sites in the Mediterranean up until the Roman Age. The Park includes the Sibaritide National Archaeological Museum, the Horse Park Archaeological Area and the Amendolara National Archaeological Museum.
Residents
The residency program 2023 was curated by Nicola Guastamacchia, Nicola Nitido and Maria Luigia Gioffrè, with the curatorial support of Roberta Garieri.
Canadas & Murua
CHILE + SPAIN
The duo investigates the possibilities of textile and sculptural languages. They met while studying textile art at the Massana School in Barcelona, and their shared artistic practice has its starting point in the expressive value
of materials linked to personal, cultural and natural experiences. They understand materials beyond their physical, mouldable and constructive qualities. The origin of materials, how they have been manipulated and transformed, the experience of the
people who have been in charge of them, the socio-cultural context and the territory in which the duo participate, are aspects that inspire the duo. They approach materials in their specific contexts. In these processes, often close to the performative
experience, Cañadas&Murua are interested in the subtlety of change and progressive construction, defined by the temporal dimension of individual actions.
Matilde Sambo
ITALY
Graduated in Visual Arts at the IUAV University of Venice and participated to national and international artistic projects and residencies including: “Flussi” Artist book with Miniera Roma (Rome) VIR, Via Farini in Residence (Milan); Open Studio Fonderia Artistica Battaglia (Milan ); Museo Campano (Capua); BoCs Art (Cosenza); Collective Signatures (Balearic Islands); Tagli (Stromboli); Art Colony, Bronze Symposium (Hungary); Art Encounters “Six Steps forward one step back”, Volvo Studio (Milan); Angelica Festival (Bologna); Pasinger Fabrik (Munich); Argo 16 (Venice); Radio Raheem (Milan); “Falsità in buona coscienza”, aA29 Project Room (Milan); Video scenography for “Salome”, at the Teatro Filarmonico (Verona); Filmed, edited and sonorized “New Scenario” a film by Rahraw Omarzad for Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Rivoli); “New Echo System” Palazzo degli Ulivi, Pro Helvetia (Venice).
Beatrice Celli
ITALY
Works between Castelli (Teramo, IT) and Marseille (FR). She graduated in 2019 from Villa Arson in Nice, after studiyng at Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma and Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino. Her work has been exhibited at Kleine Humboldt Gallery in Berlin, at Institute of Visual Arts in Shanghai, at Sonnenstube in Lugano (SW) at “The Address” Gallery in Brescia (IT) and at 100% L’EXPO, in “Parc de Villette” in Paris. In October 2021, she inaugurated the solo show “Le jardin des allégories” at Villa Arson art center in Nice, to which followed the Thankyouforcoming (Nice) and Kaunas Artists Hause residencies. In September 2022 she participated to the residency IS.LAND, Procida (IT) organised by Miramar and “Biennale des Jeunes Créateurs de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (BJCEM)”. In 2023 she exhibited at MACRO (Rome), Transpalette in Brougess (FR), Memento in Auch (FR) and for the sixth edition of De(s) rives in Paris.
Simon Bellouard
FRANCE
Multidisciplinary artist trained as a actor from the National Theater School (ERAC) in France. He performed in theater such as the Volksbühne in Berlin, Theatre National de la Colline (Paris,FR) Centre Pompidou, Teatro Piccolo (Milan,IT) among others. Alongside acting he also has been trained in dancing with Tanztheater Wuppertal and Carolyn Carlson. The photographic work he does is deeply related to his carrer as a performer and, through its vocabulary, he uses the self-portrait gesturing as a way to produce a performance where the witness is the camera, exploring the medium of photography as active performing.
Arie Amaya-Akkermans
COLOMBIA
Interdisciplinary practitioner and independent researcher, working on the intersection between art, archaeology and critical heritage.
He has written extensively about contemporary in the Middle East and his writings have appeared on Hyperallergic , San Francisco Arts Quarterly, The Markaz Review, and the popular Classics blog Sententiae Antiquae, as well as in monographs for both modern and contemporary artists. In the past, he was an expert fellow at Iaspis.se, a moderator in the talks program of Art Basel and a guest editor of Arteeast quarterly, as well as co-editor of Perambulation. As a cultural practitioner, he curated and co-produced the first contemporary art exhibition at anarchaeological museum in Turkey, “After Utopia: The Birds”, at Sadberkhanim Muzesid.
Akshay Mahajan
INDIA
Artist working primarily with photography, sculpture and installation - moving from documentary photography to digital editing and archive excavations. His current project uses open-source systems, shareware logic, and flows of capital, in order to investigate issues of economies and empire. His long-term personal projects and essays are published in Financial Times Magazine London, Wall Street Journal Magazine, Aperture, and Le Monde among others. Mahajan’s work has been exhibited widely, including at 13th Bamako Encounters, Rencontres d’Arles, among others. He was runner-up for 2023 Aperture Portfolio Prize. His engagement with the visual arts also takes shape through writing, teaching and curation. Akshay is a member of the photo editorial team of PIX Quarterly and the co-curator of GoaPhoto and Goa Familia, an evolving archive that aims to explore the multidimensional aspects of family histories from India’s smallest state.
Giulia Currà
ITALY
Joined the residency via her nomad company "Traslochi Emotivi, founded in 2010 - that composes and disintegrates itself through relations
and meetings. By creating actions and visions related to the concept of threshold, moving becomes a concrete evidence of un-higing official history through performative and editorial practices.
Jury
Bruno Barsanti
Director, Fondazione Elpis
Alessandra Franetovich
Art Historian and Curator
Ellen Pavey & Nastassja Simensky
AHA Network, UCL
Gianmarco Porru
Artist and resident 2022
Matilde Sambo
Irabis
The artist was fascinated to discover that the destruction of the ancient city occurred due to the diversion of the Crati river by Crotone. Water was since then a constant presence and a problem for the territory and its conservation - with strong similarities with the city where Sambo was born, Venice. After visiting the excavations of Sibari, the artist realized that the city is not there: you cannot see it. Turi and Copia were built on its ruins. This understanding transformed the shape of Sibari into a dream, into a city of infinite possibilities and forms. Irabis is therefore a mirrored city: reflection and possibility. Three square tanks (recalling the shape of the hole that shows the three layers of the city in the Park) inside which mirrors are positioned. On top, three clay cities are submerged in water. Where clay is not cooked, sculptures melt, becoming potential and living matter again.
Install view 39° Nord 16°3’ Est, Fondazione Elpis, Photo Fabrizio Vatieri, 2024.
Partners
COMUNE DI
AMENDOLARA
