This year, In-ruins finds its way in Puglia for the first time. After the editions in Calabria and Basilicata, the project does not revolve around a defined archaeological site, but instead unfolds across an entire city: Canosa di Puglia. Here, archaeology permeates the urban fabric – it is fragmented, often subterranean. A submerged geography that transforms the city into a constellation of buried places, undermining the very notion of a “site.”
We also shift, for the first time, from the Ionian to the Adriatic shore: beyond the canonical boundaries attributed to Magna Graecia.
This displacement expands not only the geographical scope, but the conceptual one as well. Immersion in such a stratified landscape becomes possible through the strategic collaboration with the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Foggia and BAT, the hospitality of the
Municipality of Canosa, and the patronage with contribution of Canosa Archaeological Foundation.
This synergy opens the doors to rarely accessible spaces, allowing the residency to become a genuine field investigation – also thanks
to the involvement and scientific collaboration of the Inter-University School of Specialization in Archaeological Heritage of the Universities of Bari “Aldo Moro” and Foggia.
In-ruins residency 2025 is
curated by Nicola Guastamacchia e Nicola Nitido; organized in collaboration with Fondazione Elpis; hosted by Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio BAT e Foggia and the Municipality of Canosa di Puglia; under the patronage of Fondazione Archeologica Canosina and Italia Patria della Bellezza; in academic synergy with University College London (UCL), AHA Network, and Arts Council England, coordinated by Nastassja Simensky.
Media partner: Salgemma
Design: Studio Co-Co
The territory of Canosa di Puglia was once the floor of an ancient sea. In a millennia-long exercise of apnea, one can imagine what was once submerged, now transfi gured into the vaults of catacombs and hypogea - into the very matter of walls, ceilings, and pavements. In Canosa this passage is not allegory but material condition: what was once seabed is now rocky crust; what was underground became the foundation of dwellings; and what seems invisible keeps surfacing among courtyards, alleyways, and domestic facades.
Rasoterra tells of the threshold where time flattens and eternity contracts into an instant: the moment of descent and ascent, in a continuous becoming of hills, bodies, and ruins. The surface of Canosa is an unstable, slanting plane that slips from rooftop terraces down into the darkness of quarries and catacombs, where the hum of insects and mosquitoes seems to guard the echoes of ancient rites and prayers.
Within this dissonant urban fabric - wedged between excavation sites and construction yards - the resident artists moved for over a month, turning their gazes into instruments of excavation. Thus, the town band will play for the fi rst time inside the Domus of Montescupolo; a young singer, like a wailer, will intone neo-melodic songs in the main square; the 1948 Strippoli Cinema will come alive again for one evening; the Necropolis of Pietra Caduta will host experiments in sound; while mystical sculptures will breathe life back into the famed Lagrasta Hypogea.
During our stay, we moved through Canosa like who pedals grazing the ground, carving subtle imprints into its landscape. This restitution to the city seeks to tell of these traces left behind -gestures rasoterra, and little more than a hundred meters above the sea.
Residents 2025
The residency program 2025 is directed by Nicola Guastamacchia with the curatorship by Nicola Nitido.
Balam Bartolomé
MEXICO
Balam Bartolomé (Ocosingo, Mexico) holds a BA in Visual Arts from UNAM (MX). Fellow of thePollock-Krasner Foundation (USA), Jumex Foundation (MX), Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo (MX), and National Fund for Culture and the Arts (MX). Actual member of Mexico’s National System of Creators from the Secretariat of Culture. His practice explores the relation between culture and matter, study and analysis of history, and its drift in present time. Has exhibited in biennials,non-profit spaces, galleries and museums in South, Central and North America,Europe and Asia. Among the most renowned are the Poli/Grafica de Puerto Rico(USA), 1st BIENALSUR (AR), 1st Bristol Biennial (EN) and 15th Tallinn Triennial (EST). Has also attended the next residencies: Encuentro Regional de Arte (UY, 2007), International Studio &Curatorial Program (USA, 2009), Nordic Kunstnarsenter (NO, 2011), Bemis Center forContemporary Arts (USA, 2014), Casa Wabi (MX, 2015), Flora Ars+Natura (CO, 2016),Sculpture Space (USA, 2017) and McColl Center (USA, 2025). Is also codirector ofthe artistic and historical research project Bienal Tlatelolca, in Mexico City.
Xenia Benivolski
CANADA
Xenia Benivolski is a writer, curator, FWO Fellow and PhD researcher at LUCA/KUL in Brussels, working between sound studies, material culture, and visual art. Her work investigates the material and ideological lives of musical compositions and instruments as agents of political, spiritual, and territorial transformation, exploring how sonic artifacts register as living and sculptural forms; things with “thing-power”. Broader interests include the ontological status of instruments, the metabolism of monumental form, and the acoustics of memory and violence. She is a 2025 Research Fellow at the Orpheus Instituut for Advanced Studies and Research in Music and a 2026 Visiting Researcher at Harvard University. Recent projects include a 2024 research fellowship at the National Gallery of Canada on colonial architectures of sound, and public lectures at Tate Modern, CCS Bard, Kunsthall Trondheim, and Harvard. From 2021–2023, she curated You Can’t Trust Music, a digital program for e-flux. Her writing regularly appears in Frieze, The Wire, and e-flux journal.
Giuseppe Di Liberto
ITALY
Giuseppe Di Liberto (Palermo, 1996) is a visual artist living and working in Venice. He formalizes his practice through a multidisciplinary approach, and his current research revolves around the theme of death and its socio-anthropological developments in the Mediterranean area, as well as issues related to contemporary apocalyptic visions. His works have been exhibited in various public and private institutions, including: Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna Ca' Pesaro (Venice, 2026), CAA Art Museum (Hangzhou, China, 2025), Fondazione Merz (Turin, 2024), La Quadriennale di Roma (Rome, 2022/23), Mercerie (Brussels, 2023), Fondazione Imago Mundi (Treviso, 2021), The Address Gallery (Brescia, 2022), Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa (Venice, 2021), and Galleria Poggiali (Milan, 2021–2024).
Benedetta Fioravanti
ITALY
Benedetta Fioravanti (Ascoli Piceno, 1995) works primarily with moving images and site-specific projects. In 2025, she took part in Windows at Authorized Dealer Gallery with Now Instant (Los Angeles) and Machine Wreckers: 20 acts in one day at Spazio Punch (Venice). The same year, she held her solo exhibition at MEGADUE in Bologna. In 2024, she realized the opening title for the 17th edition of Lo Schermo dell’Arte Festival in Florence and participated in the 15th edition of the Havana Biennial, Cuba. The same year, she was selected for the Wonderful! Art Research Program 2024 – 1st Edition residency in Florence, and participates in the group exhibitions Anche in un castello si può cadere (Florence), La prima volta at Casa Testori (Milan), and the screening ROMA CAPODARTE at MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. In 2023, she is selected for the Nuovo Grand Tour program promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture and takes part in group shows at Fabbrica del Vapore (Milan), Fondazione Stelline (Milan), and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Guarene). In 2022, she participates in the Estuario Project in Prato. In 2020 and 2019, she joins the residencies Progettoborca – ex Villaggio Eni Corte di Cadore (Borca di Cadore, Belluno) and Fabrica, Benetton’s Research Centre for Modern Communication (Treviso).
Steffi Stouri
GREECE
Steffi Stouri is a researcher and curator based in Athens. She is a graduate of the postgraduate program Museum Studies at the University of Amsterdam and a graduate in History and Philosophy of Science at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, specializing in philosophy and feminist epistemology. Her research and curatorial practice develops around feminist and postcolonial epistemologies, sonic resonances and archival transcriptions. Her curatorial projects often engage with embodied experiences and fragmented histories, aiming to challenge dominant narratives through collaborative practices and innovative in situ exhibitions. In 2025 she received the ARCAthens NOLA/NYC Fellowship, researching the potential of sound as an artistic medium as well as a tool for restorative storytelling and community resilience in New Orleans and New York City. She has curated the exhibition Otherlands (2024) at the archaeological site of Heraion Perachora, and was a curatorial associate at the Greek National Opera's visual arts programme Unboxing Callas (2023). She has worked in museums and cultural institutions such as the Greek National Library (GR), Greek National Opera (GR), National Museum of Contemporary Art (GR), Atopos CVC (GR), ΎΛΗ[matter]HYLE (GR), Allard Pierson (NL), Pilotenkueche (DE), The Breeder Gallery (GR), Athens Museum of Queer Arts (GR) in the field of curation, production and mediation.
Jury
Vincenzo Estremo
Art Writer and PhD Course Leader, NABA, Milan
Chiara Marino
Director, Richard Saltoun Gallery, Rome
Ibrahim Neheme
Director, Beirut Arts Center
Sofia Schubert
Curator, Responsible for Exhibitions and Residencies, Fondazione Elpis, Milan
Benedetta Fioravanti
L'azzeruolo
The presentation of a short film together with a sculptural intervention is the occasion to reopen for one night the oldest cinema in town. The work stems from the encounter with a rare fruit – half apple, half medlar – encountered near the Archaeological Park of San Leucio. The sculpture resembles an ancient deity keeping a bronze fruit - produced in collaboration with the local artisan Saverio Leone and the Magnifico foundry in Bari. Combining traditional tuff carving with a bronze cast of a small lazzeruolo gathered by the artist at the outset of her creative process. At the film’s core is the Cinema Strippoli, a 1946 theatre now closed to the public but still cared for by the founder’s grandchildren. Like the fruit, it lingers between oblivion and persistence. Photography: Christian Mantuano. Poster Design: Jacopo Lega.
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