On the first 4 years of the platform in which various European partners participated, we wanted to focus on the participation of different artists from across Europe, emphasising the rhizomatic, horizontal and networked character of the project. One of the primary objectives was also the involvement of young female curators who created a different project each year: Giulia Pardini and Paola Farfaglio.
The first phase (2018-2022) of Residency projects, in which 16 organisations participated, ended with the international contemporary art exhibition “MagiC Carpets Landed” which opened the “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022”.
Performer in residence Yaryna Shumska
For the fourth year of the MagiC Carpets international project – co-financed by the Creative Europe Large Scale Programme, we decided to immerse ourselves in history and myth with a lively and contemporary look.
This year’s project, entitled TERRA MATER, aims to build together a new myth of Corviale. It stems from the idea of rediscovering the myth of the great goddess Ceres, with the community of the Municipality XI, and getting up to the mythological foundations of the City, in order to investigate the broader concept to which the goddess of the harvest and abundance is linked: the regeneration.
We are working with Guendalina Salini (local artist) and Yaryna Shumska (artist in residence) to interpret space and daily life in the urban area of Corviale as complex as it is full of inspiration.
We organized three days of creative workshops with the community and the support of local associations and the artist María Ángeles Vila Tortosa. Our intent was to build together movements and actions which will animate the Serpentone Corviale during the final event which will take place on Thursday 10 June 2021.
During the event, the Serpentone will bring to life with performances, installations, and musical presentations, spread over five stops of a soundwalk led by Guendalina Salini in collaboration with many artists and musicians.
At the end of the walk, we will gather at Teatro Corviale, a space designed as an urban amphitheatre, which will host a final performance created by Yaryna Shumska with a group of women from the neighbourhood. Soil and the sprouts of aromatic plants will feature in this performance, recalling themes of fertility and regeneration linked to the goddess Ceres, whose cult was practiced in antiquity where Municipio XI is today.
Fertility will also feature in an installation by the Spanish artist María Ángeles Vila Tortosa, created during the workshops with neighbourhood residents, set up in the Amphitheatre.
To participate in Guendalina Salini’s soundwalk: reservations must be made by emailing art@latitudoartprojects.net and visitors must have a smartphone and headphones.
Here following the Press Release and the Programme of the final event!
From the southwest outskirts of the capital, here is La Fantastica, the third edition of the international project Magic Carpets, co-financed by the Creative Europe Large Scale Programme and, this year, including artist’s residences and workshops in the urban areas of the Trullo and the Corviale and a vibrant closing festival, from 30 September to 2 October 2020. Sara Basta, John Cascone and Mykolas Juodele are the artists invited to contribute to La Fantastica, an idea from Benedetta Carpi De Resmini, creator and Artistic Director of Magic Carpets for Latitudo Art Projects, and workshops with the residents of the two neighbourhoods, curated by Giulia Pardini. The goal: to bring out individual and collective creativity by producing new images and new stories to reflect the real experience of their neighbourhoods and imagine new forms of coexistence. During the Festival took place workshops, performances and walks that invited the people to explore the dynamic and vibrant neighbourhood of Trullo.
On September 30 the artist Sara Basta organized a Sewing workshops with colorful fabrics and creative words taken by Gianni Rodari at Ottavo Lotto, Trullo.
On October 1 a photography workshop was run by Mykolas Juodele at polisportiva Trullo and down the streets of the neighbourhood. The presentation on preview of the video “La Fondazione (segreta) del Trullo” , first part of the overall project “Metamorfica” by John Cascone.
On October 2, final Day of the Festival: La Fantastica ended with a collective walk down Trullo’s streets discovering Sara Basta‘s artworks, with the female coir Brancoro.
During the path, the public met the “Spore”, the second part of “Metamorfica”, the artwork by John Cascone that ended at Polisportiva Trullo with a performance and a videoinstallation.
After, the photo installation by Mykolas Juodele made during his research in the neighbourhood Corviale was presented.
Each artist, during the final event of the Festival had presented his own research:
Street Kids, by Mykolas Juodele, sound installation and photos’ review realized in Corviale district
Metamorfica, by John Cascone, presented in 3 parts: La Fondazione (segreta) del Trullo, video documentation realized thanks to the stories collected during the workshop; Spore and I sette Movimenti performances realized down the streets of Trullo and at Polisportiva Trullo.
Moto perpetuo cominatorio, by Sara Basta, realized thanks to the results of sewing workshops and a video installation.
Here following the Press Release
For the 2019 edition, entitled Flowing Cities, the two selected artists Yves Mettler, from Berlin partner ZK/U and Patricia Geraldes, from Portuguese partner Ideias Emergentes, will explore this year’s theme, gentrification and suburban areas. The artists will work on the transformation going on in certain urban areas in the margins of the Capital, in close contact with local communities. More in detail Latitudo chose the Corviale and Laurentino 38, two residential complexes in Rome designed in the 1970s, inspired by great architectural experimentations in the post-war period. Lacking services and separated from the city for almost forty years, these large suburban centres are still blocks of cement.
However, a change has started around them, which involves urban identity and social fabric, stimulated by new forms of community participation. As for the first year of Magic Carpets even this year two Italian artist have been chosen among the platform to develop a residence project connected to the territories, starting that way an open dialogue with the community: Elena Mazzi selected by the German partner ZK/U in Berlin and Virginia Zanetti was selected by the Portuguese partner Ideias Emergentes.
Yves Mettler has realized a workshop at the Laurentina Library Centro Culturale Elsa Morante primary school pupils. The goal was to create a fantasy comic which tell us, thanks to the children’s view the Laurentino 38 neighbourhood , with the children, and at the same time stroll and discover the curiosities and secrets of the neighbourhood with the locals.
The comic is available at the following link
Patricia Geraldes together with an heterogeneous group of child, teenagers and elders organized laboratories at the Centro per le Arti contemporanee Mitreo Iside. Each participant, using various papers and materials created their own personal diary built on the memories related with the Corviale neighbourhood. The works will be exhibited on a final show that will take place from the 17th the 22nd of June at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma.
To conclude this first year of residences the two young artists Hrvoslava Brkušić (Croatia) e Melanie Garland (Chile) have carried out an exhibit entitled The Others.
The artists worked on the not belonging issue which is part of each of us, especially the youth of today. The exhibition, dedicated to the works realized by the two artist during their stay in Rome, has been built around the symbol of the home that doesn’t belong to us. The non-place, the sense of not belonging is part of each of us, privately and collectively, and especially of those that migrate, moving from their places of origin, seeking fortune and a new life elsewhere. On exhibit a long timeline tells, thanks to the photographs by Luis Do Rosario, the Italian residences of Brkušić e Garland. The photographer followed the artists during their residences in Rome, testifying their inquiry, their meetings and, thanks to his precious photo shoots, gave us the perfect idea of their journey in Italy. The timeline is moreover enriched by the photos shot during the Grossi Maglioni and Gian Maria Tosatti residences, kindly given by Novo Kulturno Naseleje e New Theatre Institute of Latvia, mixed with sketches, drawings and various materials, witnesses of their inquiry and visions.
Kaunas Biennial (Kaunas / Lithuania) – Coordinating Entity and Leading Partner
ZKU / KUNSTrePUBLIC (Berlin / Germany)
Folkestone Fringe (Folkestone / UK)
Latitudo srl (Rome / Italy)
New Theatre Institute of Latvia (Riga / Latvia)
LAB 852 (Zagreb / Croatia)
Prague Biennale (Prague / Czech Republic)
EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial (Limerick / Ireland)
META Cultural Foundation (Bucharest / Romania)
Jam Factory Art Center (Lviv/ Ukraine)
Tblisi Photo Festival (Tbilisi / Georgia)
Ideias Emergentes (Porto / Portugal)
Novo Kulturno Naselje (Novi Sad / Serbia)
Openspace.Innsbruck (Innsbruck / Austria)
Trempolino (Nantes / France)
