During the first four years of the platform, from 2018 to 2021, Magic Carpets saw the participation of many European partners. In this cycle, we wanted to focus on collaborating with different artists who, thanks to residencies, come from all over Europe, thus emphasising the rhizomatic, horizontal and networked character of the project itself. Another main focus was also the involvement of young female curators who created a different project each year: Giulia Pardini and Paola Farfaglio. The first phase of artist residencies (2018-2021), in which as many as 16 organisations participated, ended with the international exhibition ‘MagiC Carpets Landed‘, which opened ‘Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022’.
TERRA MATER is a project that investigates the history of origins through a contemporary gaze with the aim of constructing a new myth of the Corviale district, also called “Serpentone”. Terra Mater stems from the idea of rediscovering, with the community of Municipio XI, the myth of the divinity Ceres and going as far as the historical foundations of the city in order to investigate the concept to which the Goddess of the abundance is linked: regeneration. The artists, Guendalina Salini (local artist) and Yaryna Shumska (Ukrainian artist in residence), worked in the area of Corviale to interpret the space and everyday life of a neighbourhood as complex as it is rich in stimuli. Subsequently, with the collaboration of local associations and the artist María Ángeles Vila Tortosa, three days of creative and experiential workshops were organised with the community in anticipation of the Final Event.
The Final Event initially featured performances, installations and musical interventions spread over the five stages of a sound walk led by Guendalina Salini together with artists and musicians.
At the end of the walk, the Corviale Amphitheatre/Theatre hosted the final performance realised by Yaryna Shumska with a women’s collective from the neighbourhood. Earth and sprouts of aromatic plants were the elements of this performative action on the themes of fertility and regeneration, linked to the goddess Ceres, whose cult was practised in antiquity in the very areas of the Municipality XI. Fertility was also the theme of the installation by Spanish artist María Ángeles Vila Tortosa, made with the works produced during the workshops together with the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
Here following the Press Release and the Programme of the final event.
La Fantastica is a festival consisting in artistic residencies and workshops realised in the urban areas between Trullo and Corviale. The artists involved, Sara Basta, John Cascone and Mykolas Juodele, worked in close contact with the inhabitants of the neighbourhoods with the aim of bringing out individual and collective creativity through the invention of new stories, mirroring the real experience of their neighbourhoods, and imagining new forms of coexistence.
Workshops, performances and walks introduced the community to the colourful world of the Trullo:
30 September: Embroidery workshop by Sara Basta with creative fabrics and words by Gianni Rodari.
1 October: Photography workshop by Mykolas Juodele at the Polisportiva Trullo and around the neighbourhood. Followed by a preview presentation of John Cascone’s video La Fondazione (segreta) del Trullo, the first part of the work Metamorfica.
For the Final Event, Sara Basta led a walk to discover the works inspired by Gianni Rodari spread across the territory, accompanied by the girls who participated in the embroidery workshops. Afterwards, the event moved to the Polisportiva Trullo where the projects realised during the festival were exhibited:
Street Kids by Mykolas Juodele, a video installation of photographs taken at the Corviale neighbourhood with a sound installation.
Metamorfica by John Cascone, composed of three parts: La Fondazione (segreta) del Trullo, a video documentary made from the stories collected during the writing workshops, and the performances Spore and I Sette Movimenti.
Moto perpetuo combinatorio by Sara Basta, which collected the results of the embroidery workshops and a documentary video.
Download the Press Release.
Flowing Cities is a project in which the two artists, Yves Mettler, from partner ZK/U in Berlin, and Patricia Geraldes, from Ideias Emergentes in Porto, tackled the theme of gentrification in urban suburbs. The artists worked on the transformation process affecting some areas on the fringes of the capital and in close relationship with the local communities. In particular, the neighbourhoods concerned are Corviale and Laurentino 38: two residential complexes designed in Rome in the 1970s during the post-war architectural experimentations. Separated from the city for almost forty years, these centres are still concrete islands and yet affected by a strong identity and social fabric, stimulated by new forms of community participation. Furthermore, two Italian artists were selected to develop residencies linked to the territories, thus initiating an open dialogue with the communities: Elena Mazzi (ZK/U in Berlin) and Virginia Zanetti (Ideias Emergentes in Porto).
Yves Mettler realised a workshop spread over several dates at the Biblioteca Laurentina – Centro Culturale Elsa Morante with primary school children that led to the creation of a comic strip telling the story of the Laurentino 38 neighbourhood through the eyes of the youngest.
Patricia Geraldes, with a heterogeneous group of children, adolescents and the elderly, carried out a series of workshops at the Mitreo Iside Centre for Contemporary Arts during which the participants created their own personal diary on the memories of the Corviale neighbourhood.
Check the comic strip by Yves Mettler!
The projects of the two artists were presented at the final residency exhibition held from 17 to 22 June 2019 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. During the exhibition opening, the site-specific work, created by Patricia Geraldes, was unveiled in the Piazza Ferro di Cavallo.
The Others is the first exhibition in Italy by Magic Carpets, concluding the first year of residencies of the two young artists Hrvoslava Brkušić (Croatia) and Melanie Garland (Chile). The two artists worked on the theme of non-place and the sense of non-belonging, which connotes each of us and in particular the youth of today. The exhibition was dedicated to the works realised by the artists during their stay in Rome, built around the symbolism of non-place, of the home that does not belong to us. In fact, the sense of not belonging is part of the private and collective story of each one of us, especially of all those who migrate by moving from their places of origin.
The final exhibition presents a long timeline that recounts, through the photographs of Luis Do Rosario, Brkušić and Garland’s residencies in Italy. The photographer followed the artists during their residency in Rome, faithfully witnessing their research, their encounters and succeeding in conveying the idea of their trip to Italy through his shots. In addition, the timeline was enriched with photos from the residencies of Grossi Maglioni and Gian Maria Tosatti, kindly granted by the partners Novo Kulturno Naseleje and New Theatre Institute of Latvia, alternating with sketches, drawings and various materials, witnessing the research and inspirations of the two artists.
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)
