04/06/2007 – PUBLIC ART – eng version

PRESS RELEASE

PUBLIC ART
in and around trieste / natura naturans 12

11 June – 28 October 2007

curated by MARIA CAMPITELLI, with Elisa Vladilo and Anna Lucia Fraschetti
organised by Gruppo78 – International Contemporary Art

“PUBLIC ART in and around Trieste is the main project of GRUPPO 78 I.C.A. for the 12th Natura Naturans event, to take place in a variety of locations in Trieste.

This major event includes a number of initiatives and its aim is to consider ways of exploring and creating art in public spaces and contexts, inside or outside the urban setting, but also in relation to and involving the onlooker, the community and the society, communicating directly with the public, who become protagonists – rather than mere spectators – of the creative act. The ultimate purpose is to effect conscious changes that will advance the progress of society.

The project will use new forms of communication involving the man and woman in the street, through socio-relational workshops, commercial hoardings and “artists’ manifestos”, thus creating art platforms on streets and public areas – the city’s nerve centres, border areas and difficult suburban areas – with site-specific and “relational” performances.

In order to provide information on and guidance for the project, these revolutionary forms of communication, which aim to restore and give pride of place to a human dimension which has often been marginalised by the current media system, will be accompanied by more traditional methods. These will include an international documentary exhibition and an international conference where artists, curators, architects, town planners and public administrators will discuss the various aspects of Public Art.

Finally, a publication will bring together all the material from the various phases of the event.

The “Public Art” movement is a relatively recent phenomenon which has become extremely widespread. It appeared in the 1970s, particularly in England and America, first as Land (or Earth) Art, at a time when art felt the need to emerge from its usual appointed places – i.e. museums and galleries – to express itself in new and freer conditions, released from its traditional context.

Public Art happens in places where people live, streets, areas known to everyone, so it’s people in the street that benefit from it most, and not only “those who are in the know”; their contribution, if any, is made at a later stage. The idea is to take art to the widest possible variety of places: squares, parks, schools, historical monuments, using site-specific events, i.e. events specially designed for that particular place to transform it with stimulating tokens of creativity, and whose function is to oblige the casual observer to take a fresh, sometimes critical look at things. In short, the objective is to improve the quality of life, urging people to see the surroundings in which they go about their lives with new eyes.

In the 1990s, Public Art, especially in Italy, turned toward what is known as “Relational Art”, a form of art that involves people directly, making them protagonists of the event, thus encouraging a deliberate, conscious approach to the typical problems found in a given social and environmental situation, which the artists and other people involved explore through workshops culminating in the creative act itself. In this way, the form of communication that takes place becomes the essence and substance of the event imagined by the artist. The aim is to achieve a conscious alteration of a given social context, which means that Relational Art has strong communicative/social connotations.

“PUBLIC ART in and around Trieste” intends to carry out a recognition of public art in general – the latter being historically characterised by various aspects and interpretations – in an attempt to introduce a systemic approach to a movement that is so vast and diversified and involves a complete about-turn from the traditional, and sacred, concept of ‘art’.

Events:

ARTISTS’ MANIFESTOS

Several hoardings in via Fabio Severo, Trieste, normally used for commercial advertising, will be transformed into platforms to promote the visibility of artists from Gruppo78 (Giuliana Balbi, Pierpaolo Ciana, Myriam Del Bianco, Fabiola Faidiga, Daniela Frausin, Guillermo Giampietro, Cristina Lombardo, Novella Predonzan, Massimo Premuda, Barbara Stefani, Marisa Ulcigrai, Paola Vattovani, Elisa Vladilo), of Bastiaan Arler, and of students from the “E. U. Nordio” Art Institute, Trieste.

SITE-SPECIFIC AND RELATIONAL ART IN THE CITY / SPECCHIO D’ACQUA 3

Annalisa Cattani, Osservatorio in Opera, Franco Vecchiet, Elisa Vladilo, Bastiaan Arler, Eltjion Valle

Communicative/relational and site-specific events in the nerve centres of the city and in surrounding areas (along the border with Slovenia, in small municipalities with a significant Slovenian minority).
These will be accompanied by “Specchio d’acqua 3”, featuring a sound installation by musician Alessandro Fogar on the Ponterosso canal.

WORKSHOPS AND PERFORMANCE EVENTS

Communicative/relational workshops and performance events with members of Gruppo78 and other artists, in co-operation with the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Trieste (Architectural and Urban Planning Department) and other entities involved in university research (Local Health Unit, Ater, Equal) to regenerate suburban areas affected by hardship and difficulties.

SOCIO-RELATIONAL EVENTS IN THE PROVINCE

Socio-relational events in municipalities in the Province of Trieste (Muggia, S. Dorligo, Opicina, Rupingrande, Borgo Grotta Gigante, Duino Aurisina) in co-operation with Kons cultural association; in particular, from 9 to 15 July, the “Interans” international art week will take place in Longera (TS) with Kons and Arteden and guest artists from Slovenia, Austria, Croatia and other European countries.

24 July  – 3 September

INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY EXHIBITION / Palazzo Costanzi and Albo Pretorio, Museo  di Arte Moderna Ugo Carà, Muggia (TS)

Bastiaan Arler, Annalisa Cattani, Paola di Bello, Alberto Duman, Ayse Erkmen, Emilio Fantin, Maik and Dirk Loebbert, Giancarlo Norese, Lieve Van Stappen, Bert Theis, Steinbrener and Dempf, Topotek 1

The international documentary exhibition of Public Art material (photos, videos, etc.) will be accompanied, thanks to the co-operation of Careof, Milan, by the presentation of a video on the great Public Art show that takes place every 10 years in Münster, Germany. This year, 2007, is the date of the next show. There will also be a screening of the 1997 show, which brought together all the most famous names of Public Art worldwide.

4 – 5 October

CONFERENCE
University of Trieste, Faculty of Humanities, Elisa Baciocchi Hall

artists: Paola Di Bello, Annalisa Cattani, Artway of Thinking, Alessandro Duman, Gruppo Irwin, Bert Theis / curators: Roberto Pinto, Marco Scotini, Lucia Farinati / architects: Paola di Biagi, lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Trieste, Francesco Careri of Gruppo Stalker, Claudio Farina, Elena Carlini and Pietro Valle, Roberto Marcatti, lecturer at the Faculty of Design of the Politecnico di Milano, Topotek / Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Cittàdell’arte Foundation

PUBLICATION

By the end of the year, a book will be published collecting all the phases of “PUBLIC ART in and around Trieste”, including material from the exhibition and from local events and the proceedings of the meeting.

CO-OPERATION AND SPONSORSHIP

“PUBLIC ART in and around Trieste” is organised and promoted by Gruppo78 I.C.A., with co-operation from the Municipality of Trieste – Culture Department / the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Trieste / Careof, Milan / the Albanian Consulate General in Milan / the Tirana National Gallery of Art and the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sport of the Albanian Government (for the Albanian artist Eltjion Valle’s project) / associations: Faltwerksalon / Kons / Arteden / Juliet Art Magazine.

The project is supported by

Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region – Central Directorate for Education, Culture, Sport and Peace / Province of Trieste / Municipality of Trieste / Assicurazioni Generali

The recently-established Casa dell’Arte of Trieste, of which GRUPPO 78 is a founding member, also participates in the project.

Eltjion Valle’s “Petrol-Pax” project, created for “Public Art in and around Trieste” in the village of Muggia (in Piazza Caliterna), is set against a backdrop of oil tankers docking at the Transalpine Oil Pipeline terminal, just a few yards from the border with Slovenia. The project will be presented – with photos, videos and web-cam shots – at the Albanian Pavilion on the occasion of the 52nd Venice Biennale, creating an important bond between “Public Art” in Trieste and the great Venice event. This site-specific event is curated by Anna Lucia Fraschetti and it has been chosen by Rubens Shima, director of the Tirana National Gallery, as a collateral event of the Albanian Pavilion, for which he holds responsibility.

The event will be widely publicised in Italy and abroad, with paper material, Press conferences and especially on-line.

press office

Samantha Punis
in co-operation with Luca Signorini
tel./fax +39 040 413634 / mobile +39 339 5323693
sampunis@tin.it

info
GRUPPO78 I. C. A.
via Monte Cengio, 11 – 34127 Trieste
tel./fax +39 040 567136 / mobile +39 339 8640784
info@gruppo78.it / www.gruppo78.it

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