curated by Antonella Marino
exhibition views at Sala dei Sindaci and Scuderie, Castello Ducale, Ceglie Messapica
3rd August – 31st August 2024
“SpartiAcque. Storie intorno al pozzo” explores the theme of water in relation to Ceglie Messapica’s history and territory, drawing inspiration from the ancient well located in the in the atrium behind the Norman tower of the Castello Ducale.
The exhibition emphasises the theme of sharing resources, opening a focus on the current water and environmental emergency. In the imagination of the selected international artists, it becomes a stimulating and evocative “watershed”, also in a metaphorical key, between ecological instances, local memories, emergencies of the present and critical or poetic projections on the future. Where the “between” coexists with the “with”: underlining, in the wordplay of the title, rather than an idea of division and opposition, the idea of distribution and sharing contained in the etymon of the word “divide”.
On the castle’s main floor, in the wide Sala dei Sindaci, the big installation “Big Sky Blue” (2024) by Alexander Gutke opens the exhibition. The work consist in a series of shaped sheet metal puddles, painted in different gradients of “Sky Blue”, a shade of blue used by several car manufacturers to colour automobile bodies. On the wall, Lucy + Jorge Orta’s work from the series “Life Line” (2008), a plastic emergency equipment. Through a series of twelve inks on paper, Claire Chalet suspends the visitor in another reality, seeking a balance between two faces that brush against each other without ever touching. Following, are the sculptural objects by Alessandro Vizzini, elaborations of perceptual and sensory processes related to the seascape through materials borrowed from design such as polyurethane, resins, paints. Four photographic works and a video by Maia Marinelli, from the cycle “Occupy North” (2020), which denounces the occupation and partitioning of Arctic lands, conclude the exhibition. Entering the Scuderie, the visitor is welcomed by Andreco’s sculptural “drop”, a formal expression of the proportion between fresh and salt water. At the sides of the complex are the two video projections “The Inmost Cell” (2020) by Eva L’Hoest, where the artist depicts a landscape suspended between Latvian mythology and post-apocalyptic scenarios, and “Teorema d’incompletezza” (2008) by Masbedo, set on an Icelandic glacier.
At last, Giuditta Vendrame’s unpublished drawings “Neviera” (2024), which alongside the works on the upper floor constitute the outcome of her residence at Trullo Rubina.
•
Photos by Marino Colucci
Andreco
Starting from a scientific background, a PhD in Environmental Engineering, Andreco investigates the relationship between urban space and natural landscape, between man and environment, realising projects that compose a unique multidisciplinary research. His practice is characterised by a synthetic, symbolic and conceptual language, making use of numerous media such as installations, performance, video, wall painting, sculpture and public art projects.
He participates in exhibitions and festivals at an international level and his works have been exhibited in institutions and art events, including La Biennale di Architettura in Venice (2018), Fondazione Merz, Turin (2023), MAXXI, Rome (2022), La Triennale in Milan (2018), the Saatchi Gallery in London (2017), Centro per L'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato (2017), MACRO in Rome (2013). He won the Special Talent Prize 2017 at the MACRO Museum in Rome, in 2016 the Jazzi, a competition for rural regeneration projects and was selected for MIBAC's Grand Tour d'Italie 2019.
Claire Chalet
She studies at ENSAPC in Paris Cergy, France. A dreamlike wandering through the places, situations and people that have marked and shaped her life is what inspires her work. Using different media, such as painting, drawing and various printing techniques, she creates imaginary worlds that invite contemplation.
She was chosen by MAM for a solo exhibition at the Forum St Eustache gallery in '93, and collaborated for several years with Galerie Samy Kinge and Artopia di Rita Urso. During a seminar on “Art and Madness”, she met Anne Marie Dubois (psychiatrist at the Hôpital Ste Anne), who runs art therapy workshops and the Musée d'Art et Histoire de l'Hôpital Ste Anne. This meeting intensified her interest in art outside the cultural circuit and her questions about treatment, leading her to undergo training in art therapy at the Centre des Maladies Mentales et de l'Encéphale (CMME) of the Hôpital Ste Anne in Paris.
Alexander Gutke
Graduated from the Academy of Art in Malmö, Sweden. His research explores a wide range of themes, ranging from narrative reflexivity, measurement, space, light, shadow and darkness. Analog devices such as cameras, film and slide projectors are some of the main components of his artistic practice. Gutke investigates these technical elements as mechanical objects and devices and uses them as tools in his works, in the creation of an illusory visual narrative and a poetic and mystical materialism. His solo exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, USA; Kunsthaus Baselland and Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland; Malmö Konsthall, Sweden; Culturgest, Portugal.
His works are part of public collections such as the Frac Lorraine, Metz, France; the Frac Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France; the Institut d'Art Contemporain (IAC), Villeurbanne, France; the Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz/Basel, Switzerland; the Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden; the Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada.
Eva L'Hoest
In her sculptures, performances and audiovisual installations, Eva L’Hoest uses digital technology as an archaeologist’s tool to interpret, distort, saturate or alter the blurred images of memory.
She has recently exhibited at the Sydney Biennale, Australia; at the WIELS, Brussels, Belgium; at the Frac Grand Large, Dunkirk, France; at the Riga Contemporary Art Biennale, Latvia; at the Malmö Museum, Sweden; at the Lyon Biennale, curated by the Palais de Tokyo, France; at the Okayama Art Summit 2019, curated by Pierre Huyghe, Japan; in 2018, her videos were screened at Les Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin, Visite Film Festival, Vidéographie 21 and in the form of live performances at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Holland. Her films were also screened at the Centre Pompidou Kanal, Bruxelles; Louvre Auditorium in Paris; the Carreaux du Temple in Paris; the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin; the Muhka and Het Bos in Antwerp.
Maia Marinelli
She holds an MFA from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunication Program and a BFA from the Fine Art Academy of Florence. She is an artist and cultural entrepreneur, whose practice strives to unite urban and natural landscapes, creating conceptual activist works and interactive installations that physically engage with surroundings. In her research she navigates the intricate realms of contemporary creativity, blending art, technology, and social-environmental practices.
In 2019 she founded the H.E.A.R.T. Foundation in Bari, Italy, to drive research-based programs fostering cultural development, innovation, and effective communication. Her work has been featured in many exhibitions.
Masbedo
MASBEDO is an artistic duo working together since 1999. In their work there is a constant exploration and consequent mixture of different artistic languages: video, installation, cinema, performance, avant-garde theatre, and sound design. They have recently identified the relationship between cinema and art as a favoured area of investigation, which they approach with a careful look at both the socio-anthropological elements and the more intimate and poetic ones.
They participated in the LIII Venice Biennale in 2009. They have held solo exhibitions in important institutions: Palazzo Pitti, Florence (2005), MAXXI, Rome (2011), Art | Unlimited 42, Art Basel (2011), MART, Rovereto, (2015), Fondazione ICA, Milan, 2019. They have also taken part in several group exhibitions in important museums: MACRO, Rome (2012), Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2013).
Lucy + Jorge Orta
Lucy and Jorge Orta have been working together since 1991 employing a variety of mediums, such as drawing, sculpture and performance. Since 2002, Studio Orta has been based in a former cheese factory 50 km from Paris, where, either as a duo or as independent artists, supported by a team of designers, architects, engineers, musicians, artisans and technicians, the Ortas develop major projects on themes such as community and social bonding, dwelling and lifestyle, nomadism and mobility, sustainable development, ecology and recycling.
For their contribution to sustainability, the artists received the Green Leaf Award for artistic excellence with an environmental message, presented by the United Nations Environment Programme in collaboration with the Natural World Museum at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway (2007). Their work has been the subject of important exhibitions, including at the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice, Italy (2005); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (2006); Galleria Continua in San Gimignano/ Beijing/ Les Moulins (2007); Biennale del fin del Mundo in Antarctica (2007); Pirelli Hangar Bicocca in Milan (2008), Natural History Museum in London (2010); Shanghai Biennale (2012); MAXXI - Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Rome (2012); Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield (2013); and Parc de la Villette in Paris (2014).
Giuditta Vendrame
Vendrame studied at the Politecnico di Milano, Tongji University of Shanghai and the Design Academy in Eindhoven. Inhabiting a variety of media - such as spatial interventions, video, performances and installations - her research investigates space and mobility on different scales. Part of her practice is political in nature and combines the study of the circulation of the (public) selves and the control of movement with performative moments and symbolic gestures. For several years, Vendrame has been studying water bodies as interconnected spaces to reshape the perception of borders, territories and movement.
Her works have been exhibited in major international exhibitions such as at the Venice Biennale (2023,2021), SPARK, Malmö (2023), Garage, Rotterdam (2022), Alcova, Milan (2022), Dutch Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo (2022), MK&G, Hamburg (2021), Philadelphia Museum of Art (2019).
Alessandro Vizzini
Vizzini graduated in 2010 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. He bases his artistic research on the observation of the landscape and the reinterpretation of these scenarios through sculpture, favouring this medium as a means of expression. He explores and redefines the concepts of modernist relationship between the human being and the surrounding environment of which he is a part. The works are distinguished by their formal qualities, in which the material essence of sculpture is combined with a narrative element. The artist emphasises the temporal effects on the visual material and emphasises the central role of man as a privileged observer of nature.
He has exhibited his works among others at La Fondazione Pastificio Cerere & Spazio Molini, Rome (2022), Spazio Mensa, Rome (2021) Museo Nivola, Orani (2020), Villa Medici Accademia di Francia, Rome (2019) Fondazione Baruchello, Rome (2017) American Academy, Rome (2017) Marsèlleria, Milan (2016).