Finally got to our open studio day…the culmination of a 4 month residency here is Biella – unseasonably warm weather meant that we set up in a sweaty, sunny day which ended in a temperate evening and a really big crowd…one of the biggest i have seen round here for a while…here are some images…
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…another intervention on the Cittadellarte walls by street artists from the URBE association from Turin.
…so now the space that was studio to our artists is changing again, now we are deep into installation territory, as our open studio event takes place this Saturday…a challenging time i will admit…its not easy dealing with 15 individuals all trying to show…some are easier than others, but always at this time of year i feel a little like a one woman united nations…a Kofi-Boutros-Ban Ki trying to resolve territorial and personal disputes…however it is always a learning experience…and in between there are nice moments…like Cai Weidong and his bamboo for his installation…with which he took over the studio for an afternoon…
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…and his impromptu tea house…
Posted in art, Italy, photographic
Tagged bamboo installation, biella, cai weidong, cittadelarte, unidee
…so back in Biella… a couple of our residents, Aastha Chauhan and Raphael Franco invited street art collective URBE from Turin to work on some external walls at Cittadellarte.
Together they came up with the idea of drawing on the walls using a high pressure water jet to clean away the accumulated dirt and expose the true surface below. The technique was hugely effective…
Below they used a more lo-fi technique of wiping away the dirt again using a stencil. Anyway, beautiful work i think…and kudos to Aastha and Raphael who are always very generous in sharing possibilities through collaborations…
I may be in Colombia, but there is a festival going on back in Edinburgh…
Situated within the St Andrew’s Square Gardens lies the Solar Pavilion a structure commissioned by the Edinburgh Art Festival 2011. The pavilion was designed by Scottish artist Karen Forbes and creates a focal point and centre to the Art Festival this year, as a dynamic space to showcase the latest of Scottish and international creativity and innovation.
As one of 24 artists asked to create works influenced by issues of site and context within their own work in response to the ideas behind the Solar Pavilion, Edinburgh and its location, I responded with the following work:
Work title: Points of View
I decided to reflect on the idea of the journey made by the Melville Monument’s (which towers above the pavilion) circling shadow and parallel that with the journeys I regularly make away from Edinburgh and Home. It’s very simple, the idea of place and location for me. Especially as i move regularly from location to location dictated by project necessities. As soon as i arrive somewhere i locate a particular point of view that i look towards and note the changes on a daily basis. I decided to present photographically my 2 most recent points of view as for now they give me my sense of place location and home away from Home…
View 1 for 3 months: (working as a collaborating artist for artists’ residence UNIDEE at Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto) Biella, N. Italy, towards the mountain of Mucrone (Latitude: 45.57172 Longitude 8.05444) distance from St Andrews Square Garden Solar Pavilion 1396 km
View 2 for 4 weeks: (While co-running video workshops for teenage girls in the Barrio of Moravia), Medellin Colombia towards the Andes (Latitude 6.27556 Longitude -75.56490) distance from St Andrews Square Garden Solar Pavilion 8338 km
The work will continue and i plan to create an ongoing archive on my points of view and their geographical location regarding the distance from Edinburgh and Home.
THERE WILL BE A SCREENING OF ALL THE WORKS COMMISSIONED IN THE SOLAR PAVILION, ST ANDREWS SQUARE GARDENS ON THE EVENING OF THE 3RD SEPTEMBER, CHECK THE SOLAR PAVILION WEBSITE FOR DETAILS…
Posted in art, colombia, Italy, scotland
Tagged biella, edinburgh arts festival, margarita vazquez ponte, medellin, solar pavilion
Some of the UNIDEE residents’ work is currently on show in some of the exhibition spaces here at Cittadellarte. We had an opening, to which not so many people came…unfortunately the show coincided with the precise day when EVERYONE in Italy decides to simultaneously go on holiday…it’s not easy!…Regardless of numbers some good work was produced. I particularly liked Eduardo Cachucho’s performance where he reads out coordinates that are drawn out on a grid by two other actors…here is his film of the performance:
Artist Aided Drafting (AAD) video: E Cachucho
Who likes it?
Özgür (not pictured above) made a work about our obsessive need to give the “thumbs up” of approval of everything that we view and consume on-line…
Özgür and Elmas drawing for Eduardo while Silvio (98 years old!!) looks on…
Posted in art, documentary, film, Italy
Tagged automatic drawing, Özgür Demirci, biella, eduardo cachucho, performance
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