Vibrant Natures. On Decay and Rebirth
03.02.2024 - 24.03.2024 from to
Starting with the investigation of residual places and the transformation of matter, the project investigates how processes of decay can represent opportunities for change, metamorphosis and nurture, in which new forms of coexistence, alliance and stratification help to reimagine the existing and possible futures.
In the multiplicity of matter, bodies permeate, aggregate, and participate in a collective dimension capable of subverting the individual condition of existence and transcending the human-non-human binomial. At every moment, the form changes in a process of cyclical and perpetual reconfiguration to acquire a vital and mutable character, capable of liberating and redefining the bodies.
In an approach that places transdisciplinarity, ecology, and intersectionality at its center, the three partners will develop a program that, from February 3nd to March 24th, culminates in the week of the spring equinox, a symbol of harmony and a condition for transformative benefit.
Vibrant Natures consists of workshops, performances, talks, readings, walks, and installations to bring together nature and history, environmental studies and artistic languages, mysticism and poetry, inviting international artists and intellectuals to Turin and engaging them in a dialogue with its territory. Among the participants: Soukaina Abrour, Lucilla Barchetta, Paolo Bosca, Benni Bosetto, Antonia Brown, Filippo De Pieri, Ethereal Society of Poetry, Simone Frangi, Matthew Gandy, Allison Grimaldi Donahue, Debora Incorvaia, Huw Lemmey, Michele Lonati, Tabita Rezaire, Viviana Sorrentino, Noura Tafeche.
The program will unfold across the different venues of the partners involved: Almanac Inn, the exhibition and research space dedicated to showcasing and supporting the practices of young emerging artists; Castello di Rivoli, the first Italian museum dedicated to contemporary art; and Orti Generali, the urban agricultural spaces established in a residual area on the banks of the Sangone stream in Mirafiori Sud, strongly characterized by the social and environmental impact of the FIAT industrial plants that, in the sixties, led to a tenfold increase in the neighborhood’s population.
Saturday 3 February, h. 17
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Natura Urbana: Ecological Constellation in Urban Space (MIT Press, 2022), lecture by Matthew Gandy introduced by Filippo De Pieri
In collaboration with the Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino
Sunday 11 February, h. 18:30
Almanac Inn
Poetry reading group by Ethereal Society of Poetry
Saturday 24 February, h. 18
Almanac Inn
الماء والشطابة حتى لقاع البحر Acqua e scopa fino in fondo al mare
Opening of the exhibition by Soukaina Abrour (until 24 March)
In collaboration with Centrale Fies
Sunday 25 February, h. 18:30
Almanac Inn
Poetry reading group by Ethereal Society of Poetry and Allison Grimaldi Donahue
Saturday 2 March, h. 15
Almanac Inn
Micro regali di strada, workshop by Noura Tafeche in conjunction with Soukaina Abrour’s exhibition
Saturday 9 March, h. 18:30
Almanac Inn
Conversation between Simone Frangi and Soukaina Abrour
Sunday 10 March, h. 15
Orti Generali
Walk with Michele Lonati
Sunday 17 March, h. 11
Orti Generali
Walk and collection of medicinal herbs with Viviana Sorrentino
and at h. 15
Walk with Lucilla Barchetta
Thursday 21 March, h. 18:30
Almanac Inn
Writing workshop by Huw Lemmey
Saturday 23 March, h. 16
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Jardin Bois de Rose, 2022, and Terre Rouge, 2022, screening of Tabita Rezaire’s videos
Tango!, 2024, performance by Benni Bosetto
Lingua Ignota (Timeo, 2023) reading by Huw Lemmey
Mercury + Red + Matrilineal, performative reading by Antonia Brown
Sunday 24 March, h. 12
Orti Generali
Banchetto della Rinascita curated by Debora Incorvaia and Paolo Bosca with the involvement of the Orti Generali community
Poetry reading curated by Ethereal Society of Poetry
Biographies
Soukaina Abrour (Morocco, 1997), artist.
Raised in Italy since 2000, Abrour graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. She lives and works between Milan and Venice. Her research investigates the construction of the self in the human and non-human multitudes, past and future, through fabulation and its materialization in new forms. In 2022 she participated with BJCEM in a residency for Procida Capital of Culture. In 2023 she won the Agitu Ideo Gudeta Fellowship, conceived by Razzismo Brutta Storia, BHMF and Centrale Fies, the residency with MilanoMediterranea and participated in the Farout festival at BASE Milano.
Lucilla Barchetta (Italy, 1988), writer and anthropologist.
Barchetta is a non-binary anthropologist and PhD in Urban Studies. Their interests intersect the topics of environment, multispecies health and technoscience. They are the author of the book La rivolta del verde. Natura e rovine a Torino (AgenziaX, 2021), in which they delve into the hidden history of Turin’s riverside areas to reveal the intrinsic politicity of urban ecology.
Paolo Bosca (Italy, 1996) philosopher and researcher.
Bosca is a PhD candidate at the Universities of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo and the University of Turin, he collaborates with IUAV and Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and he is a member of the collective Spazio Vacante. He works on the theme of space, combining philosophical research with field experience to investigate the relationships between agricultural or gastronomic practices and the perception, ecology and use of territories. His most recent published texts include Synchysis. The path of fluid knowledge (Vesper) and Disertare la crescita (Il Tascabile).
Benni Bosetto (Italy, 1987), artist.
Bosetto studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, where she lives, and at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. Her practice encompasses drawing, performance, sculpture and installation, and investigates the body from an interspecies and gender perspective. She has recently deepened her study of ancient and contemporary healing rituals and the states of semiconsciousness characteristic of meditation and sleep. She has exhibited at MAMbo, Bologna, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene, GAMEc, Bergamo and Quadriennale di Roma.
Antonia Brown (South Africa, 1989), artist.
Brown studied at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, before participating in residency programs at Fondazione Ratti, Como, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, and Morpho, Antwerp. She is interested in the cultural history of plants in relation to concepts of healing, fertility and toxicity. Today she investigates the influence of medieval humoral medicine and botany on current conceptions of the body, linking it to a decolonial process of reimagining somatic relationships. She collaborates with Kate Briggs.
Filippo De Pieri (Italy, 1968) Professor and architectural historian
Filippo De Pieri is Professor of History of Architecture at Politecnico di Torino. His research covers a plurality of geographical areas (Europe, East Asia, North America) and topics such as the history of early nineteenth-century planning, the history of urban conservation in the twentieth century, the history of collective living and the environmental history of architecture. Among his publications: Esplorazioni nella città dei ceti medi: Torino 1945-80 (LetteraVentidue, 2015, con G. Caramellino, C. Renzoni, M. Pace) and Tra simili. Storie incrociate dei quartieri italiani del secondo dopoguerra (Quodlibet, 2022).
Ethereal Society of Poetry
Ethereal Society of Poetry (ESP) is a project conceived by Davide La Montagna and Deborah Martino, born from the desire to raise awareness, promote, and make poetry accessible through group readings. ESP is conceived as a meeting platform in the form of presentations, readings, conversations, or roundtables open to all, to take place in a free and safe environment.
Simone Frangi (Italy, 1982), curator and researcher.
Frangi works at the intersection of critical thinking, curatorial research, and education. He currently serves as professor of Theory of Contemporary Art at the École Supérieure d’Art et Design in Grenoble. He directs with Alessandro Castiglioni Live Works – Free School of Performance at Centrale Fies of Trento and A Natural Oasis?, a Transnational Research Programme. In 2021 he became Senior Curator of MEDITERRANEA19 – School of Waters. In 2021 he also co-published with Lucrezia Cippitelli the anthology Colonialità e Culture Visuali in Italia (Mimesis, 2021); with her since 2023 he has been curator in charge of contemporary art exhibitions at Kunst Meran Merano Arte.
Matthew Gandy (England, 1965) geographer and urbanist
Matthew Gandy is Professor of Geography at the University of Cambridge and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. His articles have appeared in many leading journals including IJURR, New Left Review, and Society and Space. His books include Natura urbana: ecological constellations in urban space (MIT Press, 2022), Moth (Reaktion, 2016), The fabric of space: water, modernity, and the urban imagination (MIT Press, 2014), and Concrete and clay: reworking nature in New York City (MIT Press, 2002). He is currently working on zoonotic aspects to urban epidemiology as part of a wider conceptual framing for the multi-species city.
Allison Grimaldi Donahue (USA, 1984), writer and translator.
Grimaldi Donahue explores modes in which language, performance and text can move between individual and collective experience. She employs participatory writing methods to build improvised communities of writers and translators, investigating the ways in which language is useful and useless, meaningful and a receptacle. She is author of Body to Mineral (Publication Studio Vancouver, 2016) and On Endings (Delere Press, 2019) and translator of Blown Away by Vito M. Bonito (Fomite, 2021) and Self-portrait by Carla Lonzi (Divided, 2021). She has given recent performances at Sonnenstube Lugano, Short Theatre, Rome, MACRO, Rome, MAMbo, Bologna.
Debora Incorvaia (France, 1987), chef and artist.
Incorvaia graduated at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Bourges and is a member of the Académie Nationale de Cuisine. Incorvaia combines food, art and ecology to create “edible works”, culinary performances, sculptures and installations. Her research explores ancestral cooking and fermentation techniques, and cooking and ancient recipes.
Huw Lemmey (England, 1986), writer, artist and critic.
Lemmey is the author of three novels, Lingua Ignota (Timeo, 2023), My Corbyn Chemsex Hell (Montez Press, 2019) e Chubz: The Demonization of my Working Arse (Montez Press, 2014). He writes about gender studies, sexuality, politics and mysticism and contributes to Frieze, Guardian, Flash Art, Tribune, TANK, The Architectural Review, Art Monthly, New Humanist, Rhizome and Vogue, among others. Together with Ben Miller he hosts the podcast Bad Gays, from which the book Bad Gays. Crudeli e spietati: una storia omosessuale (Il Saggiatore, 2023).
Michele Lonati (Italy, 1975), professor and theorist.
Lonati is a professor at the University of Turin, where he coordinates the research group in Grassland Ecology and Management. He conducts research on topics related to conservation of rare endangered species and habitats, biodiversity management and conservation, containment of invasive exotic species, grassland management and phytosociology. He is a member of the Italian Botanical Society, the Italian Society of Vegetation Sciences, and the Working Group on Exotic Plant Species of the Piedmont Region.
Tabita Rezaire (France, 1989), artist, devotee, yoga teacher, doula and farmer.
Rezaire lives in Cayenne, French Guiana, where she founded Amakaba, a center for the wisdom of earth, body and sky. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s from Central Saint Martins, London. Rezaire is a founding member of the artist group NTU, part of the duo Malaxa and mother of SENEB House. Her practice focuses on the relationship between technology and spirituality and imagines network sciences (organic, electronic and spiritual) as healing agents capable of evoking the art of connection. Rezaire’s work has been exhibited: Centre Pompidou, Paris; Serpentine, London; MoMa, NY; New Museum, NY; MASP, Sao Paulo; Gropius Bau Berlin e Artspace, Sydney.
Viviana Sorrentino (Italy, 1980), naturalist.
Sorrentino is a PhD at the University of Natural Sciences in Turin, Italy. Since 2009, she began studying wild herbs in relation to their beneficial and healing properties, experimenting with the practice of foraging and cooking, using wild plants as nourishment and a responsible ethical approach to our relationship with nature.
Noura Tafeche (Tristan da Cunha, 1979), artist, independent researcher and onomaturge.
Graduated in New Technologies for Art from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts with a focus on net.art and radical entertainment, Tafeche continues her studies in Philosophy. Her artistic path is developed through laboratory methods and practices, video and miniature drawing. Her areas of research delve into the study of phenomena related to online visual cultures, the aestheticization of violence on digital platforms, linguistic experimentation, and the visual representation of speculative theories.
Almanac Inn
Almanac is a nonprofit space dedicated to showcasing the variety of forms and languages of contemporary art and interacting with the different ways in which it can become an integral part of the daily rhythms of life. Almanac aims to support artistic research and development, to address the urgencies of the present, focusing on solo exhibitions of emerging artists and a complementary program of educational and participatory projects. Almanac began its operation in 2013 with Almanac Projects in London. Then in 2014 Almanac Inn was founded in Turin. In 10 years of activity, Almanac has produced more than 80 solo exhibitions and carried out numerous projects in collaboration with international art institutions such as CAC Brétigny, GAMeC, Bergamo, Gasworks, London, Goldsmiths University, London, MAMbo, Bologna, Morpho, Antwerp, OGR, Turin.
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Located in an 18th-century Baroque castle designed by architect Filippo Juvarra, the Castello di Rivoli was restored and opened to the public in 1984. With its renowned collection of contemporary art and its 7,000 square meters of exhibition space, the Museum is one of Europe’s leading institutions dedicated to exhibiting and collecting contemporary art in a constant dialogue with the artistic and architecture of the past. An indispensable center of artistic culture, the Castello di Rivoli contributes to the dissemination, enhancement and study of contemporary art through exhibitions, research activities and production of catalogs, as well as advanced educational programs.
Orti Generali
The project was initiated in 2018 with the aim of implementing a social enterprise model in a city park in the suburban Mirafiori Sud neighborhood of Turin, characterized by an industrial past. Seeking to return to the community a park abandoned for many years and marked by squatting and degradation, over 250 families were allowed to engage in urban horticulture as an opportunity for social and cultural integration. The transformation process, which has included cultural events, educational activities with schools, and pathways to social inclusion, has contributed to a renewed sense of community and the development of ecological awareness.
Guido Santandrea (Italy, 1989), curator.
Santandrea is the artistic director and co-founder of Almanac Projects (London) and Almanac Inn (Turin). Since 2013 he has worked on the curatorial frame and production of over 80 solo exhibitions of emerging artists among the two locations of Almanac. His curatorial practice focuses on facilitating the development of early career artists to respond to the urgencies of the present. He has written for magazines such as Mousse, Arte e Critica, Kaleidoscope, This Is Tomorrow and has contributed to conferences and conversations with artists in institutions and galleries such as Freie Universität, Berlin, Fiorucci Art Trust, London, Pump House Gallery, London, Richard Saltoun Gallery, London.
Marianna Vecellio (Italy, 1973), art historian and curator.
Vecellio is a curator at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli – Turin. Her areas of inquiry privilege research pertaining to contemporary subjectivity in digital society, ecological, and out-of-chorus practices. A curator of national and international exhibitions and publications, she has conceived and realized exhibitions and publications for Castello di Rivoli, including Michael Rakowitz, 2020, Hito Steyerl, 2019, Anna Boghiguian, 2017 – 2018, and Ed Atkins, 2017. She has also designed and curated transdisciplinary projects aimed at exploring new forms of coexistence and transformation of the living, between ecology and the posthuman, andlectured and taught at universities and institutions.
The project is realized by Almanac Inn, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, and Orti Generali.
Vibrant Natures is realized with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT and Regione Piemonte.
