curated by Ilaria Mancia
Conceived and curated by Ilaria Mancia, Prender-si cura is an artist residency program taking place at La Pelanda during the summer, from mid-June until August 2020. A group of artists is invited to develop their own research ranging from dance to performance, from visual art to photography.
Prender-si cura questions the very concept of the artist residency, inspired by the Socratic concept of epimèleia heautoù, according to which one needs to take care of oneself and their own interiority before dedicating themselves to the public sphere and to others.
Prender-si cura is conceived in two parallel and intertwined movements, currently still in progress. First the long-distance conversations which already happened during the compulsory isolation throughout the health emergency, and then the artists’ practice in space.
Prender-si cura is with: Annamaria Ajmone, Silvia Calderoni, Rä di Martino, Marina Donatone, Giuseppe Vincent Giampino, Paola Granato, Sara Leghissa, Jacopo Jenna with Roberto Fassone, Claudia Pajewski, Luigi Presicce, Cristina Kristal Rizzo, Michele Rizzo, Alexia Sarantopoulou with Ondina Quadri.
Prender-si cura was triggered by some questions revolving around the realm of the artist residency, with the urgency to deconstruct it, in order to open it up and expand it. As a pivotal moment within the contemporary artistic production, the residency is meant to be a time devoted to research and production. As the relationship with the surrounding space and context is always central, Prender-si cura wants to reflect on these relationships—both between the artist and the curator, among the artists themselves, as well as between the artist and the audience—by questioning them and rereading them through the concept of care. In this sense, the logistical theoretical and productive support necessary for the artwork becomes crucial, especially in a complex moment such as the current one.
This process is part of the program specifically conceived for the Pelanda space for summer 2020, and aims to be a first step in the creation of a production center for the performing arts.
Prender-si cura offers multiple ways to inhabit the space. La Pelanda will host several projects, with a particular focus on the interdisciplinary exchange among artists and media. According to the "new" time we live in, experimentation will take into account the artists’ needs and won’t necessarily have to lead to a final result.
We want to think that imagining together new and possible production strategies can be a long-lasting gesture that can allow space for research. We want to conceive it through alliances and collaborations, enriching the path with critical interventions and external glances.
We want to shape new ways of crossing a space, by shaping co-creation together, in collaboration and complicity with Short Theatre - the festival will be one of the residents, as well as a partner for several artistic projects focusing on the strategic possibilities to rethink the performance space itself. A transformation that would take into account the livability and the transit-ability of a place, and make it enjoyable both for those who witness it as spectators and for those who live it and constantly contribute to its very existence.
This itinerary has already started before the artists arrival and will keep on accompanying their research in a sort of logbook, a story which will be broadcasted on the Mattatoio digital channels, and will offer an internal perspective on the working process, which started during the lock down, when none of us could know whether the project would come to exist, as we tried to manage together a newly emerged temporality. The central focus on care has been developed through the dialogic format and “dialogic residences” that begun in distance, lead by Ilaria Mancia, along with theorist and dramaturg in residence Paola Granato, in the role of witness. Each dialogue investigates various aspects of both research and practice and from time to time opens up to guest scholars, to zoom into specific topics and works, by intercepting common themes and tracing shared plots. Here, the theoretical confrontation becomes an act of mutual care and a form of relationship, a reflection not only for the conceptual pleasure of speculation, but also for the pleasure of meeting and deepening.
During the residency period, La Pelanda will be an open research place and offer opportunities for meeting and crossing, according to a calendar of openings agreed with the artists in compliance with health safety standards, in the desire to render the process of artistic production visible and accessible to a larger audience.