Itinerant series
a pLASTIC tEA pARTY
From December 2024, Ongoing
A pLASTIC tEA pARTY is an ongoing series of social gatherings that have no purpose other than that of gathering. They have been hosted in art galleries, a dance club, and private residencies.
The events’ underlining concept is defined by the boring hour practice, an exercise of presence and inaction. The boring hour is based on a rather simple idea: time spent just being, doing nothing, is worthwhile and fruitful. With no chores, no entertainment, neither distractions nor directed, intentional action, we engage with our own minds – and with others, if we spend this time in company – with a different quality of attention. It is a practice of resistance against the mind-splitting social pressures of productivity and distraction.
A pLASTIC tEA pARTY is a convivial boring hour, a ritual to share time that was not, and cannot, be filled with anything other than sharing time.
Each iteration is shaped after either an art historical reference or a contemporary artistic intervention that highlight one or more consitutive aspects of boredom and gathering, such as the elusive nature of time, or the contemplative opportunities of boredom.
The events’ underlining concept is defined by the boring hour practice, an exercise of presence and inaction. The boring hour is based on a rather simple idea: time spent just being, doing nothing, is worthwhile and fruitful. With no chores, no entertainment, neither distractions nor directed, intentional action, we engage with our own minds – and with others, if we spend this time in company – with a different quality of attention. It is a practice of resistance against the mind-splitting social pressures of productivity and distraction.
A pLASTIC tEA pARTY is a convivial boring hour, a ritual to share time that was not, and cannot, be filled with anything other than sharing time.
Each iteration is shaped after either an art historical reference or a contemporary artistic intervention that highlight one or more consitutive aspects of boredom and gathering, such as the elusive nature of time, or the contemplative opportunities of boredom.
a pLATISC tEA pARTY at The Boxing Gallery, Milan: Homage to Daniel Spoerri’s Topography of Chance.
Photo credits: Filippo Romano
a pLASTIC tEA pARTY for Club Plastic, Milan: Homage to Welcoming the Flower, by John Giorno.
Poster art by Heavy Jay.
The DC Arts Center, Washington DC
Labor of Fire
From February 16th until March 17th, 2024
An exhibition where meditation, manual and conceptual work, maintenance, care, and craft coexist as complementary practices of building and tending to our social and physical habitats.
Turning their own labor into a subject of inquiry, as well as its means, artists janet e. dandridge, Fanni Somogyi, and Isabella Whitfield dispel the illusion that the gallery space can suspend the tension between art and equity, and they challenge us to think about what fair support for artists is.
Exhibition catalog
Turning their own labor into a subject of inquiry, as well as its means, artists janet e. dandridge, Fanni Somogyi, and Isabella Whitfield dispel the illusion that the gallery space can suspend the tension between art and equity, and they challenge us to think about what fair support for artists is.
Exhibition catalog
Left to right: Rice meditations 1 and 2 (2021), Isabella Whitfield; Signage - Iteration 3 (2024) and Chronicle on Choice and Consequence (2022), janet e. dandridge; Precariously Placed (2023), Fanni Somogyi.
Left to right: Precariously Placed (2023), Dust pan and Hand broom (2024), Fanni Somogyi.
The DC Arts Center, Washington DC
All in a day’s work
Performance by Isabella Whitfield
All in a day’s work is a performance by Isabella Whitfield that brings into the gallery the creative labor behind her works Rice meditation 1 & 2. Meditative, meticulous, repetitive, and uninterrupted for the duration of a workday (8 hours).
The performance was part of Labor of Fire’s public program. It took place in the DC Arts Center’s main gallery and was livestreamed.
The performance was part of Labor of Fire’s public program. It took place in the DC Arts Center’s main gallery and was livestreamed.
Isabella Whitfield performing All in a day’s work.
Performance’s ‘remains’.
Zoma Museum, Addis Ababa
Eyes on Tomorrow
From March 12th until May 8th, 2022
Eyes on Tomorrow. Giovane Fotografia Italiana nel Mondo was a project by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Municipality of Reggio Emilia to promote internationally the work of young Italian photographers. It took the form of a multi-location exhibition across 14 countries around the world. Zoma Museum was one of the chosen venues, for which I curated the onsite installation and the accompanying public program.
Eyes on Tomorrow, Zoma Edition, revolved around three central themes: identity, dreams and daily life. For each theme, the works of three photographers were selected and installed on wooden structures designed by the concept team to allow the photographers to plan their own display. The nine photographers participating in the Zoma Museum edition were Nicola Baldazzi, Dominico Camarda, Francesca Cirilli, Franceaco Levy, Alisa Martynova, Francesco Merlini, Iacopo Pasqui, Anna Positano, and Alba Zari.
Eyes on Tomorrow, Zoma Edition, revolved around three central themes: identity, dreams and daily life. For each theme, the works of three photographers were selected and installed on wooden structures designed by the concept team to allow the photographers to plan their own display. The nine photographers participating in the Zoma Museum edition were Nicola Baldazzi, Dominico Camarda, Francesca Cirilli, Franceaco Levy, Alisa Martynova, Francesco Merlini, Iacopo Pasqui, Anna Positano, and Alba Zari.
Zoma Museum, Addis Ababa
Anthropogenic Bridge
Site-specific installation by Eugenio TIbaldi
Anthropogenic Bridge is a site-specific installation by the artist Eugenio Tibaldi, who participated in the Zoma’s Bridge Residency Program. The program is an invitation to foreign artists to visit Ethiopia and Zoma Museum, to design a bridge - a permanent, walkable installation, symbol of connection and junction.
Anthropogenic Bridge is inspired by the conflictual interaction, in Addis Ababa, between the botanical and the architectural. A story of impossible reconciliation and inescapable contrast.
Anthropogenic Bridge is inspired by the conflictual interaction, in Addis Ababa, between the botanical and the architectural. A story of impossible reconciliation and inescapable contrast.
View of Anthropogenic Bridge, by Eugenio Tibaldi, at Zoma Museum.©