“MagiC Carpets” is a “Creative Europe” platform uniting 15 European cultural organisations from 15 countries, that create opportunities for emerging artists to embark on journeys to the unknown lands and to create together with local artists and local communities.
Facing the global pandemic, many countries are under the lockdown and our residencies are on hold, yet we remain committed to our members and communities. Our mission has always been to create new works that highlight local specificities and compensate for the shortage of story-telling existing in the modern society by enhancing cultural accessibility, cultural activism and participation. With the changes we’re seeing in our workplaces and communities, that mission is more relevant and important than ever before.
Because of this, the emerging artists, curators and platform members of “MagiC Carpets” are sharing their recommendations for online activities #creativeeuropeathome.
Latitudo Art Projects (Italy)
Latitudo Art Projects, a MagiC Carpets platform member, is promoting culture at 360 degrees, with an eye to the future and internationality, giving the voice to young talents and encouraging them to discover art and engage in a dialogue with the great masters of our past.
> Videos made by Luis Do Rosario and dedicated to the artist residencies that have taken place in Rome within the last 2 years of MagiC Carpets:
o Yves Mettler (Artist from Switzerland, based in Germany)
o Patricia Geraldes (Portugal)
o Melanie Garland (from Chile, based in Germany)
o Hrvoslava Brkušić (Croatia)
> For the youngest: download the fanzine (here) made by the artist Yves Mettler together with the kids during some workshops that took place in a local library during his residency at Latitudo in 2019.
Sonja Jo (Serbia)
The residency of the emerging artist from Serbia took place in Kaunas (Lithuania) and her final work created here was presented at the 12th Kaunas Biennial “After Leaving | Before Arriving” in 2019. For more information, please see here.
o Video by Vykintas Bliumkys (Lithuania) covering the installation in Šančiai (Kaunas) “Without ruins we can not see new world” as a part of Sonja Jo residency at Kaunas Biennial (Kaunas, Lithuania).
o Utilitarian memory (2019) by Sonja Jo
The work is based on the memory of the first thinking about art. Based on child’s logic, author’s first acceptance of art and realisation of the artist getting old one day. The work consists of a porcelain figure which the author buried in the ground when she was between ten and twelve years old. Because of staying under the ground for some time, this figure has acquired a certain value. Up until then, the author saw the value only in classical works of art and archaeological discoveries. The work also consists of the documentary video that is now following the excavation of this figure. Today, this work could serve as an illustration how art communicates with society, to what extent it suggests a kind of correct, confirmed art as a reference and as the only one recognized too. How perfectly creativity communicates through institutions and how much art communicates through institutions (Educational). This installation consists of a set-up, an original figure on a tin shelf, and a documentary video on the invention of a given object. The video has a goal to suggest the authenticity of an event that talks about the tendencies of contemporary practices to necessarily correlate with the referential literary and philosophical works, systematized and valued as worthwhile. The work also touches on the field of nostalgic relationships, fashion and value pattern that, by their nature, create the desired society, as well as production and distribution.
o Sonja Jo on Behance.
o Books available for free recommendation by Sonja Jo.
Virginia Zanetti (Italy)
Virgínia Zanetti completed painting studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and obtained different master degrees in the field of art education. When exhibiting her works and collaborating on other projects like lectures, workshops and residences, Virgínia works with several Italian and foreign institutions of contemporary art, and holds several institutional prizes as MOVIN’UP II session 2015 promoted by the Ministry of Italian Cultural Heritage and GAI – Association for the Circuit of the Young Italian Artists and the first place in the competition for artists aimed at creating permanent artworks for the Law Courts of Florence, in 2017.
o The Pillars of the Earth
This is a project still in progress in several part of the world. A collective action that gives a new view on the possibility of people’s emancipation. The action reverses the perspective: the individual supports the world, along with others, a crucial nuance whether to play an active or a passive role in society.
Lasting peace and the wellbeing of human beings does not depend only on the reform of society but also on the transformation of every individual’s life which can contribute to change both the destiny of a nation and the fate of humanity (Daisaku Ikeda).
Aiming at reversing the point of view, sharing the experience with people from different areas, creating a new wandering community in search of a new ethics or spirituality, the work explores the concepts of rebirth and revolution through the reversal of the vision. Walking to reach the tops from which you may “see” better, we talk, exchange ideas and create spontaneously a new community of people.
People doing handstand are supporting the world becoming the Pillars of the Earth and trigger a process of collective construction of new concepts and new ways.
Please see the video here.