2018

Adelaide Cioni, Giuseppe De Mattia, Su Blackwell

#01

Workshop
“The mountains are moving”
with Adelaide Cioni 

During the workshop a visual inventory was made of the mountain peaks surrounding Merano. Together with the teacher, the children chose their peaks and described the characteristics of the mountains in a notebook. Using cardboard boxes on which handles were attached, each child then made a kind of mask with which they could dress up.

#02

Workshop
“Beautiful the river, beautiful the stones, beautiful the fish”
with Adelaide Cioni 

In this workshop the children created a mobile picture representing the life of the Passirio river. In the previous weeks they had been asked to observe the watercourse, to collect its stones, to draw or photograph the way it flows, the plants that grow around it, the animals that live there and to dry flowers and herbs. 

Adelaide Cioni

Born in Bologna in 1976, she holds two degrees in Contemporary History and Literary Translation. For years she worked on translating American literature, including the works of Richard Ford, David Foster Wallace and Stephen Wright. In 2012, Cioni abandoned her career as a translator to dedicate herself to the study of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, where she graduated, and later to the study of drawing at UCLA in Los Angeles. She then moved to Paris, immersing herself completely in her artistic career. In 2016 she moved to Umbria where, together with Fabio Giorgi Alberti, she opened the art space “Franca”.

#03

Workshop
“Inside look outside”
with Giuseppe De Mattia

Holding a camera, the participants took photographs of the outside of their classrooms. Once printed, the images formed the background for all the abstract, figurative, free or planned drawings made during the workshop.

Giuseppe De Mattia

Born in Bari in 1980, the artist has lived and worked in Bologna for many years, where he dedicates his artistic research to the study and recovery of dismissed objects. Many of his projects are rooted in film archives, such as Home Movies, The National Archive of Family Film, and he works in the fields of photography, video, audio and drawing. Recording and collecting are the areas and the semantic fields of his research, with which he aims to find salvation for what is usually considered waste. De Mattia collaborates with several galleries in Italy, including Corraini Arte Contemporanea in Mantua and Matéria Gallery in Rome.

#04

Workshop
“Imagine”
with Su Blackwell

Guided by the artist’s experience, the participants of the workshop were able to immerse themselves in the universe of European fairy tales. Exploring the technique of sculpture and using the pages of old books, they were able to create together a fairy-tale theatrical scenography to set up an imaginary stage.

Su Blackwell

Su Blackwell is an English-born artist who creates works of art using paper, inspired by the world of fairy tales and Nordic legends. Her sculptures have been exhibited all over the world, including at the Long and Ryle Gallery of London by which she is represented. She has worked for major commercial brands, such as British Airways and Volvo, and has designed theatre sets. Blackwell uses the paper of books as a medium to create dioramas and surreal sculptures which, when assembled, recall the great classics of children’s literature such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Secret Garden, The Wizard of Oz, The Little Prince and Peter Pan. The choice of paper as the object of her artistic research is intended to represent the precariousness of the world, life and dreams.