A book To-Be: how to move your artwork from museum to public space
a project by Irene Pittatore
curated by Nicoletta Daldanise
in collaboration with a.titolo, Giovanni Semi, Alberto Vanolo
publisher: Archive Books
website: https://abooktobe.wordpress.com/
How to move your artwork from museum to public space is one of the winning projects of the 15th edition of the open call DE.MO Movin’ Up – mobility program for Italian artists in the world, curated by the General Direction for landscape, fine arts, architecture and contemporary arts – Ministry for Assets and Cultural Activities and GAI – Association of the Circuit of Young Italian Artists.
During a period of residency in Berlin (June/ July 2014), the artist and the curator compared their experience of art interventions in the neighbourhood of Porta Palazzo (Turin) with the dynamics of urban regeneration involving artists and cultural workers in Mitte, Kreuzberg and Neukölln (Berlin).
After a careful context-specific analysis, carried on in synergy with Movin’ Up, Kaninchen-Haus (supported by Compagnia di San Paolo) and Archive Books (publisher), an artist book will be conceived in relation to these issues.
The final result will be an ”ironic” user manual about contemporary artistic practices in relation to the public realm. The aim is to investigate the reasons and consequences of the use of ”creativity” by governments and private investors in urban regeneration projects, the potential contaminations between artistic practices, the social realm, public entertainment and spontaneous socio-cultural embedding.
The project, as a whole, was started by Irene Pittatore and Annelies Vaneycken on the occasion of Viadellafucina AIR (2012), organized in Turin by the cultural association Kaninchen-Haus. Their performative intervention consisted in setting up a round table in the middle of Piazza della Repubblica (Porta Palazzo, Turin), where a debate about art and urban regeneration strategies on the neighborhood took place. The square, which is mainly a center for trade activities, temporarily took back its role of place for the cultural debate, as the ancient agorà.
Before leaving to Berlin, Irene Pittatore and Nicoletta Daldanise focused on a preparatory study with Porta Palazzo inhabitants and social workers (Tavolo Tessere Interesse), in order to highlight possible themes and contradictions in the use of art in the public space. In particular, a series of workshops highlighted the risks of manipulation and normalization in the representation of such a complex context.