SEEK REFUGE precarious settlements / in / places of transit

Go camping means to create a house that is a tent, a camper or a caravan, bringing with us part of our own home. Each time, in any departure or arrival, happens the same ritual: to assemble or install your refuge, for a short or long period, after which it repeats the same operation, on the contrary. The refuge so created serves for shelter from inclement weather as well as protection from the outside. This is a common practice for those peoples and for those tribes that, moving from one place to another, use mobile and practical homes.

Seek Refuge is an exhibition of contemporary art that is born from an idea by Filippo Borella and Enrico Cazzaniga ; its curators are Marta Casati and Riccardo Lisi.
Seek Refuge is an aggregation based on coexistence with artistic practices within a campsite.
The project, conceived in camp, has kept the spirit from which it was generated by inviting artists whose research moves on the coordinates of transforming the concept of home to merge in cohabitation between artworks and normal campers.
Seek Refuge intends to focus on current issues of accommodation and integration by addressing them in the first line and showing its most disparate aspects. It has tried to emphasize what it means to make art realizing “precarious settlements in places of transit.” The project has created a working and artistic process, conducted in the natural daily rhythms, starting point for thought on alternative methods of housing in the best respect for environment.

Where is SEEK REFUGE?

The project lives in 18,000 square mts of the camping Venezia Village (www.veneziavillage.it), now the real source of creation where the space exhibition realized in practice the idea of an artistic making, in relation to real life. The artists have occupied and have worked inside the camp in plots and common areas, such as services, bar restaurant, laundry, etc.. The contamination between the everyday reality of living in camp and the installations will be comprehensive and continuous.
At the same time the project lives also in the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, which fully supports and cooperates in the initiative. The installation projects developed on the theme of nomadism chosen by the students and coordinated by Prof. Alberto Giorgio Cassani (teacher of Elements of Architecture and Urban Planning) are placed in the sixteenth century cloister of the Academy, in Fondamenta Zattere allo Spirito Santo, near the Guggenheim and the Punta della Salute.

Who are the artists of SEEK REFUGE?

They are:

Alek O., Francesco Arena, Marco Bernacchia, Donatella Bernardi, Andras Calamandrei, Michelangelo Consani, Oppy De Bernardo + Luigi D’Eugenio, Al Fadhil, Gruppo Improponibile, /barbaraguerrieri/group, Adelita Husni-Bey, Salvatore Licitra, Luca Lo Coco, Franco Menicagli, Maurizio Mercuri, Mickry 3, Luca Minotti, Gianni Motti, Aldo Mozzini, Sergio Racanati, Camilla Sala, Tarshito, Federica Tavian + Gonzalo Laborra.

What’s in the show and what’s happening in the camping?

Inside the main location of the project, the Venezia Village camping, there will be the works by the 23 artists, including five couples or collectives.
A good eighteen of the projects were thought just for Seek Refuge, being at most ad-hoc installations.
Seven projects include still or moving images projections and six projects have performing or art action nature. Among them, four are visible at best only during the opening (Saturday 13, 4 – 11pm), while two will begin already before it (nearly September the 10th) and will end Sunday 14.
By our own, we’ll try so to offer – around the project statement – also a 360-degrees look over the panorama of the creative techniques in the contemporary art.

When is SEEK REFUGE?

Seek Refuge will open:
Friday September 12, 5-7pm at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Venice (Fondamenta Zattere allo Spirito Santo, Venice) and
Saturday September 13, 4-11pm in the Venezia Village camping (via Orlanda 8/c, Venice Mestre),
in the same weekend of the opening of the Biennale of Architecture in Venice and it will occupy both the spaces until Sunday, November 2, 2008.
The two sections of the show will be free open to all:
everyday 9am – 11pm at the Venezia Village camping and
since Monday to Friday, 10am – 5pm at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Venice.
Both the sections can be visited without any limit or problem, also by the audience with movement disability.

Cycling to SEEK REFUGE

Seek Refuge is a project born with sense of ecology.
Consistent with this, a part of the organisers and some artists came to Venice from Milan by bicycle, a small “exploit” open to all which was carried out in several stages, starting from the morning of Tuesday, August 26.

To coexist with SEEK REFUGE

Several interest reason – the presence in the camping until the September 14 of nearly all the involved artists, the curators and inventors, the contemporaneous opening of the Architecture Biennale with his many collateral events and obviously the chance to coexist side by side with contemporary art projects – can induce anyone to desire to camp with us.
To favour it, since now and until November the 2nd is possible to hire bungalows (2, 3 or 4 beds), or to use tent and camper pitches inside the Venezia Village, taking advantage by relevant discounts: it’s enough to do reservations or check-ins denoting to be come to see Seek Refuge.

TECHNICAL DATA

TITLE:
SEEK REFUGE
WEBSITE:
www.seek-refuge.com
IDEA:
FILIPPO BORELLA, ENRICO CAZZANIGA
CURATORS:
MARTA CASATI, RICCARDO LISI
ARTISTS:
ALEK O. – FRANCESCO ARENA – MARCO BERNACCHIA – DONATELLA BERNARDI – ANDRAS CALAMANDREI – MICHELANGELO CONSANI – OPPY DE BERNARDO + LUIGI D’EUGENIO – AL FADHIL – GRUPPO IMPROPONIBILE – /barbaraguerrieri/group – ADELITA HUSNI-BEY – SALVATORE LICITRA – LUCA LO COCO – FRANCO MENICAGLI – MAURIZIO MERCURI – MICKRY 3 – LUCA MINOTTI – GIANNI MOTTI – ALDO MOZZINI – SERGIO RACANATI – CAMILLA SALA – TARSHITO – FEDERICA TAVIANI + GONZALO LABORRA.
LOCATIONS:
– Camping Venezia Village
Via Orlanda 8/c, Mestre (VE)
Tel./Fax: +39 041 5312828
e-mail: info@veneziavillage.it
website: www.veneziavillage.it
Opening time: open daily from 9am to 11pm.
– Academy of Fine Arts, Venezia
Formerly Ospedale degli Incurabili, Fondamenta Zattere allo Spirito Santo, Venice
Ph.: +39 041 2413752 Fax: +39 041 5230129
e-mail: info@accave.com
website: www.accave.com
Opening time: open Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm.
DURATION:
13.09.08 – 02.11.08
DATE and HOURS OF THE EVENTS:
Press conference at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice:
Friday June 27, 2008 h 2.30pm
Opening of the section at the Accademia di Belle Arti:
Friday September 12, 2008 h 5 – 7pm
Press preview at the Venezia Village camping:
Saturday September 13, 2008 h 12.00am
Opening with performances at the Venezia Village:
Saturday September 13, 2008 h 4 – 11pm
ENTRY:
free
WEB DESIGNER:
Fabrizio Galli
MAIN SPONSOR:
Pro Helvetia