GAP, transforming the border lands

Domus interviewed Francesca Marconi, author and curator of GAP, a scattered local workshop for the experimentation and cross-contamination of contemporary art languages in dialogue with the social and geographical border fabric, realised with artists, architects, designers and artisans.

In Santa Maria di Leuca and Lecce (Italy), a group of dreamers, artists, architects, farmers, exiles, prisoners and people with special needs come together, interpenetrating spheres of research and hybrid languages in a climate of support and solidarity that generates creative actions to enrich reality, starting from work on left-over, interstitial and border spaces in Salento.

Where did you get the idea for this project?
For more than 20 years, my artistic practice has always needed the involvement of others. My projects have always crossed sectors and been shared. I started out from art, politics and social issues; the research workshop is my tool, where I formalise my work, which is the product of a process. I returned to Italy in 2008 after three and a half years in Argentina where I worked with associations in contexts of social and financial marginalisation, introducing art processes that could transform the community. At that time, the Fondazione con il Sud announced a competition for special and innovative projects in southern Italy, open also to individuals. I channelled several desires into this: to live in Puglia, my place of origin on my mother’s side, and to hold workshops with people I admire. I came up with GAP, il territorio come galleria d’arte partecipata (A collectively created and scattered gallery of public art).

The idea was to found actions in human and geographical border lands that could generate new connections and cohesive dynamics through art. The Foundation contacted me to say that I had passed the first stage of the competition; the next step was to choose associations consistent with my ideas and develop the actions into a more concrete project together.

Why Lecce?
Some projects already launched by the partner associations were very interesting and complex, backed by local community participation (e.g. LUA Laboratorio Urbano Aperto, later become the proposing association of GAP, with its splendid “Abitare i Paduli” project); other younger associations had great potential and the urgency that bode well for a successful project.

Such projects are now relatively widespread in Italy and elsewhere. Are there any problems in the management of a project like this that are specific to that area?  It was not easy to come from another context and cope with pre-existing cultural and political dynamics, and construct exchanges between people that required everyone to take a step towards something new or different. We work every day to build a dynamic equilibrium that can make use of the existing but also take new strengths and experiences on board.

What about specific local results? There were many results, some more tangible and others consisting in emerging reflections. We worked with four associations (LUA Laboratorio Urbano Aperto, Manifatture Knos, Ramdom and Pepenero, which represents the network of old railway houses). They, in turn, drew in others of national and international artists and groups. Every association worked in a specific context.
LUA and the artist dem held the Creature workshop, a field of art and nature for children in the Parco dei Paduli; now, they are developing an interactive map of the park with Neapolitan Dopolavoro graphic designers. Ramdom launched Un’indagine sulle terre estreme in Leuca and Gagliano, inviting the artists Luca Coclite, Andreco and Alessandro Carboni to hold a workshop and three public art projects. We have worked in two directions with Manifatture Knos: firstly, the Giardino Radicale workshop to transform common rooms in a section of the Lecce men’s prison involved prisoners and was conducted by the artists Maurizio Buttazzo and Roberto dell’Orco; secondly, Fragile is an artistic workshop also open to artists with social and mental difficulties; its first phase was conducted by Mauro Marino. With PepeNero, on the other hand, we and Luca di Meo, aka Wuming3 – a writer's collective, author of several successful books, are working on Moving Landscape, a reading and writing workshop centred on new local drama.

Do you really believe that art which, by its nature, is not “useful” can produce changes? Which ones? Who does it “speak” to? I see art as more essential than ever in opening and re-imagining new perspectives and ways of relating to the area around us, bringing opportunities to reflect and interpret today’s world - human and collective. Devising an art project for social change means being able to make the most of social processes but also knowing how to respond with the codes of the artistic languages. So, we can honestly produce real change by creating comparisons that trigger a sharing of experiences and knowledge. When art adopts this role, it can speak to everyone, artists, prisoners, the fragile, farmers and communities. The changes are small acts of growth in the people concerned. In this project, there are many small groups of people who address various problems in need of a solution. They may be temporary ones but the process employed lives on as an individual and collective legacy.

You are midway through the two-year project. Which projects are ongoing? Tana a self-construction workshop on sustainable living has been realised at the end of July. It has created and test temporary biodegradable shelters in the Parco dei Paduli. The Moving landscape workshop is entering its second phase, with the arrival of four international artists who will encourage local research; Terre Estreme will also continue its exploration, inviting new artists for an extreme land art camp.
Wurmkos and rholing will arrive at the Manifatture Knos. They operate in the sphere of contemporary art with artists with and without mental difficulties; the film director Paolo Pisanelli and some visually impaired participants will develop new routes for getting to know the city of Lecce; photography and silk-screen printing workshops will begin and, of course, the workshops launched in the first year will have to develop ways to make their actions sustainable. This will be the hardest part of the project, ensuring that what has been produced to date can generate new strengths and actions.

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Francesca Marconi studied art, cinema and theatre; she and Diego Roveroni founded Almescabre, they produced several installations and films, presented among others at the Milan Triennale, Milan Film Festival, Tate Britain and Locarno Film Festival. She lived and worked for three and a half years in Buenos Aires, where she developed an art project in a villa miseria. On returning to Milan, she became scientific head of contemporary art education at Careof and viafarini; she founded the Tutamondo collective with Alessia Bernardini and, for five years, produced mirlando, artistic actions and shared workshops in Via Padova. They created the Ulysses videos, produced by Assab One. For the past year, she has lived in Lecce, supervising GAP, which she conceived and curates. She works with the Non Riservato network in Milan.