Residencies - Land Art and Public Art

Five works of Land Art and Public Art to enhance and expand the region's cultural offerings.

22/04/202527/04/2025

The residence

Creation of five land art and public art installations, aimed at enhancing and expanding the area’s cultural offerings — rediscovering nature and the landscape as tools and mediums for art, capable of inspiring in viewers not only contemplation but also, and above all, reflection.

The residencies are managed by the Zap! Association

“Il Tempo delle Ginestre | Morigerati 2038”

Work curated by artist Luigi Coppola

Viewable at the Antico Frantoio and along the village streets leading to the WWF “Grotte del Bussento” Nature Reserve (Via Granatelli)

The work is a visual narrative that opens up an imaginative horizon of the village in a future time. In 2038, following ongoing depopulation, the residents of Morigerati repeat the action taken by their fellow citizens 50 years earlier: a hunger strike. This time, their determination is to do everything possible to prevent the town’s disappearance, and their most important proposal is the creation of a “School of Territorial Economies” that circulates ideas and initiates and restores virtuous economic supply chains. In the paintings, five views of Morigerati become a new stage for social action. Accompanying this vision are various plants chosen as symbols of a new alliance, such as the broom bushes — which give the work its title — a symbol of courage and extreme resilience in the face of an inevitable fate.

“Lycoperdon”

An installation by the artist DEM

Installed at the Ferriera di Morigerati

Analyzing the term “transluogo” — “trans,” meaning “beyond, through,” and “luogo,” understood as a physical or symbolic space — brought to mind images linked to the passage between worlds, to crossing thresholds, caves, and underground waters that connect the upper and lower parts of the landscape. I also thought of migratory flows, viewed as human movements that have been intertwining for centuries, generating new connections. Hence the idea of a giant mushroom made of intertwined branches, whose symbolic mycelium connects the elements of the territory. The study of the local shrubby flora and the mindful collection of plants led to the definition of the work’s form, location, and dimensions. The intent is to create a landmark that symbolically and physically represents Morigerati through its nature, its history, and its vital relationship with those who pass through it.

“Tinea”

An installation by artist Luis Gomez de Teran

Installed at the medieval bridge in Morigerati

Be butterflies, painted in the colors of dawn and spring; fly over golden flowers and silver mirrors, giving couples the illusion of happiness. I, who am your brother at night, ended up under a bridge chasing a flame that fed my desperate need for light. I, a foolish moth convinced for a moment that I was better than Icarus.

Convinced for a moment that I was better than you.

Convinced for a moment that there was no longer any difference.

“Alta Veglia”

An installation by artists Giancarlo Guadagno and Ilaria Spagnuolo

Installed at the Ferriera di Morigerati

Rising amid trees and silence, this structure stands like a small observation tower immersed in the natural landscape. Entirely self-built using wood — chosen to harmonize with the surrounding environment — the work presents itself as a light presence that respects its host site. Open to the sky, it welcomes the gaze and the air, becoming a space for contemplation and listening. The structure is clad in lightweight canvases created using the botanical cyanotype technique: leaves, branches, and other fragments gathered from the surrounding area have left their blue imprint, like plant memories etched by light. Each fabric panel is a fragment of the place, rendered in a poetic and suspended form. From the top, a few meters above the ground, a view opens up onto the river and the surrounding vegetation. By day, the work invites visitors to follow the movement of the water and the shifting light among the foliage; by night, it becomes a prime spot for stargazing, in a silent dialogue between earth and sky.

“SPORE - Listening Practices for a Diffuse Ecology”

A work by artist Massimo Ferrara

Experienced along the streets of Morigerati using a smartphone and earbuds

A sound art piece, an immersive listening practice that moves through space like a porous organism. It is not about orienting oneself or interpreting: it is about being within. It does not guide; it does not teach. It suspends. The soundscape being explored consists of three environments: Anthropophony — the sound of presence: the sounds of human activity. These are not noises but testimonies. Engines, footsteps, voices, structures, friction: the human becomes sound, becomes a system. Listening to them helps us recognize our own impact on the world and acknowledge ourselves as co-creators of the landscape. Biophony — the rhythm of other living beings: insects, birds, animals, plants. Listening here is symbiosis; it is permeability and requires subtle attention. An invitation to step outside oneself, to perceive oneself as a body among other bodies, all agents, all responsive. Geophony — the body of the world: non-biological sounds — wind, water, stone, electricity. Here, one experiences the landscape as active matter, a body that sounds, vibrates, and participates. It is like tuning into a more ancient, slower memory. “Spore” offers an experience where listening becomes a tool for ecological connection, sensory awareness, and political consciousness.

Program

RESIDENCY PROGRAM

April 22

Arrival of the artists

Tour of the historic center and the Ecomuseum headquarters

Setup of the worksites

April 23–24–25–26

Construction of the artworks, interspersed with evenings of film screenings and talks

April 27

Unveiling of the artworks and closing remarks

The people

Luigi Coppola

Artist

Luigi Coppola is an artist, agroecologist, and promoter of participatory public art projects. His artistic practice is characterized by an innovative relationship with the commons through actions that activate collective potential and imagination. Currently a senior researcher at the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research in Boston (USA), he has been part of the rural action collective Casa delle Agriculture, based in Castiglione d’Otranto, since 2013 (Lecce). His transformative work draws on debris, waste, and abandoned materials: Coppola operates on the margins, engaging with both the entrenched extraction of resources and people and the intensive exploitation of territories. The artist’s work unfolds through performances, paintings, symbolic actions, and environmental and social sculptures—but the focal point of her practice lies in transcending the codified norms of institutional art spaces: the artist’s authorship takes a back seat to the unfolding of the collective body, and the temporality of the work is extended. Coppola has developed public art projects, performances, and exhibitions in many international contexts, including the 7th Lubumbaschi Biennale (DR Congo), 2022; the 5th Istanbul Design Biennale, 2020; Matera Capital of Culture 2019; the Merz Foundation in Turin, 2018; BAK Utrecht, 2018; Kunsthaus Graz, 2017; Rome Quadriennale, 2017.

DEM

Artist

DEM, like a modern alchemist, creates bizarre characters, surreal creatures, and inhabitants of an imperceptible layer of human reality. Multifaceted and ironic, his works—which range from wall paintings to illustrations to paintings on canvas—are enriched by a symbolic language that invites viewers to develop their own code of access to this enigmatic and arcane world. His exploration of anthropological and nature-related themes inspires the artist to engage in constant experimentation, which in recent years has led to the production of a film and the creation of installations composed exclusively of natural materials. In addition to creating works in abandoned factories and forests—chosen as the ideal backdrop for his art—DEM has been featured in various publications and exhibitions, including a solo show at the Oro Gallery in Gothenburg and participation in the exhibitions “Street Art, Sweet Art” at the PAC in Milan, “Nomadaz” at the Scion Installation in Los Angeles, and “CCTV” at the Apostrophe Gallery in Hong Kong.

Gomez

Artist

Luis Gomez de Teran, also known as Gomez, was born in Caracas in 1980. He has lived in London, Berlin, and Rome, where he currently resides. His art is deeply symbolic and draws its primary inspiration from Baroque painters. His paintings possess a legendary spirit, deeply influenced by mythology, religion, and spirituality. He focuses on human nature, the physicality of bodies, and the forms of the spirit—in moments of beauty and decay, when souls reveal themselves, evil emerges from beauty, and good springs from darkness. His precise technique emphasizes symmetry and light, employing intense contrasts between pleasure and terror, strength and weakness, victors and vanquished, memory and oblivion, freedom and slavery. Rules and anarchy. Life and death. Gomez is a self-taught painter and sculptor who works in urban areas and natural settings, creating pieces for museums, private collectors, galleries, and brands. His works utilize a variety of media, ranging from walls to canvases, glass, concrete, mirrors, iron, and wood. He has created works in many countries around the world—including Italy, England, Germany, Spain, India, Tunisia, Thailand, Singapore, Georgia, and countless smaller countries—where public art is still capable of having a profound social impact on the local population. Gomez has participated in several group exhibitions throughout Europe; in June 2016, he held his first solo exhibition, “Nox Omnibus Lucet,” at the Varsi Gallery in Rome, followed by a solo exhibition in Brussels at the Montoro12 Gallery, a second in Rome at the Philobiblon Gallery, and his first hybrid exhibition of painting and sculpture in 2019 at MUSMA, the Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in Matera. In September/October 2021, he staged the first unauthorized and widespread exhibition in Italy—a solo journey through the twenty Italian regions, during which he created and installed twenty works in both abandoned and inhabited locations—and he is currently working on a book and a documentary about this experience, which fused the language of public art with urban exploration.

Giancarlo Guadagno & Ilaria Spagnuolo

Artists

Giancarlo Guadagno and Ilaria Spagnuolo, an architect and a designer, respectively, joined forces in 2016 to launch a creative studio that explores the intersection of art, architecture, and the environment, designing public art installations that bring together aesthetics, nature, and sustainability. Their collaboration is characterized by in-depth research into materials, with a focus on those with a low environmental impact. Each project is an opportunity to tell local stories through installations that engage with the urban and natural context—works that invite communities to reflect on their relationship with the environment.

Massimo Ferrara

Artist

Massimo Ferrara is a sound engineer based in Cilento. He approaches listening as a conscious and participatory experience, seeking to intertwine the social and perceptual dimensions. Passionate about complex and interconnected systems, he experiments at the intersection of technology and perception, identifying a common matrix that blends into the surrounding environment. His research focuses primarily on digital prototyping for sound design, creating innovative soundscapes that transform space into an experience. He is an active participant in the audio-video interaction project etali.de and the collective lostdogz_krw, with whom he has produced several publications from 2019 to the present.