day 116

UNIDEE 2010 IN PROGRESS, OPEN STUDIO…lots of people came, it did not rain! congratulations to all concerned!!!

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day 115

Further installations because this has been our lives for the last few days.

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Tomorrow we open up the studio to the public…UNIDEE in progress 2010, October 9 (maybe i already mentioned it a few times!)…see you all there…

day 113

…no time to write much …INSTALLATION…!!!!!!!

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day 112

Some work in progress by Inass Yassin:

MP5 Factory is a silkscreening workshop that uses an MP5 Vespa protype drawing by the artitst.  It is inspired by Warhol’s silkscreen studio known as the “Factory.”

MP5 was the first Vespa to be handbuilt by factory workers in Biella in 1943.   The project investigates the innovation of the Vespa from its beginnings in Biella to its mass production world-wide

Inass will be giving a small silk screening workshop during UNIDEE in progress on Sat 9 October.

day 111

a short film by Anna Moreno:

April Rose, Dusky Lady of the Mountain

“This project aims to relate two black virgin statues: the Virgin of Montserrat in Catalonia and the Madonna Nera of Oropa in Italy; through a strongly identitarian Catalan canticle dedicated to the Virgin, El Virolai. In collaboration with a local Gospel choir, the song is transformed into a gospel and sung in the Madonna Nera’s church, in Oropa.

Religion, race and nationalism are three strong concepts constantly present in my own context. Relating both virgins with a gospel song sung by a group of white Italians that sing in Catalan appeared an ironic way of neglecting the usual discourse and correctness that surrounds these concepts. Especially when the Catalan virgin is not really black, but blackened by candle smoke.

This video shows the rehearsal previous to the concert in the church, mixed with scenes of the real performance.”  Anna Moreno

For more of Anna’s and the other residents’ work, please come along to our open studio day on Saturday 9 October.

day 108

…a short clip from a film by Aleksandrija Ajdukovic’ made during this residency:

Newsreel on Fashion in Biella in 2010, featuring…Maria Luisa

 

day 107

Next week we start moving things around in the UNIDEE space, creating a new space for the beginnings of installations and works that will be on view for our open studio a week on Saturday (9 October). But right now, at this moment, i think the space looks very beautiful and each desk tells a different story…

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day 105

…no wonder people look happy, it’s the last full operational meeting of the residency, from now on we just have to get on with it!!! incidentally, that’s the remnants of Kosta’s 30th birthday party you can see in the background.

Meanwhile around the studio in the last few days…

Jobelle Tayawa’s mud photographs in the rain…

Anna Moreno’s preparations for an intervention in Oropa

Alioum Moussa’s Lady GoodGoods…

day 104

Site specific, positively perspectival, intervention on Viale C. Battisti, Biella by resident Veronika Tzekova:

Space NRGZer#4 Intervention on urban furniture, Biella, Italy 2010

Space NRGZer#4, Biella, Italy, was conceived after an encounter with the awkwardly placed benches on C. Battisiti Street in Biella, Italy. The benches are alongside the pavement facing the facades of the shop windows. Most of the enterprises are closed and signs ‘for rent’ placed on the shop-fronts.

The intervention is in the form of a string installation, which extends the shape of the benches and connects them by using mohair thread, produced in a nearby factory.

(photo by Veronika Tzekova)

The resulting soft mohair benches are not usable urban furniture, but rather a comment on the awkward placement that actually deprives these benches of their intended use and function as places of rest and social communication.

The use of the locally produced wool thread also monuments the social aspect of the economic decline of the textile industry in the region, as it is no longer something the local population is able to rely or ‘lean on’.

(photo by Veronika Tzekova)

For more of Veronika’s work and the 13 other UNIDEE residents, come along to Cittadellarte on Sat 9 October, for our Open Studio day.

day 101

Ofcourse Biella is known for it’s industrial past but it is also situated in the heart of mountains, plains, pastures and farmland. On this morning we were all awoken (well some of us were up already!) by the sound of cow bells…

It was the “transumanza”, basically this is the twice yearly ritual of moving animals, here mainly cattle, down from the mountain and into the plains for the length of the extremely harsh winters they have in the hills around here. They pass right by Cittadellarte on via Seralunga, and have a rest in the neighbouring carpark before carrying on towards the savanna of Baraggia. In the spring they go up again…

cows in the car park!