Two months of artistic interventions, residencies, meetings and laboratories in the heart of the historical villages of Revine Lago.
Happy with the great result at national level. The project is fundamental for our community, which is actively involved, stimulating a dialogue with the territory, a focus on unexpected places and
the regeneration of abandoned spaces. An important step towards a new phase in which all sectors are involved. I would like to thank the partners, without whom the project would not have been
possible, and the citizens.
Together with the artists involved, we proposed to work on projects capable of enriching the tourist-cultural offer of the area, promoting new paths of valorisation and rediscovery of the
historical villages of Revine Lago and encouraging collaborative dynamics among the inhabitants, favouring the meeting and dialogue between the old and new communities.
The synergy created between the artists, the inhabitants of the village and the partner cultural institutions has in fact ‘activated’ the public space of Revine Lago, transforming it into a
true ‘square’ of research, dialogue and cooperation, which has contributed to raising the quality and scope of the cultural proposal of the proposed projects.
As an artist, I brought my vision to the organisation and writing of this project, which sees contemporary art as a research tool to activate an open laboratory between artists and old and new
communities inhabiting the territory. In a long-term vision, this workshop is only the initial stimulus that will lead to the production of a permanent programme and will constitute a new model
useful for rethinking future cultural and tourist projects in an innovative way.
The contamination between the worlds of business, culture and art is necessary, and this is why I liked the project from the start. The ability to come up with ideas is fundamental in projects
that aim to enhance and relaunch the area.
As the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, I feel particularly attentive to the dynamics linked to territoriality. I believe that the idea of collective stimulation through non-obvious languages such
as those of art can be extremely useful in the site-specific context of Revine Lago, and can also be useful in a broader sense if we aim at amplifying the same experiences as an operational
methodology to be applied to other places and other occasions.
The project was conceived and developed by the Municipality of Revine Lago in collaboration with the Pro Loco of Revine Lago and the company Metalmont (also from Revine Lago). The three promoters
were joined by prestigious partners such as the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, TRA – Treviso Ricerca Arte, Fondazione Francesco Fabbri, the provincial committee UNPLI Treviso and Lago
Film Fest.
The project was one of the eight winners out of 643 participants from all over Italy (the only one in Veneto, and the only municipality to present itself individually) of the Ministry of
Culture’s Bando Borghi in Festival, obtaining the maximum score for quality and innovation of the proposal.
The call for proposals Borghi in Festival
The Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity and the Directorate General for Tourism of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism jointly issued a call for proposals for the financing of
cultural activities, to be carried out in the form of festivals, with the aim of fostering the well-being and improving the quality of life of the inhabitants of Italian villages, through the
enhancement of cultural, environmental and tourism resources. The notice was addressed to municipalities with a resident population of up to 5,000 inhabitants.
The main strategic objectives of the call included
to promote and support the quality and excellence of the Italian village territories
build opportunities for the socio-economic improvement of the selected areas;
to promote and support innovative contents in education, training and development activities;
strengthen and integrate the tourist and cultural offer of the territories;
develop an integrated project approach and innovative and inclusive practices;
encourage sustainability-oriented projects, also through the use of new technologies.
Among the activities that have already constituted a first phase of intervention are
artist residencies
the talk “Science Fiction Evidence” with the artist Yoichi Iwamoto
The young artists in residence engaged in dialogue with the local inhabitants and communities.
The area explored – one of the first investigated by SSSCH Festival and the leitmotif of the three projects carried out between July and August – was the dance hall and the relational
dimension of encounters between groups of unknown people.
A dimension that was once particularly active in the Revine Lago valley, which had as many as three premises dedicated to dancing that were once among the community’s pride and joy, but which
have now been adapted or abandoned to neglect and decay. The investigated area, deeply rooted in the territory, proposed to restore these dynamics, inviting the inhabitants still intimately
involved to contribute to the mapping activity, with the aim of giving back to the new generations stories and events still not completely forgotten.
The recovery of these memories and the dynamics linked to these places in a contemporary artistic key has given rise to a process of reactivation of the disco as an interpretative tool capable of
shedding light on certain cultural and social dynamics and complexities present in the territory and worthy of further study and investigation.
The three projects resulting from the artistic residencies are
“Pleasure“, a short film by the collective BOLLENTE,
“C0035: Il Cocktail Dorato“, a performance project by artist Luca Bosani
“Louder“, an installation by the duo MiamiSafari
have contributed to the valorisation and rediscovery of the historic villages of Revine Lago, giving rise to collaborative dynamics among the local inhabitants. The dialogue and synergy created
between the artists and the inhabitants of the village has activated the public space of Revine Lago, qualifying it as a place for research, comparison and cooperation.
“Evidenze Fantascientifiche” Yoichi Iwamoto in conversation with the authors of Medusa newsletter (Nicolò Porcelluzzi and Matteo De Giuli) conducted a personal research on the
poetry of Andrea Zanzotto and the Veneto landscape, involving the local community and the poet Luciano Cecchinel in his work.
At the end of the talk held during the Lago Film Fest, Luisa Cigagna, councillor for culture of the municipality of Pieve di Soligo, took the floor.
Starting from the results of the artistic residencies that took place between July and August, in September and October the core activities of the SSSCH Festival will take place: a very rich
programme that includes moments of meeting and interaction between the local community and the artists who participated in the residencies, an open-air exhibition of the photographer
Agostino Artese, creative workshops with schools, the project “Greetings from Revine Lago” with the famous photographer Piero Percoco, a workshop on diffuse accommodation and a
creative workshop dedicated to children.
All the results of the project and the story of the activities will be published on the platform
www.ssschfestival.com, which at the
moment contains the programme of initiatives but will become the logbook of the whole project.
With this project the Municipality of Revine Lago wants to study a strategy to enhance the place starting from the perception of the inhabitants, who will become the first users of the project
and will convey the quality of the villages themselves, rediscovering them. Cultural activity and artistic research are tools used to stimulate the interest, curiosity and interaction of the
inhabitants, especially those who are completely unfamiliar with these languages.
The aim of the SSSCH Festival is to create a wealth of experience, skills and case studies to be put at the service and disposal of the community of Revine Lago, the municipal administration
and the various associations adhering and present in the area. A starting point for an activity of stimulation of collective awareness that may be able to provide new visions, ideas and points
of view for a redesign and planning of cultural activities; a useful model for rethinking and managing artistic and tourist projects in an innovative way.
Background material on the invited artists.
BOLLENTE: a multidisciplinary collective that investigates and studies issues related to affectivity and identity in a queer key, applied to different artistic forms. The collective was
born from the needs of its five members (La Trape, Pietro Agostini, Enzo Di Sciullo, Michele Basile and Lorenzo Marcelloni) to contaminate each other and to
discover how different media, combined with different biographies, interact.
The period of artistic residency, held in the village of Lago, saw them produce their first short film: Piacere. The 22-minute film tells the story of the successful interweaving of three lives
in a provincial context, as arid as it is complex. The three protagonists – Michele, Aurelio and Virginia – meet in what remains of the only club in an old village in the
Veneto province where a drag queen from the big city performs. In this setting, the protagonists find the courage to face their insecurities and understand that following their own rhythm is
the only way to be truly free.
The community of Revine Lago was directly involved in the project: more than 20 citizens are featured in the short film as extras; many have made themselves available by providing their private
spaces or various props. The project gave birth to new and prolific collaborations: the one with The Jack Stupid, a Milanese creative studio, co-producer of the short film, and the one with the
Tempio Canoviano in Possagno, which granted the use of its external and internal spaces for the shooting of some scenes.
The film had its world premiere on Thursday 29 July, during the 17th edition of the Lago Film Fest.
Luca Bosani: Italian artist and performer based in London. He has performed in prestigious venues in Italy and the UK such as Oxo Tower Wharf in London (2018), Spazio SERRA in Milan
(2018), Tate Britain in London (2019) and San Mei Gallery in London (2019).
Through her artistic practice, Bosani questions the structures that influence the development of identity and sexuality. Combining and blending performance, sculpture and painting, she creates
environments that foster the development of critical thinking and encourage personal and collective transformation.
C0035: Il Cocktail Dorato (The Golden Cocktail) is Luca Bosani‘s performance project, the result of the second artistic residency at the SSSH Festival. Questioning the boundaries
between reality and fiction, the artist-investigator has created an unusual narrated journey along the lakefront, on the trail of mysterious finds and past disappearances dating back to 1986.
Unexpected characters and fortunate encounters along the way helped the investigator to piece together some of the pieces of “Case 0035”, which, however, remains unsolved to this day.
Bosani‘s project was a study and enhancement of some of the natural elements and particularly rich and curious biodiversity in the Revine Lago valley.
The project will be discussed in detail during a talk – broadcasted in live streaming – in which the artist will talk with Elisa Carollo (Art Advisor and curator for Fondazione Imago
Mundi) and Carlo Sala (art critic and curator for Fondazione Francesco Fabbri).
MiamiSafari: an artistic project by Alessia Prati and Matias Julian Nativo, based in Paris and Venice that focuses on the definition of a hybrid and fluid artistic identity
through the creation of an open project space, born from the encounter between self-publishing and performance. The production of works gives way to the creation of collective imaginaries and
experiences, which are openly inspired by the notion of the musical wave, recovering the tradition of subcultures and the totalising aesthetic experience involving the body, its performativity,
its strategies of communication and creation of meaning.
The third and last artistic residency promoted within the SSSH Festival, saw the artistic duo MiamiSafari collaborating with five other creatives, including visual artists, designers, actors
and curators: Alessandro Conti, Edoardo Lazzari, Teresa Dotto, Angelo Licciardello and Giuseppe Mistretta. The performative experience, matured during the
days of residence in Revine Lago, gave life to Louder: an installation that acted directly in the architecture of the old balera Riva d’Oro, re-writing it through the collision between the
imagery of privé and the renaissance one of Belvedere. The collision between the two terms emphasised the mechanism of the gaze, of looking and being looked at, and of vitalistic impetus that
characterise the space of the disco as a utopian cultural device.
Also understood as a practice of expanded publishing, Louder used the idea of textuality as a form of temporary occupation of space. Signs, words and images materialised in the outside spaces
of the dance hall and inside the observatory located in the canal that joins the two lakes, as traces of the ways in which a perception of the world and of being situated in a temporary and
collective way was constructed. Louder was presented to the public on Saturday 21 August 2021.
Below is the full programme, which will be updated in the coming days in our information channels:
SSSCH Festival activities programme.
july 2021
Artistic residency of the collective BOLLENTE.
29 July 2021
World premiere of Piacere, a film produced during the artistic residency by the BOLLENTE collective.
The screening took place during the 17th Lago Film Fest.
5-8 August 2021
Artistic residence of Luca Bosani.
17-22 August 2021
Artistic residence of MiamiSafari.
6-13-27 August and 2 September
Travelling film screenings in the most evocative villages of Revine Lago.
21 August 2021
First art installation of MiamiSafari’s Louder project.
30 August 2021
Press conference to present SSSCH Festival.
1 September 2021
Installation of the open-air photography exhibition Torbido by Agostino Artese, curated by Giovanna Pesce.
7 September 2021
Public meeting with photographer Piero Percoco.
7-10 September 2021
Artistic residence of Piero Percoco.
18-19 September 2021
Public meeting to present the works created by the artists during their residencies. Special screening of the film Piacere produced by BOLLENTE.
26th September 2021
Meeting with the MiamiSafari collective
1-2 September 2021
meeting with the artist Bosani
8-9 October 2021
Workshop with kindergarten and primary school of Revine Lago
The pupils of the schools will be involved in a multimedia graphic-creative workshop: a first phase of research of the distinctive and characteristic elements present in the villages of Revine
Lago will be followed by a second part in which these elements will be represented in fantasy postcards “Greetings from Revine Lago”. An archive of cues, ideas and dreams available to the
community, published on the dedicated digital platform and working and research material for the artists involved.
16-17 October 2021
meeting with the Bollente collective
22-23 October 2021
This house is a hotel. Workshop on diffuse receptivity.
If the other activities aim to bring the community’s attention to the unexpressed value, the heritage that the village already possesses and the practices for activating tourist flows and
cultural enhancement – this workshop aims to bring attention to the concept of diffuse receptivity. This will be a workshop and not a meeting, as the intention is to provide participating
community members with a skills kit that they can put into practice in the short term.
30-31 October 2021
Meeting with Yoitchi Iwamoto
The landscape and poetry of Andrea Zanzotto: presentation of the project “Evidenze Fantascientifiche”.
This will be followed by in-depth and popular meetings at TRA Treviso Ricerca Arte – Casa Robegan and Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.
