After yesterday’s gentle start it was definitely down to business today as we met artists and curators in Trieste with an interest in public art.
We began by meeting Guillermo Giampietro (above), a video and performance artist from Argentina.
Moving on for coffee we met curator Maria Campitelli and photographer Carlo Andreasi and after lunch and a tour of art space XOPP we had tea with artists Barbara Stefani and Adriana Torregrossa.
This was a fantastic day of exchanges of ideas and experiences. Guillermo showed us a short film of his protest art against the regime of 1970s dictatorship – work of genuine jeopardy that led to his arrest and a reminder of the role that art has to play in political life. I was very struck by the thoughtful philosophical underpinnings of Carlo’s photographic project – a big contrast with Adriana’s relational work engaging with Muslim communities and making evident their ways of life, whilst our discussions with Barbara about her monochrome, figureless reworkings of Hopper paintings on found boxes showed once again that painting as an art form is alive and well!
Overall our experiences (and difficulties) of making art felt reassuringly familiar. We talked about funding, locations, audiences, permissions, opportunities and much more and my head was spinning by the end. We agreed to keep in touch – I’ve no doubt that connections and collaborations will emerge: this was just the start of a conversation and there is plenty more to say….
Many thanks to Elisa for organising and to the the artists for meeting with us. A very good day!
Ps more upside down pictures – to be corrected.
