Common Wealth 2019

Poster : Saskia Gevaert

This summer, the collective “Common Wealth” will settle in residence for three weeks in Scheggia e Pascelupo, a typical Umbrian village in a wooded landscape, occupied or cultivated in places, some plots being sometimes forgotten or neglected, passed down for generations.

This project brings together artists and theoreticians of various nationalities and backgrounds, artists, musicians, photographers, architects, publishers, curators, geographers, jurists and economists. In a place of social, political, economic and demographic change, they will think collectively and inclusively about the themes of landscape (its old and potential uses, what it can inspire or symbolize), inheritance (in the sense of gift and counter-gift, responsibility, inevitable origin) and transmission (knowledge, experience, ways of thinking).

Common Wealth will provide a cross perspective between Luxembourg and Italy, which are linked by a history of migrations and family narratives, and will attempt to reinterpret a landscape whose values and meanings seem to have changed. In this context, the visual arts and research are conceived as a means of analysis and understanding of a territory, and a concrete instrument of reflection, exchange and valorisation.

The residency will take place from July 12 to August 4, 2019. Works and research will be exhibited for the first time from August 2nd to 4th during the opening weekend in Scheggia e Pascelupo and later in Luxembourg. These exhibitions will be accompanied by lectures, workshops and concerts. A catalogue will relate the experience of the collective and will include the theoretical essays.

Common Wealth brings together Guillaume Barborini, Laurianne Bixhain, Antonio Brizioli (Emergenze, Perugia), Sergio Carvalho and Philippe Nathan (2001), Benoit Delzelle, Estelle Evrard (University of Luxembourg), Pietro Gaglianò, Saskia Gevaert, Nataša Grujović, Steve Kaspar, Enrico Lunghi, Claudia Passeri, Eve Satagarski and Raphaël Van Lerberghe. In 2018 it has been awarded the Bert-Theis Grant organized by the Fonds culturel national (Luxembourg).

Benoit Delzelle