Love Difference

Love Difference – Artistic Movement for an InterMediterranean Politic was established in Biella in Spring 2002 in the Politics Office of the Cittadellarte–Fondazione Pistoletto. The aim is to bring together, around the regions facing onto the Mediterranean Sea, people and institutions interested in creating new prospects that reach beyond the tragic conflict between different cultures.

Love Difference logo

The name of the movement, Love Difference, encapsulates a concept which goes beyond a rational notion of ‘tolerance’ for what is diverse and penetrates directly into the sphere of feelings: love means feeling attraction and emotion, expressing affection and dedication. The first thing to accept, in an open, sensitive and warm fashion, are the differences between people and social groups, in order to finally give meaning to the word ‘humanity’ in this increasingly globalized world.
Love Difference seeks to activate a movement of thought and action that leads, through creative engagement, to the formation of a network of connections with and between the different countries of the Mediterranean area. The movement intends to use this network to lay the foundations for a Mediterranean Cultural Parliament. To change the current dramatic situation it is necessary to identify people and bodies throughout the Mediterranean area with whom it will be possible to work towards ‘responsible social transformation’.

UNIDEE residents around the Mediterranean Table (Michelangelo Pistoletto, 2003) symbol of Love Difference

Filippo Fabbrica, coordinator of Love Difference, in dialogue with residents about aims, activity and projects of the Artistic Movement for an InterMediterranean Politic

Photo diary: the big game of Economics

UNIDEE residents met Francesco Bernabei, head of Cittadellarte’s Organic Economics Office. The meeting soon turned into a collective game, based on the rules of the economic systems, focused on the exploration of new, sustainable alternatives to the existing ones.
People around the table transformed into a “micro-society”, which had to confront itself with the challenges of economics.
The debate which followed the game session encouraged a reflection on the positive role that creativity can have in the developement of new, socially responsible economic strategies.

Francesco Bernabei, head of Cittadellarte Organic Economics Office

The “micro-society” at work: electing a governement and figuring out the main issues to manage

Houses prices are not affordable for the popoulation: “favelas” are born

A moment of the debate

Andres and Fiona during the debate session

Every product assumes Social Responsability

A photo diary of the meeting between Cittadellarte’s Production Office and UNIDEE Residents

Armona Pistoletto, head of Cittadellarte Production Office

Francesca Minero Re, Cittadellarte Production Office
(picture courtesy of Rei)

Jason and Zorka
(picture courtesy of Rei)

Wafaa with one of the Illy Collection coffe cups
(picture courtesy of Rei)

TRIALOGO – Instructions for an intensive dialogue

 «For the Trialogo Festival Marthe Van Dessel initiated a project based on creating a digital game score. The basic idea was to add a visual dimension to the event, a world music experimental concert. The digital media came to augment this performance and to enhance its interaction with the public. The whole creative process came to be a dialogue, a collaboration between sound and image, in a larger context of communication between cultures, resulting in a experimental creative event. How can we create a dialogue between people coming from so different parts of the world, with so different backgrounds? Does the idea of creating a dialogue means peace? And if so, might dialogue be also fundamental for peace?»

Explore the digital game score project by Marthe during Trialogo events in collaboration with UNIDEE

Browse bolwerK website

Mirroring myself – a contribution by Vicentiu

Starting from Michelangelo Pistoletto’s mirrors, Vicentiu exposes his impressions and thoughts after the experiences of the very first days of residence.

Photo and text courtesy of Vicentiu Garbacea
Browse Vicentiu’s personal blog

“Hit reset, reset, time and time again”

Biffy Clyro – Convex, Concave/Blackening Sky (2002)

 

The man responsible for the UNIDEE thing is the Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto world renowned in the art world for his trademark mirror installations which mix painting, photography and sculpture in a compelling manner. The concept of the mirror is somehow central for what happened to me in relation with UNIDEE in Residence program and Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto. From the very first moment when I took the courage to apply for this residency without being an artist or having an ‘artistic’ background everything was in a way or another a process of retrieving and observing myself. Once while in Biella I took this photo reflecting myself into a fashion clothing vitrine. And the next morning I was listening and conversing with Michelangelo Pistoletto who was explaining us, to the UNIDEE residents, the concept of mirror in his work. Jacques Lacan re-built psychoanalysis by re-defining some of its central issues. The problem of viewing oneself in a mirror is a central point in the development of one’s personality and libidinal instincts. Pistoletto stressed in the presentation that as mirrors and observers of the world people cannot see themselves. Unless and until they meet another mirror. That means meeting the other, or the hell as Sartre would put it. In a mass society people are always keen on avoiding responsibility by placing themselves within a system that protects and keeps them within certain limits. Few of them take responsibility in assuming the existential demands of the very fact of living. I had the chance in the very first days spent in Cittadellarte to meet people coming from so different parts of the world. At every meal and in every moment of the day I had conversations, from funny and casual to pretty deep and serious ones about art, social involvement, responsibility and the meaning of life in diverse ways. Every of these moments put me in the situation to re-define myself, to re-actualize my thought and my feelings.

What is art? This question was raised when we first met officially Mr. Pistoletto at the round table. His answer came naturally: “art always has to be re-defined”. So I reckon that the central experience is the one of re-actualizing, re-defining and re-constructing. Art, thoughts, science, politics, personality. I personally do not believe. I can think, but I do not believe in any constructed system. Be it religious, political, social and so forth. If there is any idea I have about the man who lives at the beginning of the third millennium of so-called civilized world is that he has to re-define and re-invent the everything for himself. Lyotard was writing three decades ago about the decay of grand narratives and the rise of informational societies and cultures. What about now? In a world where a child dies almost every second because of poverty or war while the richest people in the world get even richer? Where can we find a stable point? What to look for? God, technology, economics, politic or social power or art-world recognition? Is capitalism good or bad? Is communism good or bad? Is the Internet good or bad? These are narrowing questions. Still problems in societies and cultures around the globe are put this way. I do not have an answer for them. I can only look for answer for myself. If I am anything I am a peaceful person who believes only in the power of every man and woman around the globe to find answers for hers/his own questions. Not to expect solutions from others. And not to try to tell others what is good for them.

Mirroring myself is the name that I gave to the photo with my reflection in the vitrine of the fashion clothing store. Mirroring myself is the process I am going trough. Within it I am always in a relationship with the mirrors I meet during my existence. The others. I will use my time while living this experience to create personal answers for my issues. If they would positively affect anyone means that I am not living an egoistic life. And there’s nothing wrong with this.

first inter-action: hugging a tree

Creativity can be the social interface between the artist and the context around him. How can an artist get in touch with the surrounding reality, leaving a trace with a social meaning, is an open question. The possible answers are multiple, and above all, they are subjective.

To get in first touch with the local reality, Nerita chose some wool yarn, a very sunny afternoon and the public swimming pool in Biella. To tie around a tree trunk with the yarn is a simple intervention, but in a public space it can assume the meaning of a social message.

Browse Nerita’s personal blog

Talking about communications with Pier Luigi Celli

On Wednesday, July 11th, Professor Pier Luigi Celli has been in Cittadellarte, scheduled in UNIDEE meeting program.
Professor Celli held with UNIDEE artists a rich and interesting discussion about communications and their role in entrprises and society.
“To communicate – said Celli – means to have a story to tell. Stories can’t be invented, we must enter the story and animate its carachters and features.”
“Good-working enterprises – continued Celli – have a strong identity. This means to be focused on differences: communications are a poweful tool of mutual aknowledgements”.
Through arts – said Celli – organisations, as banks, can communicate an attention towards world which is impossible to transmit by words”.

The audio of the entire meeting with Professor Celli is available here (.mp3, 64MB, 2h circa)

UNIDEE residents meet Pier Luigi Celli in Cittadellarte’s music room

Professor Celli reminisces his experiences in communications while discussing with the residents

TRIALOGO Festival at Cittadellarte and Milan

UNIDEE residents take part to the second concert of TRIALOGO Festival, on Saturday, July 14th at Cittadellarte and to the third appointment of the event, on stage on Monday, July 16th in Milan’s Teatro Franco Parenti.
TRIALOGO is a project by Israeli music player and composer Yuval Avital , focused on building cultural bridges using music as a poweful connection tool between different backgrounds.

UNIDEE artists transform the concert in a multi-media artistic experience, with video projections, installations and performances.

Read the TRIALOGO II press release (PDF document, Italian only).
A multi-media documentation of the two events will be soon available on this blog.

Michelangelo Pistoletto: which role for artist in society?

On Tuesday, July 10th UNIDEE residents met Michelangelo Pistoletto, Cittadellarte and UNIDEE international residency program artistic director.
After a first meeting, during which residents introduced themselves, Michelangelo Pistoletto lead the whole group into a guided tour of his permanent artworks collection, in Cittadellarte’s third floor showroom.
The exhibition retraces Pistoletto’s artistic career, through his most important works: from his early paintings with glossy black background, to the mirror paintings, including metaphisical works as the Gabbia Specchio-Divisione e Moltiplicazione dello specchio (1973-1992), the Oggetti in Meno, and the Luogo di Raccoglimento Multiconfessionale e Laico.
Through the explanation of his works, Pistoletto spoke about his vision of the role of the artist in society, as a protagonist activator in social trasformation processes.

First meeting: Cristana Bottigella, head of Cittadellarte Education Office, introduces the residents to Michelangelo Pistoletto

Pistoletto explaining the Metrocubo d’infinito, inside the Luogo di raccoglimento laico e multiconfessionale , symbol of Cittadellarte Spirituality Office

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Vicentiu and Chelsea in front of the work Porta (segno arte – unlimited), 1976-97

Another moment of Pistoletto’s lecture

UNIDEE residents meet Pier Luigi Celli

«We need a new dirigent class far to corruption and mediocrity»
(interview, L’indipendente)

Pier Luigi Celli was born on 8 July 1942 at Verucchio, in the province of Rimini. He is married to Marina, and has two children. He’s general director of the Luiss – Guido Carli University in Rome.
He obtained a Sociology degree at the University of Trento and gained considerable experience as a human resources manager (management, organisation, training) for a number of large corporate groups (ENI, RAI, Omnitel, Olivetti and ENEL). In 1998, the managerial skills he had acquired while working for such large companies as these – with such diversified and complex business affairs – enabled him to return to RAI (Italy’s state radio and TV broadcasting corporation), following his appointment as General Manager.
He briefly headed IPSE 2000, a UMTS telephony company, after playing a vital part in mobile telephony start up initiatives (Wind and Omnitel).
He has been Corporate Identity Manager for Unicredito Italiano since 2002. His mission is to provide an identity for a group which, over the last few years, has aggregated seven concerns in Italy and five abroad. His duties include public relations, brand coordination, institutional relations, relations with the media and relations in the areas in which Unicredito Italiano is operational, the group’s social and environment report, and Fondazione Unidea (a Unicredit Group foundation,art banking).
Celli has also penned and published many works, such as L’impresa, Il manager
avveduto, L’illusione manageriale, Passioni fuori corso and Breviario di cinismo ben temperato. Two other works, Nascita e morte di un’impresa in 42 lettere and Impresa e classi dirigenti, were published in March 2004.
In the 2006 was published Un anno nella vita. Racconti e memorie di un lungo addio all’impresa: a manager, in a pause of the existence, reflects on the long experience that has carried it, in spite of the heresies and the uncomfortable of the personage, at the head of important enterprises. The digging begins with the rappresentation of the ordinary life: minihistory of when the equilibrium, that it is perhaps the primary dowry of the manager, explodes. They follow the memories of infancy, in a small village of Rimini, a nostalgically felliniana aura. The travel in the experience is closed on the plan just of that it could define cues for one critical theory of the enterprise; participations and proposals center to you on those topical situations in which came out the paradoxes of one logical of the organization that forgets to have to that making with human beings.