“Le vulnerabili”, artistic project in residence by GIANNI MORETTI with a research on memory and monument has come to an end

It was part of the “Umbria, una terra che ti muove” project by C.U.R.A.

The project “Le vulnerabili” is a permanent artistic intervention conceived by Gianni Moretti, realised together with a group of young people from Spoleto for the Public Gardens, a reflection on the relationship between physical place and local citizenship.

During this residency, the artist came into contact with a group of local teenagers: they discussed the theme of the contemporary monument and what can be considered as such. They asked each other what the city they were born in is for them, what it gives them and what it rejects, what binds them to it and what repels them.

This gave rise to reflections, comparisons, words and many hypotheses. All this turned into questions. The group of young people expressed what were the most frequent questions they ask themselves at this delicate and thorny time in their lives: adolescence, a life phase we all experienced, regretted and often suffered. Like a muscle that has to tear itself in order to grow, it is a passage studded with many small traumas, full of questions and stingy with answers.

This resulted in open questions that we all ask ourselves at any time in our lives. The participation of the young people during all phases of the project was very numerous and active. More than 20 young people from Spoleto took part in the workshops. Moretti’s work is the result of the suggestions deriving from the residency experience and the confrontation with the citizens.

The intervention was designed and carried out for the 18 benches in the Public Gardens in viale Matteotti.

Each of these benches has had a wooden strip replaced by an element of identical size but made of gold-plated steel. Each of these steel elements is laser engraved with the questions formulated by the children. The proximity of these two materials, wood and steel, creates a double temporal register, a time that passes and marks the two materials differently. The steel will preserve these questions for an almost infinite time. The idea was to transform all those small incisions and writings on the benches that we are used to thinking of as defacements and acts of vandalism into something else: a declaration of vulnerability. A condition that unites us as human beings, imperfect and frightened but still perhaps capable of recognising ourselves as part of a community and for this reason not yet completely pulverised and dispersed.

The final installation was attended by the artist Gianni Moretti, the technician Fabio Tomaselli, and some young participants in the project: Stefano Camerieri, Elisa Capocci, Tommaso Burger, Giulio Salvatori, Dario Briguori, and Gabriele Natalizi.

The artist Gianni Moretti closed with the following words: “It was a wonderful experience to work with the City of Spoleto, with a city so open and ready to welcome a project of this kind. It was great to work with the boys and girls because they were collaborative and present, interested and passionate beyond imagination, and the end result is far beyond my expectations. I will definitely be coming back to Spoleto, both to see the city and to see the work, and the boys have made themselves available to go to the Public Gardens to polish and clean the bars of the benches. And it’s very nice that the community is taking care of one of their spaces over time, of this intervention that is a monument. I thank La MaMa Umbria and I thank C.U.R.A (Centro Umbro Residenze Artistiche) because working with you has been fantastic, you have been supportive, interested and very collaborative.”

The kids left us with these words:

“It was great to be able to create an artistic intervention in our city, it made me realise that this city is still alive in some way, it made me more aware and I was delighted to have participated and actively contributed to the creation of this work.”

“I am really happy that this project has ended with an art installation of this magnitude, thanks to the work of Gianni Moretti and La Mama Umbria we have managed to leave a mark on our city, a mark that is a mirror of what we young people are experiencing at the moment. I feel truly honoured to have taken part in such an engaging and innovative project!”

“It was very nice and interesting to work with Gianni Moretti, he opened up and made me understand other points of view of public works and monuments, a definitely innovative vision of the use of a monument, which involves the local community, making us active participants and not mere consumers. From my point of view it is a new concept that still needs to be understood in its true intent, but it is very much a reflection of us younger generations”.

“Umbria, a land that moves you” is the project by C.U.R.A. – Centro Umbro di Residenze Artistiche – created to accompany the territories affected by the earthquake in 2016 and some inland cities with participatory creative actions and community art projects capable of bringing out the cultural and landscape identities and specificities and transforming them into visible and tangible works by contemporary artists.

The project continues in these days, with the presence in Umbria of the artists Azzura D’Agostino and Francesca Grilli, who will hold free 2-hour workshops on reading and poetic-creative writing with date and time to be chosen with interested parties around 17/18/19 August 2021

Information: cura.umbria@gmail.com

C.U.R.A. – Centro Umbro di Residenze Artistiche is composed of Indisciplinarte srl of Terni, La Mama Umbria, International of Spoleto, Coop. GE.CI.TE. (Spazio Zut!) of Foligno, Centro Teatrale Umbro of Gubbio and Micro Teatro Terra Marique of Perugia, five heterogeneous realities for geographic dislocation and aesthetic vocation that since 2015 offer innovative solutions of research and development in the performing arts supporting residency paths with national and international artists. C.U.R.A. is a project supported by MIBACT and by Regione Umbria as part of the national project of Artistic Residencies, a complex project and multifaceted body that aims to optimise and share the resources in the field, creating a unique and innovative model to strengthen the role of Umbria at national level in the performing arts sector and creating the conditions to promote growth and development of the regional artistic fabric at national and international level.