The four week long residency will be inaugurated in Autumn 2017 and will be finalized with a group show of all artists involved, in Naples.

​.1 is the first of a series of residencies, with its first collaborating partner being Relais Regina Giovanna and set in the 2,000-year-old southwestern coastal town of Sorrento. The picturesque landscape has been home to many artists, writers and intellectuals from Maxim Gorky to Thomas Mann.

Situated within 50 acres of land, Relais Regina Giovanna will offer artists the opportunity to explore the surrounding areas. The space benefits from a 24hour accessible workshop facilities as well as a vast archive of materials, provided by the Relais.

The dialogue between the artists and the environment will be stimulated by exploring the natural rhythm of the place, in which the connection with the here and now and the art practise is accompanied by the historical energy that bounds the holy atmosphere to the mysterious stories about Regina Giovanna “La Pazza”. With its first exhibition “The Good, the Bad and the InBetween”, artists may question the experience of contemplating the natural beauty and thinking in circular terms.

Artists are invited to use the workshop and relate to found and natural materials that belong to the territory. The program will involve weekly visits by guest curators, group discussions lead by Naldi Rossano and walks exploring the urban environment, with a visit to “Il sentiero degli Dei”.

Everything’s sacred, everything’s sacred, everything’s sacred

Remember, my boy: there’s nothing natural in nature.

When it seems natural to you, it’ll be the end.

Something else will start.

Good-bye sky, good-bye sea.

What a beautiful sky !

Close… Happy… Don’t you think that just a little piece is natural ?

That it could be possessed by a god ?

The sea too. On this day, when you’re fishing with your feet in the water.

Look behind you, what do you see ? Anything natural ?

What you see is an apparition. With clouds reflected in the still, heavy water

at three in the afternoon.

Look at that black streak on the sea,

shining and pink like oil. The shadows of the trees

and the reeds. A god is hidden everywhere you look.

lf he isn’t, he’s left traces

of his scared presence: the silence, the smell of grass, the chill of fresh water.

Yes, everything’s sacred.

But sanctity is also a curse.

Whilst the gods love, they also hate.

Maybe you think that besides being a liar, l’m also too poetic.

But for ancient man, myths and rituals are concrete experiences, which are even included in his daily existence.

For him, reality is a totally perfect unity and the emotion he feels at the sight of a summer sky, for example, equals the more internal, personal experiences of modern man.

 

Medea, 1969, Pasolini