RESÒ Lab 2017

Residency programmes for international artists at Cittadellarte have been conceived with the aim to educate (through modules, lectures, experts’ studio visits, meetings, etc) and to produce (from exhibitions to talks to final publications) cultural projects related to a responsible social transformation. The residencies are developed in collaboration with institutional partners, such as RESÒ – International Network for Art Residencies and Educational Programs (Piedmont, Italy) and A.M. QATTAN Foundation (Palestine), Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation (India).

RESÒ Lab 2017

in partnership with
RESÒ – International Network for Art Residencies and Educational Programs
and BIRUCHIY contemporary art project (Ukraine)

From 29 October to 19 November 2017 the artists Alina Yakubenko and Oleksiy Sai have been living and working in Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto (Biella) thanks to the RESÒ Lab programme of RESÒ – International Network for Art Residencies and Educational Programs (CRT Fondazione per l'Arte, Piedmont, Italy), attending a UNIDEE - University of Ideas weekly module (“96 Extraordinary Cockroaches” mentored by Assemble - Amica Dall in collaboration with John Bingham-Hall), creating and producing their artworks. They have been asked to deal with the main topics of the 2017 UNIDEE programme: Revolution, Desire and Mediation.
The residencies have been conceived and designed according to UNIDEE’s methodology, which combines practice with theory, through workshops, seminars and a series of meetings, studio visits and trips tailored to the interests of each artist. The residents have been assisted in the research by the UNIDEE team (Cecilia Guida, Clara Tosetti and Annalisa Zegna), by Art Office (Juan Esteban Sandoval) and by the curator Sergey Kantsedal.

Alina Yakubenko (1983, Kiev, Ukraine) has been selected for a three-weeks residency at Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto within the UNIDEE – University of Ideas programme, in collaboration with RESÒ – International Network for Art Residencies and Educational Programs and BIRUCHIY contemporary art project (Ukraine).
Alina Yakubenko is a Ukranian artist, living and working in Kiev. Her art practice is based on the use of old and new media, such as painting, video, installations, photo. She often works in public spaces and urban environment, creating illusions of holographic images through video projections. During her residency at Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, she developed her work-in-progress project called "selfie”, based on the common practice of selfie. It is a project about self-tourism and how this phenomenon reflects the human attitude to live the world as a background for his own presentation.
“I opposed the pictures of luxury shops and expensive artworks to the photos I took in the hostile territory of the East of Ukraine. On both of them I look equally beautiful: with the background of the military landscape characterised by its unique picturesque evidence of horror and destroyment of war as well as with symbols of a quiet, full and happy European prosperity.”
Alina Yakubenko
www.selfit.tumblr.com/

Oleksiy Sai (1975) has been selected for a three-weeks residency at Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto within the UNIDEE – University of Ideas programme, in collaboration with RESÒ – International Network for Art Residencies and Educational Programs and BIRUCHIY contemporary art project (Ukraine).
Oleksiy Sai is a Ukranian artist, living and working in Kiev. During his residency in Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, he focused his interests on the Sanctuary of Oropa, near Biella. Specifically, he worked on the ex-voto gallery, thousands of votive offers donated by people to thank the Virgin Mary during the last centuries. They were made to express gratefulness after happy ending accidents, after a disease or other bad events. 
“I have never seen something similar before, it is very interesting because is a social phenomenon! I decided to create a simple animation using the characters and elements from paintings and adding a movement, a sort of feeling of happiness. It could become the new generation format of ex voto, animated gifs or digital collages presented on screens, and the tradition could go on.”
Oleksiy Sai

 
In addition to the participation at the UNIDEE weekly module “96 Extraordinary Cockroaches”, the residency programme included short visits to Milan and Turin, where Ukrainian artists were able to get in touch with the local art context: meet curators, artists, visit some institutions like museums, galleries and non-profit spaces. Alina Yakubenko and Oleksiy Sai took part also in the panel discussion of LET'S TALK RESÒ 7 within Artissima contemporary art fair (Turin), where they discussed the relationship between research and experience of artistic residency starting from the example of their own work. The three-weeks residency program ended with an informal event at the intersection of a studio visit and party which was self-organized in an apartment in Turin for some people of the local art community.