CirculART 3.0 | open call & selected residents

The circular economy is "an economy designed to regenerate itself. In a circular economy, material flows are of two types: biological ones, capable of being reintegrated into the biosphere, and technical ones, destined to be regenerated without entering the biosphere. The circular economy is thus a system in which all activities, starting with extraction and production, are organised so that someone's waste becomes a resource for someone else. In the linear economy, on the other hand, once consumption ends, the cycle of the product that becomes waste also ends, forcing the economic chain to continuously repeat the same pattern: extraction, production, consumption, disposal."
Ellen MacArthur

Reduce the consumption of raw materials by designing products with a long-term obsolescence and easy maintenance, with lower costs;

Reuse of raw materials is the first major life cycle of products, so that the energy spent to generate that product is not lost;

Recycling is the last step to recover the material.

Starting from the concept of circular economy, international artists and fashion designers and European companies working in the field of sustainable fashion together with Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto will explore how, through the attentive choice of sustainable materials and supply chains, new forms of productive and design harmony can be developed.

The CirculART project brings artistic research into dialogue with the different sectors that compose the textile supply chain, working on the basis of the circular economy with companies that have chosen to embrace the idea of sustainability and develop their business in an innovative and forward-thinking way. A supply chain with a healthy production cycle, starting from the raw materials, to the recycling process, up to the finishing of the garments using innovative dyes, accessories and machinery.

The CirculART project is conceived and realised by Fashion B.E.S.T. in collaboration with UNIDEE residency programs at Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto in Italy and is curated by the curatorial team of Cittadellarte.

Four participants, two artists and two fashion designers, will be selected to take part in the programme and will be in conversation with the residency curators and entrepreneurs.
The aim of the residency is the realisation of artworks that will be presented in a final exhibition.

The programme consists of three residency periods.
Two for visiting the companies (each artist and fashion designer will work with 4 companies) and one for the production at Cittadellarte.
The first two phases will last a maximum of ten days each, and for each session each artist/fashion designer will visit two companies, while the production phase at Cittadellarte will last up to two weeks.

Between the residency phases at Cittadellarte, the artists and fashion designers will have to work together with the curators of the residency on the ideation of the final artwork.