Ways of Becoming: 25 years with UNIDEE

Exhibitions, talks and panels, performances and UNIDEE Residency Modules
21 September - 7 December 2024

In 2024, UNIDEE Residency Programs celebrates 25 years of creating educational encounters for artists engaged in art and social transformation at its home at Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, Italy. Founded in 1999 by Michelangelo Pistoletto, the residency programmes have registered the participation of over a thousand artists, practitioners and cultural professionals from 52 different countries, demonstrating what art historian Gregory Sholette considers "a far-sighted and vibrant investment in the future of innovative, intellectually stimulating, and socially engaged cultural practices."

To celebrate this milestone, Cittadellarte is dedicating the 26th edition of Arte al Centro, Cittadellarte's major annual event, to the 25th anniversary of the UNIDEE Residency Programs - reflecting on the past, present and future of artistic residency programmes for social transformation. The celebrations seek to recognise how Cittadellarte and UNIDEE have fostered 'ways of becoming'—enabling personal, collective, and societal transformation. The event will include panels, meetings, performances, and a special edition of UNIDEE Modules residencies, addressing persistent and emerging issues related to art for social change.

21 September – 31 December 2024
OPENING: 21 September at 5.30 pm @ Cittadellarte (Biella, Italy)

A large group exhibition featuring works by UNIDEE alumni from around the world will explore how art can positively influence processes of sustainable change.
The exhibition will display works by Mae Aguinaldo-Mapa, Nico Angiuli, Mariangela Aponte, Laurent Barnavon, Lindsay Benedict, Ilaria Biotti, Charles-Antoine Blais Métivier, Michael Blum, Beatrice Catanzaro, David Cañavate, Luigi Coppola, Giulia Filippi, Stephanie Hanna, Mako Ishizuka, Emily Jacir, Charlie Jeffery, Cees Krijnen, Olga Ledis, Natalia Ludmila, Karl Logge & Marta Romani, Matthew Mazzotta, Katia Meneghini, Ryts Monet, Alice Pedroletti, Anastasia Ryabova, Caretto - Spagna, Chiara Sgaramella, PLoT (Colette Lewis, Marilyn Lennon and Elinor Rivers), Alejandro Vàsquez and Kosta Tonev.
Film and video screening by: Aleksandrija Ajduković, David Behar Perahia, Lindsay Benedict, Tom Dale, Gluklya, Mako Ishizuka, Hiba Isleem, Charlie Jeffery, Eleni Kamma, Olga Ledis, Richard Legaspi, Walid Mawed, Armin Mobasseri, Anastasia Ryabova, Kosta Tonev.

The exhibition is a collaborative effort that includes archival materials, such as anecdotes, memories, reflections, books, and recipes from former residents and mentors. This section results from extensive research into UNIDEE's archive and an open call to over a thousand residents, mentors, and guests. It aims to convey, through memories, the experience of being part of a residency like UNIDEE and the developments since 1999.
This archival section of the exhibition will feature highlights dedicated to UNIDEE's longest-standing partnerships that have supported the program for more than two decades and are Fondazione Zegna, illycaffe S.p.A, Ecotermica.
During the opening, there will be live performances by Charlie Jeffery, Georgios Moraitis, Marlo De Lara, Karl Logge & Marta Romani and Katia Meneghini.

22 - 25 September 2024 @ Cittadellarte (Biella, Italy)

For four days, talks, conferences, and meetings will be organised to address persistent and emerging issues related to art for social change, featuring guests including Andy Abbott, Valerio del Baglivo, Susanne Bosch, Chiara Cartuccia, Beatrice Catanzaro, Viviana Checchia, Luigi Coppola, Vincenzo Estremo, Fabiola Fiocco, Owen Griffiths, Cecilia Guida, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Iswanto Hartono, Diego del Pozo Barriuso, Juan Sandoval, Alessandra Saviotti, Angela Serino, Anna Taylor, Ovidiu Țichindeleanu and Mick Wilson.
The program aims to reflect on the transformation of socially engaged artistic practices over the past twenty-five years and explore the various possibilities for art that inherently intersect with other disciplines.
The themes addressed reflect emerging and critical issues of contemporary times, starting with the ecological turn and the urgency to rethink the needs and specificities of places in relation to their inhabitants. Other themes include new configurations for future artistic institutions and how they can be imagined and implemented, the pedagogical dimension as an essential condition of socially engaged art, and hospitality as a method in the context of artistic residencies as germinal places for acquiring new skills. Finally, the program will discuss the evolution of the different formats experimented with by UNIDEE Residency Programs over the years and the function of the archive in imagining its next 25 years.

22 September
Walking conversation - THE ECOLOGICAL TURN
@ Biella and surroundings, with Luigi Coppola and Owen Griffiths
In times of accelerated global and local challenges, we respond to the emergent need to share the skills and methodologies of socially engaged artistic practices, opening spaces of dialogue on ecological, political and economic issues, and investigating a non-exploitative way of co-inhabiting the planet beyond anthropocentric domination.
How do we work in one place?
Keywords: Community / Locality / Place / Environment / Nature / Public Space / Commons / Embeddedness / Social Responsibility / Interculturality / Dig where you stand

23 September
Panel - WAYS OF INSTITUTING AND ARTISTIC PRACTICES
@ Cittadellarte, with Valerio del Baglivo, Viviana Checchia and Aterraterra
Over the past 25 years, the social and political roles of artistic practices have become increasingly entangled with everyday life, influencing how institutions engage with such practices, and rethinking and reshaping ways of instituting within the complexity of specific cultural settings. Socially engaged artistic practices have facilitated a shift from spectatorship to co-authorship, encouraging the formation of an active constituent body.
What is Socially Engaged Art today (and will be tomorrow)?
Keywords: Art as Social Practice / Interdisciplinarity / Multidisciplinarity / Collaboration / Collectivity / Experimentation / Transformation / Criticality / Social Transformation / Activism / Social Engagement / Art as Tool / Radical / Imagination / Policy / Political Ecology / Civic Responsibility

Panel - WAYS OF LEARNING THROUGH ARTISTIC PRACTICES
@ Cittadellarte, with Fabiola Fiocco, Jeanne van Heeswijk and Diego del Pozo Barriuso
Experimentation with educational and pedagogical models based on the interconnection between research, critical theory, activism, and artistic practice has been at the core of UNIDEE since its start. We reflect today on how practices of interdisciplinary collectives and community projects based on pedagogical approaches have become ways of learning.
How can we learn together?
Keywords: Knowledge Production / Artistic Research / Conversation / Exchange / Participation / Informality / Sharing

24 September
Panel - WAYS OF HOSTING ARTISTIC RESEARCH AND PRACTICES
@ Cittadellarte, with Angela Serino, Iswanto Hartono and Anna Taylor
Over the past decades, the proliferation of artistic residency programmes on a global scale has led us to reflect on what possible resources and formats are required today to encourage and support artistic researchers and practices in acquiring new skills and engaging with the territory's ecology.
How do we support one another (practically)?
Keywords: Networks / Support / Interdependence / Connectivity / Circularity / Resources / Teamwork / Sustainability / Support Mechanisms

24 September
Panel - UNIDEE: a residency programme as a method, with Chiara Cartuccia, Andy Abbott and Cecilia Guida

24 September
Roundtable “UNIDEE in 2050”, with moderators Vincenzo Estremo and Susanne Bosch

25 September
Panel - ACTIVATING THE ARCHIVE FOR CHANGE
Thoughts, reflections, and farewell brunch with the UNIDEE Advisory Board (Andy Abbott, Beatrice Catanzaro, Alessandra Saviotti, Juan E. Sandoval) and Mick Wilson

22 – 25 September 2024 @ Cittadellarte (Biella, Italy)

The four-day celebration will feature a public programme of performances and activities organised by UNIDEE alumni. Highlights include ‘open mic’ sessions,workshops,sound art performances, a live film sound session and board games. Additional activities will include life drawing of plants, creating fanzines about food-related memories, impromptu tango sessions and activities for families and children. UNIDEE alumni who will present are: Omar Adel, Ayed Arafah, Trine Bumiller, Elizaveta Butakova, Katya Craftsovav, Giulia Filippi, Shayma Hamad, Stephanie Hanna, Mako Ishizuka, Karl Logge & Marta Romani, Ginevra Ludovici, Manuela Macco, Ahmad Malki, Rachel Nord, Alice Pedroletti, Nicole Sánchez + Ligia Fernandes (Mais Uno +1), Rebecca Sforzani, Josie Tothill, Daniel Urrea, Alejandro Vásquez, and ad more (open slots).

22 - 25 September 2024 

The program features a series of interventions throughout Biella, collaborating with local organisations and associations. These highlight how the artistic residency programme has woven relationships with the public space, the people, and the city's transformation processes over the last 25 years.

17 October - 6 December 2024 @ Cittadellarte (Biella, Italy)

The autumn 2024 UNIDEE residency modules will expand on the themes highlighted during the celebrations, involving new groups of residents with mentors Fabiola Fiocco, Susanne Bosch and Eva Rowson, and facilitators Andy Abbott, Beatrice Catanzaro and Alessandra Saviotti. These modules will offer a space for in-depth exploration of key questions and learning with peers and experts. The three modules, each accommodating up to 12 participants, will take place at Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto between October and December 2024. Participation is free of charge.
In addition, Angela Serino will curate a UNIDEE module aiming at inviting Italian residencies to celebrate what has been built over the years and, at the same time, reflect together on the future.
For more information on the open call, please visit the dedicated page.


The 26th edition of Arte al Centro is made possible by the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Italian Council, Regione Piemonte, Camera di Commercio Monte Rosa Laghi Alto Piemonte, Fondazione CRT, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Biella, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione Zegna, illy S.p.A., ETS Ecotermica Servizi. In partnership with Città di Biella. In synergy with Biella City of Crafts and Folk Art, member of UNESCO Creative Cities, and Biella Città Arcipelago.

UNIDEE Residency Programs is made possible by the support of Regione Piemonte, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, CRT Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, illycaffè S.p.A., Fondazione Zegna. UNIDEE research residency partners: A.M. Qattan Foundation, Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, Institut Français Italy, the Embassy of the Netherlands.