UNIDEE Residency Programs

STAFF

Education Office

UNIDEE - University of Ideas at Cittadellarte
Director: Juan Esteban Sandoval
Visiting Curator: Andy Abbott
under the supervision of Paolo Naldini
Programme Coordinator: Clara Tosetti

Juan Esteban Sandoval (1972), Head of projects and Director of the Art Office of Cittadellarte.

Artist, he has exhibited internationally since 1994. He is the cofounder of “el puente_lab” art collective in Medellín, a platform for artistic and cultural production, which uses contemporary art as a tool for the social trasformation.

Since 2002 he has been the director of the Art Office of Cittadellarte, coordinating the realization of 13 editions of “Arte al Centro” exhibitions within the Foundation’s premises and a number of exhibitions in other locations, such the MuKHA in Antwerp, San Servolo Island for the 50th Venice Biennial, The Galleria Civica of Modena, MAXXI Museum in Rome, among others.

He co-curated the exhibition “Cittadellarte.sharing transformation” at Kunsthaus in Graz, the first two editions of the seminar “Methods-research project on art-society relation” and two workshops of shared interdisciplinary planning in Venice and in Gorizia, Italy.

Juan is ex-resident UNIDEE (2000).

Andy Abbott is an artist, writer, curator and arts organiser who lives in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK. He has exhibited and performed internationally as an individual artist and in various collaborations including the art collective Black Dogs. He has undertaken exhibitions, commissions and residencies for Tate Modern, London; MK Gallery, Milton Keynes; SWG3, Glasgow; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Museum of Oxford; and Yorkshire Forward; and has completed residencies for Gasworks, London; in PiST, Istanbul; and Convivio, Oaxaca.
He is an alumnus of the Unidee residency at Cittadellarte, which he completed collaboratively with his partner Yvonne Carmichael in 2006.

In 2012 Andy was awarded a practice-led PhD from the University of Leeds with a thesis on "art, self-organised cultural activity and the production of postcapitalist subjectivity". His research interests are in Do-It-Yourself culture, artist-led initiatives, alternative economies and postwork futures.
Recent and forthcoming writing includes articles and book contributions on the creative case for Universal Basic Income.
As an arts organiser and curator he has produced a public programme for the embedded arts organisation In-Situ in East Lancashire, piloted the Centre for Socially Applied Arts at the University of Bradford, and was a director of the Community Interest Company Art in Unusual Spaces.
www.andyabbott.co.uk
Twitter/Instagram: @zadanzig

Clara Tosetti (1989), Programme Coordinator, UNIDEE - University of Ideas.

Graduate in Architecture (Polytechnic of Milan, 2014), in 2016 she obtained a Master in Economics and Management of the Art and Cultural Heritage at the Business School of the Sole 24 Ore specializing in the areas of communication, organization of exhibitions and cultural events and educational programs.
During the Master she has co-curated the exhibition “Legàmi” at the Carcano Theatre in Milan that probed the different types of bonds between women.

She worked for the Studio Art&Co. in Turin collaborating in organizing the exhibition “Sigmar Polke” at Palazzo Grassi in Venice and by accompanying the contemporary art advisoring and cataloguing for prestigious private collections.

Clara has always been interested in the links between art and public space and how this might relate to the individual and collective growth to create the identity of a community that is both local and global.

Paolo Naldini is Director of Cittadellarte since 2000. In 1996 he got his degree in Economics at Turin University with a dissertation on urban derelict buildings and lands, in connection with Turin Polytechnic University of Architecture.

As a writer, apart from texts on art and its role in societal fabric, Paolo has published short fictions and founded a web project dedicated to exploring creative collaboration by meeting and writing in nomadic and interwoven patterns.
He has conceived and developed the theory and method of the Art of Demopraxy.

PREVIOUS COLLABORATORS

Valerio Del Baglivo, visiting curator of 2018-2019 UNIDEE Residency program, is a freelance curator, educator and perennial collaborator based in Italy. Collaborative research, alternative education, fiction and storytelling play a continuing and vital role within the methodology and interests of Valerio Del Baglivo.

He attended Curatorlab, an independent curatorial course, at Konstfack University (2011), and is now completing a PhD Programme at Middlesex University with a research focused on public engagement and experimental pedagogy in self-initiated art institutions. He has integrated his academic training by participating in international residency programs at The Banff Centre in Banff, ICC at Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, Wysing Art Centre in Cambridge, Futura in Prague, The Luminary in Missouri and BAR Projects in Barcelona.

In the last years he has curated exhibitions and projects for organizations such as, Apexart - NY, Kunstverein – Milan,Konsthall C - Stockholm, Kunsthalle WUK- Vienna, Azkuna Zentroa - Bilbao – and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo – Turin.

In 2017 he initiated with artist Ludovica Carbotta The Institute of Things to Come, an itinerant institute that embrace irrational, mimetic and fictional knowledge with the aim of destabilizing models of objective scientific research.

He was 2017 Curator in Residency and Shadow Curator at Grand Union, Birmingham. Since 2013 is a member of IKT – International Association of Curators of Contemporary Arts. He is currently Associate External Curator at MAXXI (Rome).

Cecilia Guida (1978), director and curator of programme, UNIDEE.

She is Doctor in Communication and New Technologies of Art (IULM, University of Milan, 2011), specializing in relations among participative art practices, new technologies and contemporary public space. She is Professor of Contemporary Art History at the Academy of Fine Arts (Bologna). She has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts (Florence, 2013-2016; L’Aquila, 2011-2014; Rome, 2004-2007), at IUAV University (Venice/Treviso, 2008-2009) and at La Sapienza University (Rome, 2004-2007).

Member of the IKT - International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art, she has curated exhibitions in museums as well as public and independent spaces in Italy and abroad (“ARTInRETI. Art practices and urban transformation in Piedmont”, Cittadellarte, 2012 and 2013; “Take Your Time”, Tank Space for Performing and Visual Arts, New York, 2009; “Fuori contesto”, public spaces in Bologna, Milan, Trento/Rovereto/Bozen, 2008; “Menu”, Spaziorazmataz Prato, 2007; “Aprés le diner sur l’herbe”, Villa dei Quintili, Rome, 2007 etc.).

She is author of the book Spatial Practices. Funzione pubblica e politica dell’arte nella società delle reti published by Franco Angeli in 2012. She is editor and translator of the Italian version of Artificial Hells. Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship by Claire Bishop (Inferni Artificiali. La politica della spettatorialità nell’arte partecipativa, lucasossella editore, 2015).

Cecilia is ex-resident UNIDEE (2009).

Annalisa Zegna (1990), Programme Assistant, UNIDEE.

She graduated in Painting at Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin and in Visual Arts at IUAV University in Venice. In her bachelor dissertation she examined the atlas of images as modus operandi in contemporary art, focusing on remediation and elaboration of knowledge through images from both paper and digital archives. Her artistic practice focuses on social and collective imaginary through site-specific projects related to the place in which she lives (Biella, Turin, Venice, Berlin), each time articulated around local issues of public space.

In 2015 she was in residence in the Atelier of Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice, and she participated in exhibitions and competitions in the Venice area. In 2016 she spent a period of research in Cyprus, at VSMS Lab (Visual Sociology and Museum Studies Laboratory) at University of Technology in Limassol, in partnership with Artos Foundation in Nicosia, where she investigated some contemporary artistic experiences related to living systems and non-human subjectivities.
Later, she worked as assistant curator for Art Laboratory Berlin, dealing with interdisciplinary projects between art, science and technology, with a particular attention to collective and laboratory experiments.

Annalisa is part of the association "BetterPlaces", with whom she collaborates for cultural activities in Biella, promoting horizontal and participatory practices and research processes.

Roberta Bernasconi (1985), Programme Coordinator, UNIDEE.

She holds a masters degree in Visual Arts from IUAV University in Venice.
She is working research based on art in the public space and on the approach of the spectator to it. She write her degree thesis on public art in Naples, her hometown, defining the dynamics between institutions and monuments, and participatory actions and collectivity.

She completed two semester studies abroad, at École de LaCambre in Brussels and at Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. She works as an artist producing installations and performances and she finished her studies with a thesis titled "the Other israeli, the Other palestinian. Shooting the enemy".
Since 2010 she has been conveying her artistic practice into a multidisciplinary attitude, permitting her to develop creative methods able to turn art into something accessible to all.

In 2012 she worked in the Maybe Education and Public Programs department of dOCUMENTA(13), extending her research on the uncertainty of knowledge and on the impossibility of defining the work of art. While in Kassel she coordinated the "Readers' Circle. 100 Notes-100 Thoughts" project and the SCEPSI conferences run by Franco Berardi-Bifo.

She worked for the Musei Civici of Venice, implementing and promoting educational activities for groups of schools, adults and families. She is cultural operator, active in the Venitian Museums network and in Biennale Foundation. She accepts skepticism towards art as a form of positive stimulation and supports projects producing culture, generating knowledge and defining social actions in the collective space.

Giulia Crisci (1989), Assistant Director and Curator, UNIDEE.

She studied Art History at the universities of Palermo and Turin. An independent curator based in Turin, she is interested in the relationship between art and activism within the public realm and the social sphere. Enacted practices – often in the form of collectives or assemblies – are concentrated on territorial communities, with a particular focus on the city and its tension zones, in the attempt to trigger spaces for critical thought and collective action.
She was part of the coordination team of Resò- International Network for Art Residencies and Educational Programs.

Giulia curated Valentina Miorandi’s itinerant project “Turning Tables”, consisting in the collective construction of an archive of cultural activist experiences. Since 2011, she worked as personal assistant to the artist Marzia Migliora. She collaborates with “Libera in Sicily. Associations, names and numbers against mafias” towards a creative rethinking of social antimafia.

She curated several projects within the artistic/curatorial collective Balloon, whose research lays at the boundary between critical writing, projects, web platform and independent micro-publishing. She was assistant curator for the 2014’s edition of Eco e Narciso, Turin’s public art project, and was a member of the educational department of Palermo’s Museo Riso.

Elisa Tosoni (1981), Programme Coordinator, UNIDEE.

Trained at Stockholm University (MA, Curating Art with Management and Law) and AICA Armenia (6th Summer Seminars for Art Curators), and at the University of East London (BA, Sculpture), Elisa also studied some geology. A curator of the enabler breed, whose research focuses on residential formats and temporality, she is also a professional chef and occasionally serves as a critic and a fiction/scriptwriter.

Curator of international exhibitions and projects (Arkitekturmuseet, Botkyrka Konsthall, Galleria Alberto Peola, Elevator Gallery, public realm ...), she also worked as curatorial assistant at Iaspis, Cardi Black Box, “Manifesta 7” for “The Rest of Now/Tabula Rasa” and “Bucharest Biennale 3”. In 2013, she lived through the project one|year|of|curatorial|residencies (Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale, Kunsthaus Aussersihl/rotationatelier).

Keynote speaker and panelist at “Alter Edge/ Reflections on peripheral dynamics” (nkd, 2013), she also presented the paper Transnational artistic events: on temporality and its repercussions on the local context, at Mekhitar Sebastatsi Art School in 2011. She led discussions on artists' projects and exhibitions at Counter Space, Mesopotamia, Elevator Gallery.

Elisa is currently working on a new column focusing on process-based studio visits, for the web magazine “Fisk Frisk”. Her writings and interviews appeared on “Arte e Critica” and undo.net.