ENDECAMERON 21 – Incubatio/Incubazione
Artistic residence, Rocca Sinibalda Castle
July 31 – August 8 2021
Call for applications
Deadline 31st May 2021
Endecameron 21 is the fourth edition of the artistic residency started in 2018 at the Rocca Sinibalda Castle.
The Endecameron originates in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. For ten days, ten storytellers had kept with their stories the Black Plague outside the Villa where they took refuge. Then comes the Eleventh Day, the day after the end of all stories, when there are no more words to save us from Evil. What happens that very day, when order and meaning falter, the page is blank and everything turns formless? Here begins the Endecameron, a research and artistic project about the never-ending negotiation between chaos and cosmos.
In 2018, Endecameron’s theme was The Castle of the Red Death, from the story by E. A. Poe. In 2019, The Invisible Cities by I. Calvino. In 2020, a Covid-enforced digital edition centered on the Scorpion Castle, i.e. the zoomorphic identity of the Rocca Sinibalda Castle as a weird architectural scorpion.
The 2021 theme is Incubation. The Incubatio is an ancient and widespread practice: one sleeps in a place considered in some way sacred, and here one expects dreams and signs about the future, visions, solutions to life problems, a cure for a disease. But incubation also hints at the time-lapse when something new is nurtured secretly and in silence, still invisible yet alive and due to surface soon: an idea, a virus or disease, a catastrophe or a metamorphosis. On the 2021 Eleventh Day the Endecameron artists deal with the post- pandemic and probe the incubation of new possible worlds, in total freedom and according to their individual mindsets and artistic languages. The Castle becomes the maternal womb, the primary and metaphorical location of each and every incubation. Here the artists interact with anthropologists, psychoanalysts, architects, communicators. Each artist selects his/her “room” among the many unique spaces of the Castle, i.e. the specific place of his/her incubation.
Venue
Rocca Sinibalda Castle (RIETI). A millennial fortress (first erected 1062-66), redesigned by the Renaissance architect Baldassarre Peruzzi (1532-1536). Zoomorph (unique in Europe, an eagle with folded wings or a scorpion). A grade I listed national monument since 1928. Privately own.
The castle always hosted significant artists. As of the XXth century, among others: Salvador DalÍ, Ezra Pound, Lilian Lijn, Takis, Beat Generation poets such as Gregory Corso and Allen Ginzberg, the Living Theater, a protagonists of US indie cinema (Gregory Markopoulos), writers such as Martin Amis, art patrons Peggy Guggenheim and Caresse Crosby.
The castle reopened in 2013 after a 8-year restoration directed by Arch. Claudio Silvestrin. It won the Athenaeum Prize (Chicago) for Restoration in 2014.
Ovid’s inspired Gallery of Metamorphoses. Renaissance-mannerist frescoes. Important ethnographic collections (especially totems and ritual masks from the sub-Alaskan Northwest Coast). A worldwide collection of over 500 masks. Several works and installations of contemporary art. An extended archive of more than 12,000 street art images. Inspirational. Wunderkammer. Hanging gardens redesigned by landscape architect Ippolito Pizzetti (1972). 15,000 visitors since 2016.
When
July 31- August 8. Arrival at an earlier date can be agreed.
Artists are due to stay for the entire duration of the residency.
Organization
The artists are guests of the Castle and they participate in its common life. Every artist authors his/her art project, alone or with others. Every evening, whoever wants can narrate, show, recite, play or perform his/her work in progress.
Travel expenses to Rocca Sinibalda are dealt with by the Castle.
All works produced during the residency belong to their authors. The audio-video recordings of all activities and the relevant photographic documentation belong to the Castle.
The authors take upon themselves to bring all materials and tools necessary for their residency project. The Castle will do its best to support specific needs communicated before the residency.
The residency does not provide direct or indirect monetary compensation.
Finissage – August 7th
The final evening the artists present their works to the Endecameron residents and to any guests. The finissage format is being defined and may include media partnerships.
Application
Application deadline: 31th May 2021 to info@endecameron.it. The application should include a detailed CV, references to past artistic activity and some significant samples: objects, writings, performance videos, recordings, photos, and anything possibly useful for an evaluation. All attached materials will be used exclusively for the selection of participants. Selected artists will be contacted before the 15th June 2021.
Useful links
https://www.facebook.com/Endecameron
https://twitter.com/endecameron
