About

OPERE VIVE (Living Works) is an independent curatorial research project that connects different art organizations around public art.

Curated by Isabella Indolfi via a field study that crosses numerous countries and continents, the research began in Maranola, a small medieval village in southern Italy, and then travelled to Iceland, Russia, Armenia, Ethiopia, China, South Korea, England and the United States of America.
Following a thin line, OPERE VIVE connects several territories and communities of reference, from North to South, from East to West, from large metropolises to small suburban centres. Despite their geographical distance and different territories of reference, the involved non-profit organisations share dynamic practices of artistic production and distribution rooted in the place for which the work is intended. They conceive art as both a tool for investigating the territory and also a device for urban and social regeneration. The result of their efforts is the creation of living works that breathe in the urban space and ripen as they are shared with the community; works that create connections, places and moments of encounter; works that are free to self-generate, distancing themselves from the control of the artist’s or client’s subjectivity, to merge with the public and with the place for which they were intended.
The curatorial research OPERE VIVE aspires to initiate a mapping of what is alive, defining it through variable sensory intensities perceived along the journey. The final aim is to recognise common paths and shared vocations, capable of supporting present and future conversations between the cultural partners.
The organisations involved will host the curator Isabella Indolfi in residence, while international universities will disseminate the research.
On the one hand the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture, La Sapienza University of Rome and the Department of Humanities, Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples, will support the analysis of spatial and relational artistic practices. On the other, the Computing Department della Goldsmiths University and the School of Digital Arts della Manchester Metropolitan University will sustain a focus on the impact the environment has on digital art.Interviews with curators, artists and directors from the organisations involved will flesh out the research and be occasionally shared by online magazines.

Developed in September 2020 for the Italian Council IX – the international call of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Peripheries (DGAAP) – OPERE VIVE was not among the selected projects, but will be realised thanks to the contribution of the cultural partners.

Isabella Indolfi is an independent curator living between New York City and Maranola (Italy), and working between Europe, Russia, Armenia and the United States of America. With graduate training in Sociology and Cultural Studies, her curatorial research is focused on site-specific and community-based art practices, from the perspective of public, social, spatial and relational aspects. Isabella Indolfi is currently holding multiple positions: she is curator for public programs at the Embassy of Italy in Armenia—commissioned by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy; member representing Italy in the Manager Committee of “Writing Urban Places” in COST European Cooperation in Science and Technology; founder and art director at SEMINARIA Biennial Festival of Environmental Art; co-curator for Cyland Media Art Lab. She was recently Resident Curator for Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, New York. Isabella Indolfi gave lectures at the Goldsmiths University of London and at the Manchester Metropolitan University School of Art. She curated exhibitions at museums such as the MACRO Museum in Rome (Italy), the Youth Center of The Hermitage State Museum in Saint Petersburg (Russia), the Cà Foscari University in Venice (Italy), the Cafesijan Museum in Yerevan (Armenia), and the New York Media Center (USA), among others.

To learn more about the curator www.isabellaindolfi.it