Five elements and the state of being
From 20 August to 02 September 2022
Santa Caterina di Nardò (Lecce, Italy)
Curated by Dores Sacquegna
Management: Primo Piano LivinGallery
Baroque Blue Ionian SeArt Residency is an art project signed by Primo Piano LivinGallery that sees protagonists in this first Italian edition, visual artists, musicians and performers and their curator Dores Sacquegna, in one of the most beautiful places in the Ionian Salento: Santa Caterina di Nardò, in the province of Lecce. In this scenario, the residents-adventurers will experience the art of coexistence, conviviality, group and personal work, living in close and deep contact with the luxuriant nature of the Porto Selvaggio Natural Park Reserve; they will immerse themselves in the fresh and regenerating waters of the Ionian Sea, they will visit the places of the Genius Loci, but also the prehistoric settlements that testify to the presence of the Uluzzian Man, the oldest Homo Sapiens in Europe.
A sensory journey into the past and a return to the future, with the creation of temporary works of Land Art, multimedia productions, installations, and performances. The common denominator of the site-specific works produced is the theme on Nature, as the nerve center and propeller of everything, as a powerful guide of one’s own growth path.Their contribution will be that of the divine Child or sacred Guardian, with the ability to imagine, explore, research, create, with direct connections to the “Five Elements and the states of being“, to remember the impermanence of existence, the ephemeral, the importance of non-attachment to things, precious truths for our earthly path of evolution.
An art project of TOTAL ART that combines contemporary art in its infinite mediums and disciplines and the cultural and natural Heritage of the place that hosts them. Their history in the land of Puglia will begin on 20 August, which will end on 1 September with a calendar of events from 18:30pm until late at night and which sees the exhibition of the works created by the eleven residents on site: the French artists Nancy and Philip Barwell, the British artists Katy Connor and Fio Adamson, the Norwegians artists Ragnhild Sollid and Birte Pedersen (based in Ecuador); the Dutch artist Marijke Uittenbroek, the American artist Vanessa Albury and the Greek artist and researcher Polyxene Kasda.
The evening continues with the interventions of their Italian colleagues and artists including Massimiliano Manieri, with the performance “Amplexus Nunquam, or the man who was never embraced” and the Thanksgiving Ceremony to Mother Earth with the project “The Earth talks: our archetypes “, with a group and ritual performance on the “5 elements”, represented, in order of appearance by Polyxene Kasda for the WATER element, through a rite of ablution, by Rose Sacquegna for the FIRE element, a symbol of transformation and purification , by Maria Amanda Stefanelli for the EARTH element, with the construction of a sacred circle “The earth listens”, followed by the prayer-oration of gratitude for life, for art and the cosmos, by the performer Paola Crisostomo for the element of AIR, and finally the ETHER, the fifth element of the cycle that begins and ends the event under the supervision and direction by Dores Sacquegna. The performance is accompanied by the sound incursions by the flutist Roberto Gagliardi and by the percussionist Francesco Perrone, from the banquet of libations / offerings and involves all the artists and the invited audience. Primo Piano’s mission is to create a new model of sustainable environmental, cultural and sensorial usability.
