IN PENSIERO

From 28th to 30th April Bergen Ateliergruppe is hosting IN PENSIERO by artistic duo Orecchie D’Asino. The exhibition is the final event of the second edition of SWAP residency project, curated by Amerigo Mariotti and Giorgia Tronconi of Adiacenze and Manuel Portioli. During the past three weeks, Orecchie D’Asino has been in Bergen to research and develop a new audiovisual project around the process and the representation of the act of thinking. What would happen if we allowed ourselves to be more present, to take a break from our fast-paced routines and concentrate on our inner selves? What our thoughts look like, and how they behave? How does the context and culture we live in influence our daily thoughts? The artists have been involving the citizens of Bergen around these and more questions through a two-day casting session at Palmera. The next phase of this first action will be exhibited in Bergen Ateliergruppe through a meta studio among the other studios making up the space, where the artists will bring the public into the process of movie-making.

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SWAP is an international art residency project that aims to activate and promote cultural exchange and creative cooperation between Italy and abroad through the involvement of national and international artists. The second edition of the project is the winner of the Culture Moves Europe grant funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe Institut. It is sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute of Oslo and Bergen Kommune, in collaboration with Hordaland Kunstsenter, Palmera and Bergen Ateliergruppe and with the patronage of the Municipality of Bologna.

Orecchie D’Asino
On the borderline between the everyday and the dreamlike, Orecchie D’Asino (Ornella De Carlo and Federica Porro) investigates images and the processes of creation and fruition of the image itself, experimenting with different media, such as installation, photography, video and performance. Following their master’s degree on the contemporary image at the Fondazione Arti Visive in Modena, they participate in various exhibitions, projects and artistic residencies: Fondazione Francesco Fabbri, Pieve di Soligo; Habitat Ottantre, Verona; Studiottantuno, Mantova; Fondazione Gajani, Bologna; Habitat Ottantatre, Verona; Parsec, Bologna; Colletivo Scena, Cesena; Biblioteca Salaborsa, Bologna; BACO, Base d’arte contemporanea, Bergamo; Collettivo Flock, Barcellona P. G.; Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella; Abacedario D’Artista, Parma; MLZ Art Dep, Trieste.

Adiacenze is a curatorial space dedicated to experimentation with contemporary art. Founded in Bologna in 2010 to support emerging artists and develop their research through site-specific projects from the concept to the exhibition design, Adiacenze organizes exhibitions, presentations and workshops in its spaces and in other galleries, public or private institutions in Italy and Europe. Since 2018 Adiacenze has also curated the exhibition program at Casa della Cultura “Italo Calvino” in Calderara di Reno and in 2020 it has created Prospettive, a network of artist residencies in Emilia-Romagna. In 2022 it created SWAP, an art residency exchange project in partnership with Bergen, Norway, supported by the European Union and the Goethe Institut, the Italian Cultural Institute of Oslo and the City of Bergen.

Manuel Portioli is a visual artist born in Italy, who lives and works in Bergen, Norway. He graduated from Bologna Academy of Fine Arts in 2010 and at Bergen Academy of Arts in 2014. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally and has received several awards and scholarships for his work. In his curatorial practice, it is vital for him that all the parties involved in a project can enrich one another by sharing their experiences, cultures, and artistic practices. In the past ten years, he has been acting as a bridge connecting Italy and Norway curating exhibitions in Italy showcasing over two dozens Norway-based artists. With SWAP, this has now become a two-way bridge, bringing Italian artists in Norway.