Listen to the presentation by Valentina Sansone, founder of Magazzino Brancaccio, on YouTube, as part of the study days on art in the public space in Italy.
Art and Public Space is a project by Italian Ministry of Culture’s Direzione generale Creatività Contemporanea, with Fondazione Scuola dei beni e delle attività culturali.
September 9 – 13, 2019
Final public event: September 12th 2019
7.30pm
Workshop run by: Ricardo Atienza (Lecturer, Konstfack University); Robin McGinely (Visiting Lecturer, Konstfack University; board member, The Great Learning Orchestra). Guest teacher: Leif Jordansson (The Great Learning Orchestra).
Konstfack University
Fylkingen, Torkel Knutssonsgatan 2
Stockholm
In collaboration with Conservatorio “A. Scarlatti”, Palermo, Italy; Konstfack University of Arts Crafts and Design (Department of Fine Art).
The “Sound Interaction and participatory practices in experimental music and performance” workshop (9-13 September 2019), run by Ricardo Atienza and Robin McGinley, with Leif Jordansson, is part of the “Sound in Interaction: Sound Art, Sound Architecture and Sound Design” Course at Konstfack University.
For one week, 6 students, together with their teachers, and the Director of the Conservatorio “A. Scarlatti” in Palermo, Italy, will join the “Sound in Interaction” Professional Course at Konstfack.
Through this exchange, all the participants will mainly aim to collectively compose and execute interdisciplinary interactive and sensorial scores, finalized to participatory practices. The set of methods developed in Stockholm will find its further development in a series of community-based performances in Italy, in the Fall 2019/Spring 2020. These upcoming events will be pursued by the Conservatoire’s students, with the participation of local communities in Brancaccio, Palermo.
The “Sound Interaction and participatory practices in experimental music and performance” workshop is conceived by Magazzino Brancaccio, a project for education, experimental music and performance founded in 2018, in collaboration with Conservatorio “A. Scarlatti” in Palermo, and Konstfack University of Arts Crafts and Design (Department of Fine Art).
Conservatorio “A. Scarlatti” has been funded by MIUR (Italian Ministry for Higher Education).
List of participants:
Maria Paola Altese, Gregorio Bertolino, Marco Betta, Beatrice Blanco, Loris Capister, Fabio Correnti, Giovanni D’Aquila, Alessandro De Rosalia, Biagio Genco, Gabriele Giambertone, Veronica Grippi, Massimiliano Seggio (Conservatorio “A. Scarlatti”, Palermo); Erik Borén, Caio Marques, Sara Hammar, Petter Kärnekull, Anton Soderberg, Sandra Sundtrom (“Sound in Interaction” Professional Course, Konstfack University); Mathias Hallsten, Karl Jannes Jondell (Royal College of Music KMH, Stockholm); Anna-Karin Brus, Paul Pignon (The Great Lerning Orchestra).
Teatro Atlante has chosen Magazzino Brancaccio as part of a selection of art spaces, in order to bring theatre performances and live music to the outskirts of Palermo.
On Wednesday, December 19th, Magazzino Brancaccio hosts four schools from the neighborhood: Liceo delle Scienze Umane and Linguistico “Danilo Dolci”, Liceo Scientifico “Ernesto Basile”, Orestano Primary Schools, Istituto Comprensivo Statale “Padre Pino Puglisi”. Their students are invited to experience the most colorful theatre performance of the year: Piccola Compagnia Silente presents “Wonderland: meraviglie urbane”, based on Lewis Carroll’s fantasy novel.
Direction and dramaturgy: Emilio Ajovalasit.
With: Aurelia Alonge Profeta, Federica Castelli, Annamaria Davì, Giuseppe Di Vincenzo, Giovanni Ferrara, Roberta Greco, Domenico Mereu, Chiara Zaffiro.
Stage assistants: Emilio Ajovalasit and Preziosa Salatino.
For ten years, Palermo-based Teatro Atlante has been working in the fields of research and theatrical production. These have included Theatre of the Oppressed practice, and the organization of courses and seminars for children, teachers and educators.
Photos: Umberto Santoro.On Thursday November 1st, starting from noon, Magazzino Brancaccio operates again as a catalyst for creative energies in the city, which activate the space for one afternoon only.
The artists Campostabile, Claudia Di Gangi, Vincenzo Ferlita, Loredana Grasso, Adriano La Licata, Gianfranco Maranto, Gabriele Massaro, Davide Mineo, Pietro Motisi, Umberto Santoro, Sergio Zavattieri meet the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste MFA students.
Magazzino Brancaccio STUDIO is conceived as one single environmental installation as a result of a site-specific process, which has involved a group of artists to start a dialogue by sharing individual practices and works.
Magazzino Brancaccio STUDIO, 1 novembre 2018. Installation views. Photos: Sergio Zavattieri. 
Gabriele Massaro, installation view. Photo: Gabriele Massaro.
Education and participation: is it possible to rethink the Biennial format and through which practices? Thursday, October 25, at the Palazzo Abatellis, Magazzino Brancaccio presents its incredible story. Curated by theclassroom.
Within the program of Manifesta 12 Palermo Collateral Events, the classroom will serve the institution as a discursive device on the possible legacy of art and education projects that will continue operating in the city after the time-frame of the exhibition. Looking back and mainly looking forward, what’s the aftermath of cultural productions and activities on art and education?
How deep those projects would act on the territory of Palermo? To what extent are these realities questioning the format and nature of the Biennale itself?
With: Sara Kamalvand (Hydrocity), Valentina Sansone (Magazzino Brancaccio), Evelina de Castro (Palazzo Abatellis), Yana Klichuk (Head of Education and Learning at the Manifesta Education Department), Laura Barreca (Museo Civico di Castelbuono), Maria Rosa Sossai (ALAgroup) e Roberto Albergoni (Director Fondazione Manifesta 12 Palermo), introduced by Paola Nicolin (the classroom, DOMUS).
John Cage, “Music for Amplified Toy Pianos”, 1960. Performed by: Aurora Arnetta, Marika Buzzilleri, Denise Li Puma, Cristina Radosta, Erminia Scaglia and Antonino Lo Cascio, Chiara Scimeca, Daniela Scimeca, Chiara and Martina Stira, Maria Taravella, Tommaso Vitrano, and Federica Zora.
Photos: Magazzino Brancaccio.
September 15 – October 15, 2018
“Ground Action Brancaccio” is a project by Ground Action conceived for Magazzino Brancaccio, which operates on its surrounding area. It initiates a series of interventions on a plot confiscated from organized crime, an abandoned farmland located in Via Fichidindia, San Ciro district.
This represents a controversial site, which is also emblematic of the recent history of the city suburbs, marked by episodes of real estate speculation and urban development, where the interests of both private subjects and institutions meet. The area is not far from the Maredolce Castle-La Favara. Here, in the Arab-Norman period, a garden and a large basin were located.
In the initial stage of its research, the collective of architects and landscape designers has preliminarily visited, and consequently identified, the topics and the areas for an intervention. This process comes to an end on Monday October 15, with “Brancaccio in Cammino”, a public event and the participation of the neighborhood.
The confiscated plot of land in Via Fichidindia has a total area of 11,616.00 square meters and has been transferred to the patrimony of the City of Palermo in 2011. The area was subsequently granted free of charge for the creation of a new Ecclesiastical Complex named after the Beato Giuseppe Puglisi Martire. The project of the new church, as well as the whole architectural compound, was approved in 2015. Whilst the remaining funding has still to be raised, it has yet to be realized.
These episodes have inspired Ground Action to undertake a participatory intervention in the landscape and, following the invitation of DARCH – Architecture Department, University of Palermo, to activate a walking path throughout Brancaccio.
September 14 – 23, 2018
Genuardi/Ruta: La danza dei giganti
Visual artist duo Genuardi/Ruta, composed by Antonella Genuardi (Sciacca, IT, 1986) and Leonardo Ruta (Ragusa, IT, 1990) presents a site-specific work, especially conceived for Magazzino Brancaccio.
In collaboration with: OltreOreto, an art and urban regeneration festival, which takes place in Palermo beyond the Oreto river.
Opening event September 14, from 12am to 6pm.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri from 9am to 1pm. Afternoons by appointment only.
Magazzino Brancaccio hosts a calendar of events and self-organised activities open to all, which will run continuously for 140 days (from 16th June to 4th November 2018).
Magazzino Brancaccio opened to the public for the first time, almost twenty years after its seizure. Today, it aims to represent a new and permanent facility for the neighborhood and the city.
For the project’s opening event, on 16th June 2018, the collective of musicians The Great Learning Orchestra (Stockholm) has invited composers Tony Harris and Barry Russell (UK) to develop participatory forms of experimental music for properties confiscated in Palermo. A new piece of music, collectively composed and performed by an ensemble of around 100 people, will be presented on the day the warehouse is re-opened.
The complex issue of the management of assets confiscated from organized crime in Italy pinpoints the limits and potential of a resource that cities are not yet able to assimilate. What are the benefits of collective participation in this immense patrimony of which, in Palermo alone, there are ca. two thousand confiscated properties?
More than a year ago (March 2017), in collaboration with visual artists, cultural operators, teachers, journalists, students and activists, the project Confiscated Properties: Architecture, Ideology and Performance, launched a preliminary investigation on episodes of self-organization, local cultural production and the city’s heritage. All this led to the identification of a space and its history, and to a specific request: the restitution of the property to the community and to make it accessible to the public.
