Combining art, architecture & nature in an all-encompassing experience

Twelve days to create an artwork dedicated to Ancona’s sea: this is the workshop “SEA”, the second edition of TRAC – Tresoldi Academy, which took place from the 7th to the 18th of June. Set in a city that exemplifies the relationship between man and the sea, the workshop has been an opportunity for reflecting on how works of art interact with natural and cultural phenomena. Participants in the workshop have designed and created an art installation, under the artistic direction of Edoardo Tresoldi, in collaboration with Marche-born artist Oliviero Fiorenzi. The project’s developments will be announced in the coming months. TRAC is an academy created by Tresoldi’s STUDIO STUDIO STUDIO  and YAC – Young Architects Competitions. The “SEA” workshop is a joint venture between YAC – Young Architects Competition and Cantiere delle Marche, who struck up a collaboration after launching an international architectural design competition in support of the inhabitants of the Kiribati archipelago, who are facing the threat of rising sea levels.

A cross-sectoral working group was assembled as a result, bringing together the La Mole cultural centre, Cantiere delle Marche and CNR’s IRBIM: a public trust, an environmental research institution and a private company. Upon arriving in town, the artists, their staff and the 15 young winners of the call for entries were greeted in Cantiere delle Marche’s shipyard, the venue hosting the workshop, by Vasco Buonpensiere, the company’s Sales & Marketing Director. “We believe it is our duty to foster the social and cultural growth of our home city and the surrounding territory - in addition to contributing to the economy and occupational opportunities”, stated Buonpensiere. “We enthusiastically took part in this remarkable initiative from the very start, confident that it will set a course that many will follow in the near future. Those brave navigators will soon be joined by more, opening up new horizons for culture in Ancona. Many spaces in the city deserve to be explored and properly brought into light: here is the vanguard, which we hope will be followed by a fleet”.

“The greatest satisfaction, for those who are in this business, is having the chance to offer young people opportunities to create art, culture, to work, to make a real contribution. We should leave more and more empty space, for you to populate. It is a great satisfaction to me, indeed, seeing so many of you here. This was possible, in part, because we tried to put together a system that may well become a model for collaborations like this, a collaboration between a private and public actor, a research institution and a great personality in art like Edoardo Tresoldi”.

“We are very glad of taking part in this initiative”, added CNR IRBIM’s director Gian Marco Luna, “because it is a synthesis of science, art, culture and nature. This installation, in addition to enriching the city with an artwork of international appeal, will also prove useful for reflecting on the importance of protecting the sea and its resources”.

“TRAC workshops are firmly rooted in the celebration of creation, and in the sort of construction-site dynamics that come into play when sharing the experience of work”, stated Tresoldi. Thanks to the support of all of the initiative’s partners, the participants have been housed in Cantiere delle Marche’s venues, and have worked together to build an art installation, designed to come into contact with the territory of Ancona, its physical features, its landscape”.

“This opportunity, like many great things, is a brainchild of the encounter of people who are insane enough to conceive something that pushes the boundaries of what is possible slightly forward”, where the concluding remarks of Massimo Pigliapoco, co-founder and director of communications agency Tonidigrigio, “which is the most beautiful example that one can set”.

An opportunity for experimenting with a novel artistic approach, combining architecture, art and nature in an all-encompassing experience. An opportunity, too, for looking at the relationship between artwork and ecosystem: considerations which marked the opening of the workshop, with the CNR showing, through its research, the complexity of such interactions. Cantiere delle Marche, on his part, has demonstrated a capacity to add value to its territory and community: a value that goes beyond its role in the area’s economy, and encompasses its culture as well. The company has hosted the workshop participants and made the shipyard grounds available for the artwork’s construction. La Mole cultural centre, through its parent institution the Mole Vanvitelliana Trust, represents the city of Ancona in the team, a city which, in the last years, has been devoting its efforts to retrieving its vital relationship with the sea.

This locally-based public-private team joins TRAC – Tresoldi Academy, giving birth to something truly unique and unexpected, embodied by an artwork and by the unwavering enthusiasm of the young artists working on it, side by side with an artist of international renown like Edoardo Tresoldi.

THE PROTAGONISTS OF THE PROJECT

TRAC – Tresoldi Academy
TRAC – Tresoldi Academy is an educational project created by Edoardo Tresoldi’s STUDIO STUDIO STUDIO and YAC – Young Architects Competitions: an academy which offers project-planning workshops aimed at promoting young people’s awareness of the themes of contemporary art, through the creation of site-specific art installations that contribute to the improvement of the surrounding area. TRAC – Tresoldi Academy defines itself as an institution that bridges the space between art and architecture, offering talented young people the opportunity to take part in the creative workflow of one of the most prestigious, popular names in contemporary art. A series of educational workshops centered on the ability to imagine (artwork concept and design) and the ability to create (construction of the artwork). tresoldiacademy.com

YAC – Young Architects Competitions
YAC is an association that promotes design and architectural competitions, with the aim of introducing a research-based approach to project planning. In its years of activity, YAC has accumulated experience working alongside the leading firms in contemporary architecture, taking on several architectural design projects and themes. Today, YAC uses this experience to provide support to young project designers, offering first-class professional training courses to guide them towards professional growth and great possibilities of employment. Boasting collaborations with high-profile architectural firms and teaching institutions, YAC makes for the ideal context in which to refine or expand one’s professional skills, coming into contact with the most prominent brands in architecture internationally.
yacademy.it

STUDIO STUDIO STUDIO
STUDIO STUDIO STUDIO is a multidisiplinary laboratory, established by Edoardo Tresoldi to develop and sponsor contemporary art projects.studiostudiostudio.art Edoardo Tresoldi

Edoardo Tresoldi’s employs the language of architecture to explore the poetry underlying man’s relationship with landscape. Architecture, in his works, is a means of expression and the key to interpreting space. The artist plays with see-through wire mesh, in works which seem to transcend the dimension of space-time and narrate the exchange between Art and World, a visual synthesis  that appears in the fading physical contours of his artworks. Born in Milan, he moves to Rome after finishing art school; there, he works in sculpture, scenic design and cinema, acquiring a diversified conception of the arts. He found his source of inspiration in the stark contrasts of contemporary landscapes, while cross-pollination became the defining principle of his work. Since 2013, he has been creating art installations in public spaces, archaeological sites, festivals and exhibitions around the world. In 2016, in collaboration with Italy’s Ministry of Culture (MiBACT), he created an installation in the paleo-Christian basilica of Siponto, a unique fusion of contemporary art and archaeology which was awarded the Golden Medal for Italian Architecture. In 2018 he created “Etherea” for the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in the US. In 2019, he unveiled “Simbiosi”, an artwork set in the exclusive context of the Arte Sella collection, and establishes STUDIO STUDIO STUDIO, an interdisciplinary laboratory that provides support to artists, public art projects, and contemporary art projects. In 2020, he presented the permanent art installation “Opera” in Reggio Calabria.
edoardotresoldi.com

Oliviero Fiorenzi
Oliviero Fiorenzi develops his artistic journey in pictorial and graphic arts by drawing inspiration from his own biography, from the imagery associated with infancy and adolescence. This is the time in life when we experience the world through play, and it is precisely those experiences, which we live through and then remember, that form the basis of Fiorenzi’s personal mythology. A constantly evolving visual alphabet, a tool which he uses to build new structures of meaning for each project he works on. Born in Osimo in 1992, he has been living and working in Milan for 10 years. His works have been on display in galleries, trusts and museums, among them The Address in Brescia, Sonnenstube in Lugano, Fondazione Feltrinelli and La Triennale in Milan, Ex-Dogana in Rome and La Mole in ancona.
olivierofiorenzi.com

Cantiere delle Marche
Founded in 2010, Cantiere delle Marche is now the global market leader in the steel and aluminium displacement hull yachts segment. Indeed, over the span of a few years, the shipyard has attracted the attention and earned the approval of shipowners worldwide, due to its range of 80 to 145-foot Explorer yachts, whose unique features make them capable of sailing under even the most demanding conditions, at extreme latitudes, with an exceptional record for safety and reliability. We at CdM are a group bound by a passion for seafaring: men and women who can tackle the challenges of a constantly evolving sector.
cantieredellemarche.it

Fondo Mole
The Fondo Mole Vanvitelliana (Mole Vanvitelliana Trust) manages the Mole cultural centre on behalf of the Ancona City Council, dealing with the coordination and planning of cultural activities at the venue. Established in 1996, the trust boasts several high-profile exhibitions, among the most recent of which are Arrivi e Partenze Mediterraneo (Arrivals and Departures Mediterranean), the 2013 Biennale dei Giovani Artisti del Mediterraneo (BJCEM – Biennale des Jeunes Créateurs de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée), Ecce Homo, and festivals dedicated to contemporary art and designer craftsmanship, among which AnconaCrea and Weekendoit. The trust is also involved in promotional activities for the La Mole cultural centre, acting as a liaison between artists and the city council, and is charged with the artistic direction of the centre’s summer cultural program.
lamoleancona.it

CNR
Employing over 5,000 scientist and researchers, the CNR (National Research Council) is Italy's largest publicly funded research institute. It focuses on pure and applied research projects, while also promoting industrial innovation and competitiveness, and aiming to provide technological answers to society’s emerging needs. Established in 1923 to promote research and innovation throughout the national industrial system, the Council now boasts some specialized Institutes that deal with marine research, among which is the Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnologies (IRBIM CNR). With over 100 scientists and young researchers contributing, IRBIM CNR’s research focuses on marine biology and ecology, with an approach grounded in environmental preservation, technological development, and enhancement of the productive possibilities of the marine environment.
ricercamarina.cnr.it

Tonidigrigio
Tonidigrigio is a team of professionals who work to facilitate, develop and manage integrated communication systems to generate value for clients. Tonidigrio, marketing and communications agency, designs and develops integrated communication strategies that work across different media and different visual languages. We approach marketing communications with analytic, strategic and agile methodologies, managing all the elements of an efficient communications project thanks to the skills of our in-house team.
https://www.tonidigrigio.it/