The Land Seen from the Sea, Genova

Little Constellation is a project and an international network for contemporary art, which focuses its research on the symbolic sensitivity of the geographic dimension. Highlighting the different possible relationship between the geo-cultural centres and peripheries, through a plan of knowledge taken to the extreme of opposition and resistance between the concepts of proximity and distance, from January 2012, at the Museo di Villa Croce in Genoa, it will present the exhibition The Land Seen from the Sea.

Little Constellation conducts research devoted to the complex theme of isolation, which finds its definition in the dimension of the island (both geographically, but naturally also linguistically). Isolation and the network of relationships are thus intertwined as fields of a single front. We live around a sea like frogs around a pond, declared Socrates. This brings out the fact that the peoples of antiquity owed their prosperity and relations to the great sea (almost enclosed like a pond) that is the Mediterranean. It is this duality between distance and vicinity that the research project seeks to focus on.

This research therefore focuses on the Mediterranean by starting from particularly sensitive areas, such as Montenegro, Malta, San Marino, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Ceuta, and also other areas with which it is possible to make cultural and geographical comparisons, such as Iceland, Luxembourg, Andorra and Liechtenstein. Specifically, the multiple identities of the Mediterranean will be examined through three nuclear and seminal case studies, compared with the different cultures encountered in this small basin.

With Yuula Benivolski (CA); Justine Blau (LU); Canarezza & Coro (SM); Martina Conti (SM-FR); Nina Danino (UK); Oppy De Bernardo (CH); Hekla Dogg Jonsdottir (IS); Doris Drescher (LU); Haris Epaminonda (CY); Barbara Geyer (FL); Anna Hilti (FL); Irena Lagator (ME); Jose Ramón Lozano (ES); Ingibjörg Magnadóttir (IS); Mark Mangion (MT); Mussoni & Albani (SM-FR); Giancarlo Norese and Umberto Cavenago (IT); Christodoulos Panayiotou (CY); Paradise Consumer Group (AD); Marco Poloni (CH); Pierre Portelli (MT); Luigi Presicce (IT); Agnès Roux (MC); Sigurður Atli Sigurðsson (IS); Miki Tallone (CH); Xenia Uranova (RU); Martin Walch (FL); Trixie Weis (LU).

Curated by Alessandro Castiglioni, Rita Canarezza, Pier Paolo Coro, Roberto Daolio in collaboration with Kevin Muhlen, Halldór Björn Runólfsson, Swetlana Racanović, Louli Michaelidou

February 4 - May 4, 2012
Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genova
www.littleconstellation.org

Little Constellation Library Archive

A specialized library and archive, with books and documentation on contemporary art in the micro geo-cultural areas and small states of Europe.

On Saturday, January 29, 2011, has been opened the Library Archive of Little Constellation with the participation of the Capitano di Castello (Mayor) of Serravalle, the Ambassador to the OSCE and a large audience of young people interested in culture and contemporary art. Alessandro Castiglioni, curator and art historian, and Rita Canarezza & Pier Paolo Coro presented the characteristics of this first research center and specialist archive, freely available for consultation, which comprises some 415 volumes, including a number of rare books and publications on contemporary art, which were collected in seven years’ work in Europe, and particularly in the small European states: Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, and in a few european geocultural micro-areas including Canton Ticino (CH), Ceuta (E), Gibraltar (UK), Kaliningrad (RU). The occasion was marked by presentations and artistic interventions.
Little Constellation, by means of a constant work on international art, now restores a social space for culture and research to the territory of San Marino. All this has been possible thanks to the interest and support of private and public organizations, which have invested in an innovative art project, which is now part of the common heritage.

Artists and curators archive library collection: Danil Akimov, Pier Giorgio Albani & Lorella Mussoni, Eve Ariza, Sigurður Atli Sigurðsson, Javier Balmaseda, Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, Gerson Bettencourt, Barbara Bühler, Austin Camilleri, Rita Canarezza & Pier Paolo Coro, Martina Conti, Viola Conti, Alessandro Castiglioni, Umberto Cavenago, Mirjana Dabovic’ Pejovic’, Nina Danino, Roberto Daolio, Oppy De Bernardo, Eleanor Duffin, Haris Epaminonda, Sandrine Flury, Marco Franciolli, Barbara Geyer, Gino Gianuizzi, Mario Gorni, Helena Guardia, Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdottir, Susana Herrador, Anna Hilti, Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir, Dorothée Kirch, Irena Lagator, Jose Ramón Lozano, Enrico Lunghi, Ingibjörg Magnadóttir, Friedemann Malsch, Mark Mangion, Louli Michaelidou, Kevin Muhlen, Thomas Negrevergne, Giancarlo Norese, Bjargey Ólafsdóttir, Chistodoulos Panayiotou, Paradise Consumer Group, Lazar Pejovic’, Pierre Portelli, Polys Peslikas, Quino, Svetlana Racanovic’, Agnès Roux, Halldór Björn Runólfsson, Gino Sanguinetti, Christian Schoen, Socrates Socratous, Noah Stolz, Teatrutramm, Matteo Terzaghi & Marco Zürcher, Jelena Tomaševic’, Yiannis Toumazis, Evgeny Umansky, Axsinja Uranova, Valentina Vetturi, Natalija Vujoševic’, Martin Walch, Trixi Weis.

A project by NUA new contemporary arts and research; project partners: Social and Cultural Activities Office; Fondazione San Marino (main sponsor); Ente Cassa of Faetano.
Cultural partners: MUDAM Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Casino Luxembourg - forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg; CIA.IS Centre for Icelandic Arts; National Gallery of Iceland; Living Art Museum, Iceland; Cultural Services Cyprus; The Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Cyprus; Malta Council for Culture and the Arts; MCA Malta Contemporary Art Foundation, Malta; Ateljer Dado, National Museum of Montenegro, Cetinje; Montenegrin National Theater; Centre for Contemporary Art, Podgorica, Montenegro; Serveis Culturals Andorra; Escola d’Art la Llacuna, Andorra La Vella, Andorra; Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano; La Rada, Locarno, Canton Ticino / CH; Dirección Provincial de Educacion; Instituto De Bachillerato Siete Colinas, Ceuta / E; Ministry of Culture, Heritage, Sport & Leisure, Gibraltar; Fine Arts Association Gallery, Gibraltar / UK; Kaliningrad Branch of The National Centre for Contemporary Arts; Ministry of Culture of the Kaliningrad Region; Department of the Kaliningrad Regional Government, Kaliningrad / RU; Kulturstiftung Liechtenstein; BBKL Liechtenstein; Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein; Neon Gallery, Bologna /I.
For more information about the book, the projects, the artists and the institutions of Little Constellation network: www.littleconstellation.org

NUA new contemporary art and research
str. Lamaticcie 54 Serravalle 47890
Republic of San Marino
nua AT omniway DOT sm

Geography of Proximity

Curated by Roberto Daolio & Alessandro Castiglioni.
With Barbara Bühler, 
Canarezza & Coro
, Giancarlo Norese & Umberto Cavenago
, Haris Epaminonda, 
Nina Danino, 
Irena Lagator, 
Ingibjörg Magnadóttir
, Pierre Portelli
, Mark Mangion, 
Trixi Weis

Geography of Proximity is a travelling exhibition part of the Little Constellation project. It tells the story of a journey through art—and the world inhabited by artists—of a constellation of small states in Europe, travelling to Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, and other significant geocultural micro-areas such as Canton Ticino, Ceuta, Gibraltar or Kaliningrad. The voyage of the two artist-researchers, Rita Canarezza and Pier Paolo Coro, intersects with an exhibition project curated by Roberto Daolio and Alessandro Castiglioni. With help from Mousse Publishing, they have been blended into a volume with an original graphic design that mingles pop images of sci-fi universes with the unique landscape and culture of the miniature universes explored in this study. This unusual investigation examines the potential for building a shared platform for artists, curators, and institutions in these areas, to carve out a place of their own within the international artistic debate. The book—half interstellar map, half catalogue —collects the works on exhibit and the biographies of the 20 artists and groups involved, using texts, images, and interviews to illustrate the legs of a journey spanning six years between 2004 to 2010.
The Little Constellation catalogue published by Mousse will also be launched in Malta.

Opening Reception: 
14th October 2010 at 7.30pm
Exhibition Dates:
 14.10.2010 - 14.11.2010

Malta Contemporary Art Foundation
St. James Cavalier
Castille Square
Valletta
VLT 1060, Malta
T +356 7993 8332
info-at-maltacontemporaryart-dot-com
www.maltacontemporaryart.com