Marjetica Potrč, Marguerite Kahrl: Wild Energies

Curated by Marco Scotini

The exhibition project Wild Energies has come about as a result of the previous collaboration between Marjetica Potrč and PAV, which culminated with the publication of the book The Soweto Project.

The concepts of Participatory Design and Social Architecture, developed by the Slovenian architect and artist over the past few years, are articulated, on this occasion, in a communal exhibition of Potrč and Marguerite Kahrl, who have returned to work together after the Rainwater Harvesting project—Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa (Venice, 2010).

This new project began with an analysis of the urban areas around the PAV which took place within the collective workshop “Wild Energies: wind, fire and people in movement,” conducted by the two artists in March 2015. The workshop’s objective was that of considering community spaces in a new way, extending PAV’s principles to its immediate urban context. Permaculture principles have revealed themselves to be the most suitable tools for analyzing and identifying the nodal elements (environmental and social) on which to operate, in the hope of developing a site specific project capable of identifying resilient forces.

As part of a collective and open path in which the dynamics, relationships and knowledge acquired as part of the process are much more important than the end result, a series of workshops led to the creation of a foodsharing platform. An onsite project, vehicle for encounter amongst local residents, asylum seekers and volunteers in order to propose a possible model for building a supportive community. The exhibition will showcase personal works of artists from the group as well as relational objects used to build the participatory project.

Alongside the exhibition relating to the experience of the “Wild Energies” workshop, will be the artists’ personal works of art created in different contexts but, nonetheless, closely linked to the principles on which the project developed at the PAV was based. Marjetica Potrč brings back the experience of The Soweto Project, created together with the students of the participatory practices course within a South African context. The project was developed within the eponymous urban area of Johannesburg, working for and with the local community. “From the very first meeting with the community, we say: this isn’t our project, it’s your project!” declares Potrč. The work culminated with the construction of a park, requalifying the space so as to remove it from the grasp of criminality and private speculation. Notes on Partecipatory Design shows Potrč’s work methodology based on dialogue, involvement and rendering the community responsible in the process of the creation of projects that reveal themselves to be both useful and sustainable

Marguerite Kahrl’s hemp sculptures refer to the bioregion where the artist lives and works, Piedmont, historically famous for the production of this textile. A tradition which gradually fell into disuse with the advent of the industrial economy, in spite of the quality and potential as an economic and environmental resource. The sculptures, videos and cycle of watercolors are inspired by Los Caprichos etchings by Francisco Goya - a repository of character types useful to a still valid artistic reflection. Puppets sewn in the workshops deal instead with the dynamics of the ethical problem of self-representation of territories in transformation and immigrant communities. 

The opening of Wild Energies coincides with the presentation to the public of the outcome of the first year of experimentation of the Libera Scuola del Giardino, a project created by the in-depth, workshop study of the themes developed by the exhibition Grow It Yourself. The course, led by Wapke Feenstra from the myvillages collective, Andrea Caretto and Raffaella Spagna and coordinated by Orietta Brombin, was articulated in study phases, cultivations and transformations of the botanic species. Temporary productions for the sale and exchange of products were progressively set up and were obtained through the cultivation of raw materials, their harvesting and working.

Supported by Compagnia di San Paolo e Fondazione CRT