UMMN – Una Maestosa Macchina Narrativa

Atelier Casa Ceretti, Verbania

Spring 2024

The project UMMN - Una maestosa macchina narrativa (a majestic storytelling machine), a new interaction of the decade-long LA MACCHINA (the machine) project, takes place in a period of artistic residency that opens to the public with the purpose of questioning the potential of creating visual imagery as a tool for personal discovery and in parallel the possibility of creating a vocabulary that allows us to visualize it. In what ways can storytelling be a tool of discovery? How through the blending of painting, sound, images, and performance can this practice become a powerful tool for research?

Immaginari. Tra ponti, stratificazioni e deviazioni.
with 2501 aka Jacopo Ceccarelli (IT)

In the conversation open to the public, the project LA MACCHINA by artist 2501 becomes a stimulus for bringing together different points of view on the creation of visual imaginaries as a learning practice and a tool for "liberation." In conversation with 2501 will be researcher and writer Bertram Niessen and visual artist Riccardo Arena. The presentation will focus on the theme of visual imaginaries and cultural objects in the complexity of reality: from ancient Physical Visualizations to modern representations of Big Data, we witness the evolution of increasingly articulated visualization techniques; likewise, countercultures, from Punk cut-outs made with pins, studs, laces and patches to the deconstruction of the musical work of Hip hop and Techno, hybrid images and identities are created, of clash and encounter. How can IMAGINARIES be tools of struggle and research within ourselves?

Project by 2501 aka Jacopo Ceccarelli // in collaboration with Chiara Frantini // with the participation of Marco Proserpio, Guido Borso, Valentina Mancini, Mattia Turco, Martino Coffa, Eric Potempa, Stefano Jaccheo e Hiroyasu Tsuri Towone // performer: 2501, Stefano Jaccheo, Hiroyasu Tsuri Towone // open talk with Bertram Niessen e Riccardo Arena // project supported by: Museo di Lissone (lissone MZ), Maxxi Aquila festival PERFORMATIVE.01 (L’Aquila), Museo della Musica di Bologna, Istituto di cultura Italiano di Rio de Janeiro, Ministero degli Affari Esteri Italiano, Movement (Detroit), Juxtapoz Clubhouse (Miami), NODE Festival (Modena).

Jacopo Ceccarelli, known as 2501, was born in Milan in 1981. He studied at the Civica Scuola di Cinema Luchino Visconti in Milan and later completed a master’s in Audiovisual Communication at the New Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany. 2501’s work is multidisciplinary, utilizing a wide variety of mediums, including painting, installation, murals, sculpture, photography, and film. He is fascinated by maps, urban/architectural space, and its social contradictions in post-capitalist society; for years, he has investigated the flow of time, the cycle, recurrences, and their multifaceted declinations. His research is in constant dialogue with urban topography: his murals can be seen worldwide, from Milan to London, NYC, Miami, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Ulan Bator, Kiev. Over the last twenty years, he has exhibited in Europe, the United States, and South America in galleries and museum entities. He participates in various international exhibitions and festivals such as the Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art in Prato, the Milan Triennale, MACRO in Rome (2017), Basel Miami (2019) at Product / 81 Creative Lab, and public art festivals like O.BRA, Living Walls, ALTrove, Art United Us, Artmossphere Biennale, Walk&Talk, Wabash Arts Corridor, Outdoor, Mural, Traffic Design, Painted the Desert Project.

Chiara Frantini, graduated in Communication Theory and Technology, has been working as a user experience designer since 2012. With an interdisciplinary user-centered approach, it intertwines psychology, design and IT, to transform complex systems into effective and immersive experiences./p>

Bertram Niessen is a researcher, designer, teacher, author, and advisor focused on how culture transforms the state of affairs. He is the president and scientific director of cheFare. He teaches cultural design, social innovation, and participatory culture in masters, PhDs, and advanced training courses. He earned his PhD in European Urban Studies at the University of Milan-Bicocca. As an advisor, he works with cultural institutions, administrations, and cultural organizations. He collaborates with newspapers, editorial projects, and radio; he has published dozens of curations, monographs, and articles in collective works and specialized magazines. His latest book is “Abitare il Vortice. How cities lost their meaning and how to find it again” (UTET 2023).

Riccardo Arena is an artist, teacher, and independent researcher. His artistic practice is dedicated to creating evocative environments that, by combining theoretical and visual research, are conceived as cultural devices for imaginative knowledge. Installations, films, visual reflections, stories, seminars, and workshops intertwine in a constellation of expressive languages aimed at contemplating the universal components that link stories, cultures, theories, and myths across time and geography. Driven by these tensions, over the years, he has dedicated himself to developing long-term investigations in various countries around the world: China “The four times tree” (2006-2008); Argentina “Dual Death Ellero and visual ecosystem” (2009-2012), Russia “Vavilon” (2013-2017); and Iran, Armenia, and Ethiopia “LuDD! – Topography of Light” (2017-2020). He is currently working on the “Geranos” project, born in 2021 from research on the history and archives of Monteverità, Eranos Foundation, Warburg Institute in London, and the Anthropological Museum of Mexico City.

Ph. Credits: Paolo Sacchi