AAA ANIMAL AMONG ANIMALS
towards the world to come

curated by Gabi Scardi and RAVE East Village Artist Residency

8 October / 24 December 2022

« Luigi Spazzapan » Regional Gallery of Contemporary Art

Gradisca d’Isonzo (Gorizia)

Artists:

Camilla Alberti

Luchezar Boyadjiev

Manuela Braunmüller

Emma Ciceri

Sarah Ciracì

Regina Josè Galindo

Igor Grubić

Yolande Harris

Patrick Lopez Jaimes

Elena Mazzi

Jo-Anne McArthur

Natalia Molebatsi

Liliana Moro

Adrian Paci

Isabella Pers

Tiziana Pers

Laura Pozzar

Nada Prlja

Caterina Shanta

Giuseppe Stampone / Dom Mimì

Marie Voignier

Projects:

MAC Milano Animal City

ANIMOT

AAA ANIMAL AMONG ANIMALS towards the world to come is the group exhibition of the metaproject RAVE East Village Artist Residency that took place from 8 October to 24 December 2022 at the Luigi Spazzapan Regional Gallery of Contemporary Art in Gradisca d’Isonzo, curated by Gabi Scardi and in dialogue with the museum curator Lorenzo Michelli. Project assistant Martina Macchia.

Artists: Camilla Alberti, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Manuela Braunmüller, Emma Ciceri, Sarah Ciracì, Regina Josè Galindo, Igor Grubić, Yolande Harris, Patrick Lopez Jaimes, Elena Mazzi, Jo-Anne McArthur, Natalia Molebatsi, Liliana Moro, Adrian Paci, Isabella Pers, Tiziana Pers, Laura Pozzar, Nada Prlja, Caterina Shanta, Giuseppe Stampone / Dom Mimì, Marie Voignier. Projects: MAC Milano Animal City, ANIMOT.

These last years has shown, perhaps like never before, the urgencies we are facing in our time. The violence of ongoing climate change has placed our species squarely in front of its responsibilities, first and foremost towards the new and future generations, but also towards every inhabitant of the planet, human and non-human. In this scenario, our connection with other animals becomes central, and the type of relationship we want to redefine will determine our shared fate.

It is becoming important now to imagine new post-human approaches to the otherness represented by animals and ecosystems in their entirety, in order to rethink our very existence in the world and our relationship with the rest of the living beings. This is an unfamiliar situation, which exposes our fragility: especially in this time, as a species affected by the pandemic, we have experienced the limits of our anthropocentric actions, and we must therefore look towards a possible future from a new anti-speciesist perspective, in order to experiment with different ways of coexistence.

Even the moment of the meal, central to the traditions of every culture, can be given a new conviviality centred on coexistence, where animal pain is absent and our impact on the planet and its ecosystems can become lighter. In fact, many scientific studies have shown that the consumption of meat and animal-derived foods in general has a very violent environmental impact and is one of the primary causes of climate change.

The spring and summer of 2022 were characterised by a drought, which found all forms of life unprepared, and which dried up or drastically reduced the water in the rivers to the point where fish were dying among the stones, trapped in the shallows. The same drought scorched meadows and forests, which, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in particular, were the scene of devastating fires, whose flames reached as far as a few kilometres from Gradisca. Many plants and a frightening number of animals lost their lives in these fires, along with a woman while she was trying to block the path of a new fire.

Art has a lot to offer in this unstable present, precisely because of its ability to imagine other scenarios, to take unknown paths traversed by daring thoughts, opening thresholds that have not yet been crossed. To change reality, a concrete gesture is required, and each individual can try to change their everyday life, moving towards a salvation that is still feasible. So if, on the one hand, every revolutionary thought constitutes an important weight for its time, on the other hand, it is necessary to look beyond all patterns, to break down preconceptions towards a future to be built, beyond geographical, cultural, ethnic, gender, class and species barriers.

In other words, it is important to try to look ‘higher and farther’ (Norberto Bobbio), with the lightness of someone one who can soar beyond their own contemporaneity.

Animal Among Animals bears the acronym AAA. The three A’s are routinely used to draw attention to a given announcement. Now more than ever, in the age of fluid network speed, our priority scheme needs real hypotheses of coexistence and concrete changes in our liquid imaginations.

Art will have the task of anticipating the urgencies of our time, in particular by reasoning on the events in which everything is interconnected, and every life is linked to other lives, issues, instances, liberations and new outlooks that belong to each and every one of us.

The exhibition is part of the RAVE project, realized with the contribution of Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, #iosonofriuliveneziagiulia, in collaboration with ERPAC – Ente Regionale per il Patrimonio Culturale del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Graphic Design Roberto Duse, with the collaboration of Arteventi (workshops for children curated by Martina Peruch), with the participation of Collettivo I Cinque Soli (video and social comunication by Aurora Olivo), translations: Anna Maria Brevini (with the collaboration of DILL Università degli Studi di Udine, Prof. Roberto Dapit and ALL) Gianluca Gori, Althea Mallee and Antonietta Hope Ferrari, photographs: Dom Mimì, Ketty Gratton, Martina Macchia, Aurora Olivo, Laura Pozzar, RAVE, Carlo Sclauzero, with the support of: On Art and R&P Contemporary Art, with technical support of: Generali Italia, Agenzia Udine Duomo and Biolab Vegetarian and Vegan Organic Food, in partnership with: Comune di Manzano, Comune di Trivignano Udinese, Trieste Contemporanea, Vigne Museum, ArtEventi, On Art, L’Officina, ALL/Università di Udine, Musiz Foundation, NAHR Nature, Art & Habitat Residency. Main partner Vulcano Agency. Thanks to: ArtOk di Giorgia Cavedale, Stefano Boeri Studio, KADIST Paris, kaufmann repetto, galleria Ipercubo, Al Rol Agriturismo Conti di Maniago, Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani, Safarà Editore, We Animals Media and the RAVE volunteers.