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A project of Nico Angiuli curated by Vessel in the framework of Terra Piatta
in collaboration with Casa Di Vittorio
September 2014 - March 2015
with the support of ARTE, PATRIMONIO e DIRITTI UMANI
concorso per giovani artisti e istituzioni culturali
conceived and curated by Connecting Cultures with the collaboration of Fondazione Ismu – Settore Educazione, Patrimonio e Intercultura

Nico Angiuli (Adelfia, Bari 1981) is the winner of ARTE, PATRIMONIO e DIRITTI UMANI - the competition for young artists and cultural institutions conceived and curated by Connecting Cultures and Fondazione Ismu – Settore Educazione, Patrimonio e Intercultura.

"Tre Titoli: un film corale sulla Cerignola di ieri dentro quella di oggi" is a video adopting participatory strategies in order to intertwine historical anecdotes of political experiences on the agricultural plains of Cerignola and more recent dynamics of a Ghanese community that in the last few years has occupied abandoned houses while working in the fields of the Tre Titoli neighborhood, nearby Cerignola. The community counts 300 members, but during summertime this number grows because of the high demand for seasonal workers in the tomato fields. This situation leads to forms of migrant workers’ exploitation (caporalato) that is well known locally and internationally: journalists, photographers and directors from all over the world have been narrating migrants’ stories by showing these ghettoes through shocking, yet very conventional images.

Aware of the toughness of this specific reality, the artist aims at abandoning its two-dimensional representation by introducing practices of self-narration, in order to allow more complex scenario of compromise and tension, thus giving voice to spontaneous micro-practices of resistance against any attempts of normalization.
By looking at the legacy of the famous union leader Giuseppe Di Vittorio, active at the beginning of 20th century and whose home town was Cerignola, the project aims at making the migrants community as well as young local people aware of the struggles and achievements that have taken place in the region as well as of a human and cultural heritage that needs to be shared while it is almost ignored now. This process will create a dialogue among young people, students, activists, artists and migrants.

What role has the legacy of Di Vittorio's struggle today in the contemporary urban and rural scenario? How has this story been told and why this narration has been interrupted in its most recent developments as if life in the field stopped existing after the 60s and 70s?
By sharing knowledge and expertise as well as the complex cultural and social heritage of this area, Tre Titoli: un film corale sulla Cerignola di ieri dentro quella di oggi aims at activating the practice of self-narration in an attempt to answer these questions. A series of workshops will promote the creation of a collective and participatory narrative: through fiction and art, participants will turn into protagonists of the whole process and will be involved in the conception, in the script writing and in the interpretation of the movie.

Nico Angiuli studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome and Bari and at IUAV in Venice. He was a resident artist at Bevilacqua La Masa in 2011, Centro Negra in Spain 2012, Tirana Art Lab in Albania and in Switzerland in collaboration with Viafarini and ECAV in 2013.
He received several awards in Italy, as well as abroad. Nico Angiuli has performed and exhibited his works at MART in Rovereto, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, MAAM / Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz_città meticcia di Roma in Rome, NOoSPHERE Arts in NY, the 4th Athens Biennale in collaboration with Vessel, SPAC / Spazi Pubblici Arte Contemporanea di Buttrio, the National Theatre in Tirana, the Bozar / Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles and S.a.L.E. Docks in Venice.

Terra Piatta (Flat Land) is a program of research and artistic, social and cultural production, curated by Vessel with a specific focus on artistic practices in dialogue with the rural context. While choosing a specific intervention area as the one around Foggia (Italy), the Capitanata, Terra Piatta has started a network of national and international debate around these topics. The aim is the definition of new methodological approaches and the activation of a real and productive exchange with the local communities.