Neapolitan Dialogues III – Out of the “Basso”

Neapolitan Dialogues III – Out of the “Basso”. 

Soon Naples will host three Portuguese artists in residency. The project is curated by Vittorio Urbani with Fabio Schiattarella from Fondazione Morra.

The Neapolitan Dialogues, an artistic project that aims to establish a dialogue between Lisbon, Naples and Istanbul, three great cities of the South situated on the same parallel, is now at its third edition (after the two first editions dedicated to Istanbul), preparing to host in two different periods respectively Sara & Andrè, a couple of Portuguese artists who will stay in Naples from July 20 to August 20, 2023; and Lorenzo Bordonaro, an Italian artist living in Lisbon from 20 years, from November 1 to December 10, 2023.

The residencies of Neapolitan Dialogues, hosted in the spaces of Fondazione Morra, are always characterised by a strong social engagement. In this residency, the artists are proposed to start from the intersection of three references, the first socio-political, the second mythological, and a third socio-environmental – regarding the so called Basso – the cheaper accommodation in Naples, usually inhabited by the lower strata of society and immigrants – which represents a typically Neapolitan life context.

The project of the Neapolitan Dialogues arises from the need of a greater awareness of the essential values of the South and want to go against the current compulsory North-South axis, in which the vector of cultural values, economic resources, opportunities and workforce always goes from South to North in a covered, but nonetheless real economic exploitation of a capitalistic type. On the contrary, the aim is to favour a new awareness of the cultural values and centrality of the South, and to promote collaborations and conversations primarily internal into the South.

At the end of the residency, the artists will share their experience with the citizenship in a public meeting in the spaces of Fondazione Morra.

Neapolitan Dialogues III are produced by Fondazione Morra, Naples, in collaboration with Nuova Icona, Venice with the Patronage of the Embassy of Portugal, Rome

ARTISTS’ BIO

Sara & André were born in 1980 and 1979, in Lisbon, where they live and work, and studied respectively, Stage Design at the School of Theatre and Cinema (Lisbon, 1999-2005), and Fine Arts at the School of Art and Design (Caldas da Rainha, 1999-2005). Together they studied Painting at the National Society of Fine Arts (Lisbon, 2008-2011). They have regularly exhibited their work since 2006. The duo works with text, painting and other media in site specific projects, repeatedly collaborating or inquiring other cultural producers and conveying ideas such as authorship, appropriation, originality and, in particular, the study of the art world. Along with their artistic practice, Sara & André have also developed several curatorial projects, either exhibitions, editions or both, in recent years.

Lorenzo Bordonaro was born in Torino in 1971 where he majored in philosophy and social sciences. In 2001 he moved to Portugal where he obtained his PhD in Anthropology. He also studied painting and drawing at Ar.Co (Lisbon) and sculpture at the Academy Fine Arts (Lisbon).

His artistic practice merges with the anthropological research: his installations, paintings and public art projects are often rooted in a wider social reflexivity and in political and, more recently, environmental activism. He carried out public art projects in different social contexts and geographical areas: from Brazilian favelas to shanty towns at the periphery of Lisbon; from the Cape Verdean ghettos to the historical neighbourhoods of Graça and Mouraria, in Lisbon.

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