Alessandra Cianelli - On the Practice of Wonder and the Need for an Archive/ Sulla pratica della meraviglia e la necessità di un archivio

Alessandra Cianelli is a researcher, artist, and cultural practitioner based in Naples, trained in Yoga studies in the lineage of Krishnamacharia from South India. Her work explores the intersection of memory and historical narratives through various mediums, including video, audio, texts, installations, performances, and lectures. Cianelli's research engages with biological and biographical archives, examining themes such as coloniality, migration, Southern epistemologies and rural archetypes. Her project "Il paese delle terre d’Oltremare" [The land of the overseas territories] explores through performative interventions the ruins of the fascist empire exhibition (Mostra d’Oltremare) at the outskirts of Naples. Cianelli’s work has been exhibited at the Museo Madre in Naples and internationally. She is the founder of "Dormire", an informal residency project exploring memory through artistic research and production, and a member of the Centro Studi Postcoloniali e di Genere at the University of Naples "L'Orientale".

Website: https://www.alessandracianelli.com/
IG/contacts: dormirefondazione

In this episode we talk about the practice of wonder/wander and the colonial archive, an expedition into the ruins of a fantaesotic complex in Naples, South-South migration and colonialism, Francesco Rosi’s film Cristo si è fermato ad Eboli (1979), seas of wheat and seas of sand (from Irpinia to Libya), a journey on the footsteps of the ancestors, selfpositioning and the roots of the colonial self.

Alessandra Ferrini: expanding the archive of coloniality and making oneself accountable 

Alessandra Ferrini is a visual artist, researcher, and educator working between the UK and Italy. Her research is concerned with Italian colonial and Fascist history, memory, and heritage. Her work is rooted in lens-based media, postcolonial and critical whiteness studies, and historiographical and archival practices. Ferrini investigates the Italian archive of coloniality and its racial politics, through expanded documentary filmmaking, writing and education projects. She holds a PhD from the University of the Arts London and the outputs of this research - ‘Gaddafi in Rome: Dissecting a Neocolonial Spectacle’ - have been awarded the most prestigious contemporary art prize in Italy, the Maxxi Bvlgari Prize 2022, and have been exhibited at the 60th Venice Biennale curated by Adriano Pedrosa. In this episode we talk about engaging with the Italian history of colonial genocides from the UK; public heritage, fascist legacies and education; thinking about artistic practice through theoretical research; the archive of coloniality and other archives; how to make oneself accountable; and translation as an anticolonial practice. 

Website: https://www.alessandraferrini.info/
Academia:https://arts-london.academia.edu/AlessandraFerrini
IG: @alessandra.ferrini

Tewa Barnosa is a trans-disciplinary artist and independent curator from Tripoli, now based in Amsterdam. Her work explores socio-ecological turbulences, religious rituals, political mythologies and the future of Amazigh languages and scripts. Her practice spans visual arts and curatorial collaborations, including audio-visual installations, text, performance, and expanded paintings. Barnosa is the founder of WaraQ art space, a non-profit organization that aims to revive the Libyan art scene locally and internationally. Currently post-grad Sonology student at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, and Alumnus of the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten 2021-2023, Barnosa is an award-winning artist whose work has been exhibited at several institutions internationally. 

In this episode, we talk about languages and memory, poetry and knowledge production, political mythologies and concepts of ‘Truth’, nomadic archives and oral histories, archiving graffiti and Tewa’s VR performance at the exhibition Totalitarian Props , curated with Najlaa El-Ageli at the Africa Centre in London.

Artist website: https://tewabarnosa.com/
IG: tewa_barnosa

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