Ever since 2011, Dolomiti Contemporanee (DC) has been operating on the contemporary identity of the mountain, and on the state of the Landscape, as well as the cultural, historic, and architectural heritage inside the region of UNESCO’s Dolomites. Its research takes shape in the reactivation of large, issue-heavy industrial archaeology sites and compounds: former factories, former social villages, iconic architectural creations, with a great historical or aesthetic value, abandoned and underutilized, immersed in the powerful nature of the Dolomitic region. DC’s practice focuses on the need for re-enhancement and functional re-use of a few exceptional sites, which must be re-processed and re-activated. It is a responsible necessity of care and an opportunity for the regeneration of extraordinary underdeveloped sources of potential at the same time. Contemporary art, innovation culture, network strategies, those are some of the “techniques” through which such sites, so important in the past and now lifeless, are tackled, and morphed into cultural and artistic production centres.
Gianluca D'Incà Levis is the founder and curator of Dolomiti Contemporanee (DC), a residency project in the Dolomites, and he is the director of the Nuovo Spazio di Casso, centre for contemporary art in Casso. Within DC, he launched the projects Progettoborca, the cultural enhancement of an abandoned village, and the art contest Two Calls for Vajont (2014). Ever since 2010, he’s been launching a series of reflections and of curatorial projects that link contemporary art, recovery of industrial or civil disused sites, and mountains. At its core is the idea of producing innovative images that critically and projectively engage with the natural environment and reject the stereotypical readings.
The lecture will be held in English language.