CRISTINA PICCO
For many years I’ve been a privileged observer of power dynamics and societal structures and I’m now convinced that change is possible only if it comes through an embodied collective experience. An embodied experience that could be put “on-hold” for a while the mere rationality and that allows to witness all the unseen in an authentic and compassionate way."
Cristina Picco (LU)
In the last ten years I’ve been active in various projects of social entrepreneurship and civic engagement. Given my backgrounds in finance and town planning, I’m fascinated in how to hack tools and languages proper to economics or urban policy for the use of societal change. I’ve recently obtained a bachelor in “Textile creation” from the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Arlon (B). My artistic practice reflects very much this journey: I love experimenting and crossing the formal borders among disciplines and I found in art a very generous practice that allows it in a playful way. Discipline: Multimedia Art |
NOMADIC ISLAND PROJECT
Nomadic Island is for me a playground open for experimentation. I believe in the transformational power of artistic practices for the society."
SHARED IMPRESSIONS
Cristina Picco offered a collective playful experience based on the simple object of a T-shirt. The T-shirt, as a symbol of the textile industry, triggers a reflection on the environmental impact of this industry at the same time, its proximity with the human body has the potential to activate a deep personal transformation. The artist worked with participants with, on and around textiles embarking on a collective and site specific transformation process.
Cristina Picco offered a collective playful experience based on the simple object of a T-shirt. The T-shirt, as a symbol of the textile industry, triggers a reflection on the environmental impact of this industry at the same time, its proximity with the human body has the potential to activate a deep personal transformation. The artist worked with participants with, on and around textiles embarking on a collective and site specific transformation process.
Reflections after Nomadic Island
How it started...
Sleeping in a tent, being outside all the time and disconnecting from the digital world have been very healthy factors for a deeper consciousness of my very personal creative process. The group of artists I met there was great: we had a balanced mixture of ages, practices and sensibilities that allowed mutual enrichment and authentic dialogue. I had the impression that after three weeks, when everybody had made the project proposed for the call, real room for collaboration had just opened-up between the artists. But this was probably not the purpose of this residency! |
The setting offered to the residents was very well thought through and in line with the concept of the residency. In terms of organizational aspects, I loved especially the concept around food: providing organic, seasonal, and as much as possible local nourishment. This concept embraced very well what happened during the residency, so after adhering to the Foodsharing initiative, the meals had to be “improvised” with the ingredients that would become available. It brought all participants to reflect and discuss on the consumption habits of our society on a very practical level. It also inspired part of my artistic contribution to the residency: I made a short performance during a collective meal, and later I accompanied some young volunteers to forage wild herbs in the surrounding forest to prepare a recipe. |
Informal sharing moments with other artists have been important, even though we were very busy during the week, while interacting with the younger volunteers. In this respect, it was not easy for me to engage with the younger volunteers on a continuative basis because of the long waiting gaps in the technical steps required for my project. Some of the young participants showed good interest for the technicalities of the process and were able to profit from playing with the colors of the plants. I would have expected to spend more time with them foraging plants in the woods, but it didn’t really happen, and I observed that the kids were willing to stay “around the camp” playing with their fellows and moving from project to project. I would definitely recommend this residency to other artists, should it happen again.
...how it ended.
To learn more about Christina and her work, check out her website https://www.cristinapicco.com and social media channels: