Piano di fuga / Escape Plan - Rome Art Week

October 25, 2021 from 6 pm on Project SPACE ROME Contemporary Art presents in the scope of Rome Art Week, the project Piano di fuga / Escape Plan, curated by Gina Caruso in collaboration with Creative Alliance, Baltimore .

The works on view are by the artists of the Creative Contagion Collective: Basurama (Madrid), Maurizio Cimino (Naples), Meriem Elatra (Paris), Susanne Kessler (Rome, Berlin), David Page (Baltimore), Anna Pangalou (Athens), and Hani Zurob (Paris).

Project SPACE ROME Contemporary Art was launched as a space dedicated to international projects, artist exchanges, and dialogues between artists from countries worldwide. The origin of the idea to create this new space for international artists was inspired by Susanne Kessler’s experience during the period of the pandemic when she worked with Gina Caruso, who now lives in New York City, who was Executive Director of the Creative Alliance, a non-profit arts organization based in Baltimore, and a group of artists she brought together for the project. It began in April 2020 during the deadliest part of the pandemic in Italy, which shortly became a global tragedy. A group of artists from different countries connected through Zoom were driven by the need to work together to overcome geographical and cultural borders. The artists who were selected to participate in Creative Contagion include Anna Pangalou (Athens), Basurama (Madrid), David Page (Baltimore), Hani Zurob (Paris), Maika'i Tubbs (New York City), Maurizio Cimino (Naples), Meriem Elatra (Paris), Susanne Kessler (Berlin / Rome), and all of them were engaged in the three artistic and editorial projects from April 2020 through February 2021.

On the occasion of the 5th edition of RAW, Kessler opens the doors of her Roman studio in S. Lorenzo to host contemporary art in the new Project SPACE ROME, which was converted from an artist's atelier to a permanent gallery for contemporary art. The exhibition “Escape Plan” in which the artists of the collective, and the curator, who until now have met only via Skype and Zoom, will finally physically meet for the first time and present the fruit of their work and their collaboration to the Roman public. In fact, the artists initially loosely referenced the method / game called “Exquisite Corpse” to begin their collaboration. The collective has produced two publications that reveal the most intimate dreams, moments of humor and/or resilience, the desperation of being trapped and losing loved ones, frustration about racial injustice, the loss they experienced due to a total standstill to exhibit their work, and the lack of economic resources. “Escape Plan” therefore narrates the lives and reflections of those who wanted to embrace a profound sense of what it means to be part of an artistic community as a creative way to resist the inclement weather of a historical moment caused by the pandemic, and to instead seek a personal and collective light.

Program from 25 to 30 October 2021

25.10, 6-9 pm
Opening reception with an introduction by curator Gina Caruso, New York, NY
Sound performance by Anna Pangalou "CREATIVE CONTAGIONS ESCAPE PLAN / part 1"

26.10, 11-13 am
Artist talk: Meriem Eletra illustrates her artistic research.
4-8 pm: Exhibition is open

27.10 , 6 pm
Mónica Gutiérrez / Basurama: conversation around production, consumption, art and trash - In Love We Trash "

28.10, 6-8 pm
Susanne Kessler shows several video clips of her recent installations

29.10, 4-8 pm
Round table "Opening through restriction”. A discussion with the artists of the collective and some Roman artists

30.10 Closing events, 4-8 pm
Artist talk: Maurizio Cimino "Sweet and Cruel - Maurizio Cimino's street Photography" Final sound performance by Anna Pangalou "CREATIVE CONTAGIONS ESCAPE PLAN / part 2"