Supercondominio6 – Paradis

Supercondominio6 – Paradis is the gathering of European spaces for the production and promotion of contemporary art, part of the public program of Radis, and took place on Saturday, August 31, and Sunday, September 1, between the municipality of Rittana and Borgata Paraloup, extending to neighboring territories through walks, meetings and outdoor lunches, in the territories surrounding the project of art in public space that the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT has created in collaboration with the Fondazione CRC.

Five Italian organizations and five from the rest of Europe participated in the sixth edition of Supercondominio: AiR 351 (Cascais, Portugal), K.A.I.R. (Košice, Slovakia), Koraï (Nicosia, Cyprus), Rupert (Vilnius, Lithuania), Spiritvessel (Espinavessa, Spain), CRIPTA747 (Turin), In-ruins (Calabria), Studio Rizoma (Palermo), Pianpicollo Selvatico (Levice, CN), Unpae (Roccacaramanico, PE) – dialoguing on the theme of artist residency and dealing with unconventional approaches of relating to public space, activating non-canonical venues for art, carrying out activities in territories far from the official circuits and creating moments of encounter and dialogue with the public and communities. In addition to the organizations, artists Luca De Leva and Allison Grimaldi Donahue also participated in the two-day event to present their research through dialogical moments, performance readings and performances, dedicated to the themes of body, word and experience.

Supercondominio6 – Paradis was hosted for the first time in a non-institutional setting, and we believe that the warm welcome, care, and passion of the people and Associations of the Rittana territories were fundamental to its excellent outcome. We are grateful to Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT for entrusting us with the curatorship of the project and for trusting us in the reworking of its format: for the first time Supercondominio took on an international dimension, opened up to active dialogue with artists, and took place in multiple venues: the Rittana Municipality Meeting Center, Chiot Rosa and Borgata Paraloup, but also informally in a pizzeria in Turin, in the passenger compartment of a tour bus, during an unplanned walk on a mountain trail. Moments seemingly marginal but crucial to building friendships and new projects. Moreover, for the first time the event was held in English, although the guests were native speakers of Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovak and Italian. We believe that the important thing in human communication is not so much the language as the message: that is why we decided to name the project ‘Paradis,’ a word that contains ‘Radis,’ and which, in the above languages, by assonance recalls a term known and easily identifiable by everyone. In addition to the projects and artists involved, Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, its President Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Grazia Sechi and Leonardo Pietropaolo, and Radis curator Marta Papini, we would like to thank the Municipality of Rittana, in the person of Mayor Giacomo Doglio, the associations Kosmoki and Montagna Futura, Autonoleggio B&B, Borgata Paraloup, and Fondazione Nuto Revelli for their warm welcome.

This initial call for horizontality found expression and confirmation in the themes that emerged during the many discussions that took place during the weekend: despite differences in geography, legal nature, and institutional scale, the projects found common ground on issues such as the function of the physical presence of artists in residency projects, the enrichment given by direct experience of unfamiliar places, and the potential offered by decentralized territories.

Supercondominio is a project originated at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea – where the first five editions were held – upon the initiative of then-Director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, conceived with Caterina Molteni and Laura Lecce – for the first time supported in this sixth edition by the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, and for the first time opened to a European dimension.