Hi everyone, I am Ginevra and I am based… well, currently it is very difficult to say where I am based, since the situation we are experiencing right now makes it really hard for me to know for sure where I will be in the next future.

I am originally from Rome, but before the pandemic I was based in Lucca, near Florence, where I am attending a PhD degree.
Due to the pandemic, I had to leave Lucca and go back to my hometown, where I am right now, but I hope to be able to be back to Tuscany soon to continue my research.

My PhD research revolves around self-initiated institutions and radical pedagogic programs undertaken by contemporary artists in the last decades.

While in the academia I carry out my activity mostly on my own, in my curatorial practice I work within an interdisciplinary collective called CampoBase (https://campobase.cargo.site/). The aim of the collective is to activate collective processes of knowledge through the creation of an open environment that favors public occasions for meeting and dialogue.

Being part of a collective and actively collaborating with other groups, my practice is rooted in collaborative processes, driven by principles of care, unlearning, hospitality and contamination, as a response to the displacement, exhaustion and precariousness conditions that we are experiencing in current times.

My action research project, conceived together with curator Giovanni Paolin, consists in the realization of a residency program in the Venetian context.

Where am I at at the end of this residency?
The image I selected comprises together many different elements on which I still want to reflect before putting into action the Zanzèga project. In this picture, you can see the Venice lagoon, a ferry (‘vaporetto’), some houses on the right and on the horizon the factories outside the city, in Marghera. I liked the idea of having multiple perspectives on the city: seeing it and engaging with it from the inside and the outside at the same time, blurring dimensions and planes of perception, changing positions in the hope of triggering a shift in our traditional and usual way of dealing with our surroundings. Shall I continue to work solely on a project on Venice from a Venetian perspective or shall I also adopt a new point of view that sees the city from distance? What this distance can mean and add up to the experience of participants – including myself? How to sustain a double gaze without losing focus?

Ginevra Ludovici

A moment of realisation, change and/or disruption
A moment of realization occurred when I talked with Sandi Hilal. The conversation reinforced in me the idea that to begin a collective and participatory project you have to start from a personal level. This allows you to be directly involved and not to be an outsider. This clarified the scope and reinvigorated the urgency to carry out my action research project.
A moment of connection
A moment of connection that I really appreciated was when I had the chance to speak with Mick Wilson about the question(s) of exhibition, especially in relation to social, durational and embedded practices, as well as about my action research project, for which he provided me with interesting perspectives.
Any tools / methods / resources to share
I find it very important to start from the basics when working and collaborating with people I do not know, especially if we are coming from diverse geographies, backgrounds and experiences. I like to start by building a common grammar, so as to learn from others and, at the same time, find a shared ground to understand each other in our diversity.
A question you are left with
How to be together otherwise (meaning in the era of social distancing)?
How to work, collaborate and create alliances otherwise?
Something you will carry forward
The reflections around the dichotomies private/public, inclusive/exclusive, host/guest, center/periphery, embedded/embodied in relation to social practices.

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