TOWARDS A CHILDREN ASSEMBLY - DOMESTIC EXERCISES. HOMEWORK FOR A SUSTAINABLE TOGETHERNESS

Villa Romana's annual programme continues to unfold through the public series of performances, workshops and events open to the public and organised in conversation with our four fellows: Ruben D'Hèrs, Monai de Paula Antunes, Sergio Zevallos, Tuli Mekondjo: the series Domestic Exercises. Homework for A Sustainable Togetherness.

With this public programme, Villa Romana opens itself to the city as a place of encounter and exchange and invites us to reflect on processes of radical conviviality, decanonisation, diasporic belonging and ecological repair. Through these homework and exercises, the institution proposes a reflection on the concept of commoning and cohabitation, in particular on the theme of the domestic and the political: bringing the domestic back to the centre of a reflection on the processes of art production means rethinking the idea of ‘home’ not as a mere domain of private life but as a tool for constructing public life.

After the Acous-coustic session last March - an exercise in conviviality, acoustic experimentation and reciprocal listening conceived by Lorenzo Sandoval and Zineb Achoubie, with the collaboration of Sergio Zevallos and Ruben D'Hèrs, and in dialogue with Lottozero -, following Eclittica. Exercises in Transition and Cosmic Alignment - a “homework” that involved the whole house for the summer solstice - and after the closure of our Trattoria Guaiana, Villa Romana invites you for yet another exercise.

Join us tomorrow at 3pm in the fresh rooms of the Villa for the Knowledge Sharing Session by artist Maicyra Leão - dramaturg, university professor in Brazil and part of the art collective Maternal Fantasties. Upon an invitation of our Fellow Monai de Paula Antunes, Maicyria will be with us at the Villa to take care of Towards a Children Assembly. Following the experience of Takeover - for and by children curated last year together with the Berlin-based artist collective Archipel e.V., once again this year the children living in Villa Romana and other children from the city of Florence are meeting in the house in Via Senese to experiment with radical pedagogical practices and at the same time to formulate a series of potentially useful suggestions for transforming art institutions into child-friendly spaces of cultural production: not only tricks to allow for a more natural inclusion of the youngest, but also real programmatic reflections on the political importance of giving (mediated) agency to children in art spaces. Maicyra Leão will work with the children living in Villa Romana towards the possibility of creating an Assembly as a permanent consultative body within our House for Mending, Troubling, and Repairing.

Workshop:

Towards a children assembly, an intergenerational perspective

For children from 6-12 years old, in German
from 11am-2:30pm

The workshop invites participants to engage in the construction of visual narratives that bridge the imaginative world of children with the adult universe, fostering a dialogue between their desires, criticisms, and perspectives. By exploring how children visualize their surroundings and everyday life, we will overlay these insights with relationships built on utopian desires to construct a tangible future. This future will be grounded in the concrete experiences of children, rather than relying on pre-established discourses about what constitutes a good future.

Designed under the Homework for Sustainable Togetherness program, the workshop aims to contribute to the transformation of art institutions into child-friendly spaces of cultural production. The program proposes practical suggestions to facilitate the inclusion of young children and provide programmatic reflections on the political importance of granting mediated agency to children in art spaces.

Talk:

Knowledge-sharing session with Maicyra Leão (Maternal Fantasies), in conversation with fellow Monaí de Paula Antunes

For adults, childcare will be provided during the talk, please register at info@archipel.community, in English
from 3pm-4pm

The dramaturgist, professor and member of Maternal Fantasies Maicyra Leão presents aspects of her work with the feminist art collective, and particularly with their intergenerational live performances. This year's fellow Monaí de Paula Antunes sets relationships between Maicyra's experience and the children's takeover taken place at Villa Romana in the summer of 2023 under her artistic direction.

Party:

Takeover Reunion - Release of the Video Documentation
For all ages
from 4pm

Children, families, educators, artists, Villa Romana inhabitants and their extended network gather under the olive tree one year after the magical week in the summer of 2023, when children took over the Villa Romana. We take the occasion to meet again, play, cook and eat together and watch the release of the video documentation of the project developed with much care by the Archipel team.

Between July 31st and August 5th 2023, the Villa Romana in Florence was taken over by children, supported by the associations Archipel and The Rediscovery Planet. It consisted of an intensive experience-based program inhabiting the interface between art and education, while also participating firmly in contemporary art practices and discourses. The takeover allowed 17 children from different backgrounds to spend 9 hours a day for 6 days enjoying various forms of material-discursive engagement. Embracing chaos, the week was moving through creativity, deconstruction and recreation, working with materials collected in the surroundings and elements such as earth, water and fire. Their presence troubled the usual inhabitation of the Villa, and by extension the art world, and filled the house, and specially the garden, with truly transformative play and joy.

Archipel e.V
Artistic direction: Monai de Paula Antunes
Artists: Silvia Noronha, Niko de Paula Lefort, Florian Bendsen
guest artist: Dudù Kouate

The Rediscovery Planet
Main educator: Marzia da Luz Ramos Duarte
Support: Ilaria Cavallini

Participant Children
Francesco, Fabrizio, Maria, Nour, Nuria, Obeida, Lila, Joia, Lia, Edoardo, Jacopo, Linda, Samuele, Samuel, Enea, Cosimo and Cosimo

Field Production: Carola Haupt

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