The Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto, in collaboration with the University of Toronto, Black History Month Florence (BHMF) and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Washington, presents The Recovery Plan: Alle porte coi sassi, a pop-up research centre consisting of an exhibition dedicated to artists Kelly Costigliolo, Jermay Michael Gabriel and Christian Offman, research engaging intersecting Black histories in Italy across the XX century and a collection of publications from Africa e Mediterraneo, a culture magazine launched in 1992 in Bologna.
The Recovery Plan: Alle porte coi sassi
A pop-up research center and exhibition
OPENING
Wednesday, October 23 | 6:30PM
FREE EVENT | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
EXHIBITION
October 24 to November 20, 2024
Monday to Friday
10AM to 4PM
FREE ADMISSION
ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA
496 Huron St | Toronto ON
The project reflects upon the recovery of underrepresented and under-narrated fragments of Black history in the Italian context. Gauging what it looks like to recover from the social impact of repeated forms of marginalisation, the works of three Italian artists of African descent provide nuanced and layered reflections on archival memory and the preservation of cultural histories as distilled in sculptural works. Several chapters of research developed within and beyond Italian archives provide a counterpart to the works of art and their critical engagement with the physical and ephemeral traces of the Black past. This project exports a socially engaged collective practice that has been carried out by The Recovery Plan in Florence as a cultural hub and facilitator of research dedicated to people and cultures of African Descent in Italy.
This pop-up, designed expressly for the context of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto, sheds light on the layered history, highlighting the centuries-long interaction between Italy and the African continent. The pop-up intends to facilitate narrations of Italian history in regards to the cultural contributions of people and cultures of African descent. The Recovery Plan: Alle porte coi sassi draws its title from a Florentine saying that refers to a late arrival or an imminent change on the horizon.
KELLY COSTIGLIOLO (b. 1993 – Genoa, Italy) is an italo-brazilian visual artist with a multidisciplinary approach on memory and family archive. She works and lives in Paris and her process involves photography, performance and installations to evokes her personal transatlantic history. Her artistic research and practice are characterised by concepts of time, love, youth, and bonds, using old and new technologies, to explore her multicultural identity. Her work has been exhibited in diverse parts of the world.
JERMAY MICHAEL GABRIEL is an Italian-Ethiopian-Eritrean trans-disciplinary artist currently doing research in the archives of the National Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, DC. His work revolves around an experimental and often profound resistance to the permanence and elusiveness of the Italian multicultural archive, transforming its symbols of power into paths of re-memorialization. Gabriel’s artistic practice spans both sound and contemporary art, exploring the fascinating intersections of visibility and representation. Through his process, Gabriel chronicles the multifaceted dimensions of these journeys, using sound, installation, and performance to embrace cultural legacies and collective memories as a form of healing. The artist has been dedicated to the activation of localized Black initiatives across multiple cities, including Milan, Lisbon, Barcelona and more, recruiting and calling upon Eritrean and Ethiopian communities to enhance notions of local participation and dialogue. Shared meals, informal exchanges and cultural celebrations are at the heart of his methodologies. The Ethiopian community in Toronto is the second largest of its diaspora, creating a meaningful and impactful site for this form of activation. Gabriel is also a member of the music duo Plethor X alongside sound designer Giovanni Isgrò. Additionally, he co-founded Black History Month Milan (BHMM) and Kirykou, a Milan-based cultural initiative dedicated to celebrating Black cultural heritage in Italy. His most recent exhibitions and performances include Terraforma Exo (Milan 2024), Malta Biennale (Malta, 2024)Stratificazioni, ArtNoble gallery (Milan, 2023); E il clamore è divenuto voce, Teatro Nazionale Virgilio Sieni (Florence, 2023); Il Cono d’Ombra, curated by Marco Scotini, Maschio Angioino (Naples, 2022); Ceremony (Burial of an Undead World), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, 2022); David and other feats, Villa Romana (Florence, 2022); Parade électronique, Teatro Arsenale (Milan, 2022); ll mondo visto da qui, Mudec (Milan, 2021); Plethor X, what you mean, man, Archive (Milan, 2021); Il Saracino (Milan, 2020); Rivoluzione, (Milan, 2020), Black (Jamaica, 2019); Still, La Casa Encendida (Madrid, 2018). As a curator, we are reminded of: Memory Effect, BHMF, Murate Art Ddistrict (Florence, 2023); Sammy Baloji, BHMF, (Florence, 2022); Immaginari – Habitat di resistenza, Centro Pecci (Prato, 2022).
CHRISTIAN OFFMAN (Rwanda 1993) vive e lavora tra Monaco di Baviera e Bologna. Si trasferisce in Italia nel 1999 dove frequenta l’Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna nel corso di scultura laureandosi nel 2020. Nel 2018-2019 frequenta come studente Internazionale la Kunstakademie di Münster. Partecipa nel 2021 al YGBI Research Residency organizzata dal Black History Month Florence e a Live Works Summit a Centrale Fies. Nel 2024 viene selezionato per MADE IN Vol 2 è un progetto di residenza ideato e realizzato da Artissima. Nel 2021-2024 frequenta Akademie der Bildenden Künste München nella Klasse Gregor Hildebrandt e in seguito nella Klasse Nicole Wermers. I suoi lavori sono spesso realizzati mediante la scultura e l’installazione, ponendo al centro delle opere temi razziali, sociali e di memoria privata filtrati attraverso la sua visione personale. Il suo lavoro è stato esposto in mostre personali e collettive tra cui: Christian Offman “Kaputt Mundi”, Grabinski Point, Bologna, (IT), 2024; “I’ll be the wind, the rain and the sunset”, Curated by VogelArt edition, Occhio Lenbach Palais, Munich, (DE), 2023; “The Recovery Plan: Alle porte coi sassi”, James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Baltimore, (US), 2023; Sechs Monde Zeit, Undconsorten, Munich,(DE), 2022; Spazio Griot, “SEDIMENTS. AFTER MEMORY”, Mattatoio (ex Macro Testaccio) , Rome, (IT), 2022 Christian Offman e Francis Offman, Le Garage Lab, Trento, (IT), 2021, Früher war alles besser, in Mühlenhof Münster, Münster (DE), 2019.
ABOUT THE RECOVERY PLAN
www.blackhistorymonthflorence.com
The Recovery Plan is an exhibition space, library, research and community center for dialogue and transnational exchange on Afro-descendent cultures located in Florence, Italy, on the SRISA (Santa Reparata International School of Art) campus. Founded in 2019, The Recovery Plan was born out of the over 500 events orchestrated, curated, coordinated, and co-promoted by Black History Month Florence since its inception in 2016, designed as a cultural repository for socially engaged education. The centre hosts a range of events, seminars, retreats, workshops, and residencies reflecting upon Italy’s historic role as a site for cultural exchange. The initiative advanced by The Recovery Plan is a rallying of voices aimed at facilitating cross-cultural research and dialogue. The centre is run by an Italian non-profit association called Associazione Culturale BHMF with a team of twenty volunteers and a committee of five advisors across cultural sectors. Since 2019, The Recovery Plan has developed pop-up exhibitions and institutional occupations that export multiple platforms into galleries, museums, universities, and cultural centers internationally. This exportation of our platforms is simultaneously a practice of sharing and learning and one of engaging with local initiatives that parallel our work, learning from their methodologies in relation to artists’ research and archives. The platforms that make up this exhibition are YGBI Research Residency, a program collectivizing young Italian artists of African descent in long-term mentorships, Black Archive Alliance, a platform dedicated to archival research and sharing focused on Black history in Italian archives and Library on Loan, a program facilitating the borrowing of personal libraries as a form of collective knowledge sharing.
Special thanks to:
Andrea Fatona, Angelica Pesarini, Esery Mondesir, Jenny Suddick, Melanie Billark, Daniela Lee-Kim, Jessica Rysyk, Karen Carter, Joséphine Denis, The Centre for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora, BAND Gallery, SRISA, OCAD University, University of Toronto, Sandra Federici and Africa e Mediterraneo.