An exhibition in Venice of works created by 25 refugees on Moleskine notebooks

From September 17 to November 24, 2019, Palazzo Querini in Venice is hosting the exhibition Where is South? promoted by Moleskine Foundation in collaboration with UNHCR. The exhibition of notebooks is the result of one of the stages of the AtWork project, which from Sept. 9 to 13 in Venice saw 25 young people aged 18 to 30 from different nationalities and backgrounds, many of whom share refugee or asylum-seeker status in Italy, at work in a workshop.The exhibition is hosted within Rothko in Lampedusa, a contemporary art exhibition promoted by UNHCR in which Moleskine Foundation is a partner, and organized in conjunction with the 2019 Art Biennale.

AtWork is the traveling educational format conceived by Moleskine Foundation and art curator Simon Njami from the principle that every human being is endowed with a unique and unrepeatable creative force, the expression of which is a contribution to the cultural and human development of the community around him or her. AtWork uses the creative process to stimulate critical thinking and discussion among participants, with the goal of helping to inspire a new generation of creative young people. AtWork ’s core is a themed workshop, led by an artist or curator, that provides the impetus for collective discussion and individual reflection, from which the personalized notebooks that authors can choose to donate to the Moleskine Foundation’s “author’s notebooks” collection take shape.

The theme Where is South? proposed by Moleskine Foundation’s AtWork project aims “to free our minds from all those prejudices and ideologies that crowd our heads when we name cardinal points and to reconsider them for what they are: directions,” writes Simon Njami. “If we can, we might rediscover that South or North do not exist as such but are activated in their meaning depending on what we think they are. Wherever we are, there is always a South, and so it is we who define the meaning of the ’word,’ because South begins with me.”

The Venetian leg of the Where is South? Tour, the third leg of six, in different cities around the world, thus enriches with additional perspectives the theme at the heart of the Rothko in Lampedusa exhibition, which focuses on the works of eight established artists who have personally experienced the refugee condition or who have made this theme a cornerstone of their artistic careers. Also exhibiting alongside these artists are five emerging artists currently experiencing refugee status, with the aim of shedding new light on the condition and talent of people forced to flee.

And precisely for the purpose of integrating different points of view, some participants of the project B&W - Black & White, the migrant trend, curated by Caterina Pecchioli and organized by Nation25, a workshop that investigates the fashion of young immigrants in Italy whose style, a union of different worlds, clears a precise ideological position of cardinal points, rethinking our position in the world, will also take part in the workshop.

As part of its collaboration with UNHCR Moleskine Foundation will also participate in the Barcolana, the world’s largest regatta scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 13, in Trieste, with the boat Kleronia, made available by its owners.

For the occasion, the founders of Moleskine Foundation will symbolically carry from Venice to Trieste a sea manifesto designed during the AtWork workshop and invite seafarers to symbolically raise the UNHCR flag among the pennants that will fly during the regatta, in support of the culture of the sea and its unwavering laws of rescue and welcome.

"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is thrilled to participate as a partner in this initiative, convinced that the Mediterranean Sea must once again become a basin of coexistence and not a symbol of tragedy and closure." Carlotta Sami, UNHCR spokesperson for Southern Europe, thus comments on the important initiative promoted in collaboration with Moleskine Foundation.

Also joining the initiative is theItalian Youth Association for UNESCO, which endorses the message. The AtWork Venice stage was made possible thanks to the contribution of private supporters and also the generous contribution of System Professional, hair brand of the company Coty, which puts the human and creative potential of its stylists at the center of its values. The space at Palazzo Querini is kindly offered for the wokrshop and exhibition by the Ugo and Olga Levi Foundation.

The exhibition will remain open until Nov. 24.

Source: press release

An exhibition in Venice of works created by 25 refugees on Moleskine notebooks

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