In the first year of the programme, Paulina Brelińska-Garsztka, our art residencies curator, invited three artists to Wrocław: Davide D’angelo (known as URKA), submitted by Italian curator Paola Farfaglio from LATITUDO ART PROJECTS, Maria Yakymenko (selected from the ours database of artists living in Poland) and Arnis Aleinikovas, submitted by curator Brigita Bareikytė from Kaunas Biennial.

MagiC Carpets artists will work with new residents of Wrocław: children, youth and adults who come from other countries and have been living in the capital of Lower Silesia for some time. Each of the residencies will use different forms and means of action and co-creation, weaving their own artistic stories to build communities beyond borders.

The Yourself Library

The first resident of this year’s emerging artists’ exchange is URKA. During his month-long stay in Wrocław, the Italian street art artist will lead a series of creative workshops aimed at young people with a migration experience. Based on the premise that diversity is at the core of human existence, URKA will create the sculpture ‘The Yourself Library’, inspired by the shape of the Tower of Babel and alluding to Jorge Luis Borges’ short story ‘The Library of Babel’, which describes the universe as a vast library. The time spent together during the meetings is intended as a foundation for building community.

As the artist emphasises:

As we work, we will search for a common language, and such a search begins with respect for each other’s worldviews and choices, with the importance of each person’s subjectivity within a larger community. Our diversity is what makes us alike.

Who is the Italian resident?

Davide D’angelo aka URKA was born in 1984 in Ascoli Piceno, northern Italy. Since 2007 he has been carrying out street art projects that can be seen, for example, in Rome or Milan. He has presented his work in group exhibitions including “International Poster Art” and “Where is 107?” and happenings all over Italy, as well as in Madrid, Barcelona and Paris. URKA’s activities focus on environmental protection, the defence of animal and human rights and social justice. It conducts artistic workshops with local communities in collaboration with social cooperatives, schools, as well as with public administrations and NGOs.

18, 20, 25, 27.10, 17:00 – 19:00 | „The Yourself Library” – creative workshops with youth | join us: airwro[at]instytutkultury.pl | more info: https://fb.me/e/1SFiOjP9W

The ‘MagiC Carpets’ project is co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme.