The third edition of the artist residency, started by OMNE in September 2021, investigated the concept of nature starting from the observation of the Venetian territory. The interpretation of the multiple forms in which nature manifests itself and the relationships that derive from it in the perception of the environment that surrounds us, has raised a reflection on the contemporary landscape, on its potential but also on its criticalities.

Starting from the observation that the common man is normally accustomed to live among his fellow men and, for this, he sees only that much of nature that concerns him, he rarely notices the enigmatic and disturbing relationship that exists with the complexity of the environment of which it is part. Too often he stops on the surface of things he recognizes as being built by him and other men, and is therefore inclined to believe that the Earth is interested in him because it is possible to cultivate a field, thin a forest and make a river navigable.

Approaching these considerations, the residence has focused on a stretch of plain that embraces Castelfranco Veneto, birthplace of Giorgione, and its neighboring territory in the direction of Padua. The interest in a vast portion of the Po Valley was suggested by the presence, in this context, of two particular places dedicated to nature, such as Villa Parco Bolasco and the Botanical Garden of Padua.

Between the two poles, identified as geographical and cultural references, there is a wider area characterized by the centuriate territory, witness of an ancient Roman domination. Although driven by strong anthropic characters, the design of the Roman plant identified a rational organization of the soil by establishing precise balances between inhabited nuclei and rural plots, within a grid that combined hydraulic system and road network regulating the relationships between settlements and open countryside; the balances between these elements appear today altered by indiscriminate building processes.

Over the last fifty years, economic policies have encouraged the occupation of rural areas and gradually erased most of the characteristic features of the Venetian plain. The rapid transformations of the territory have produced the image of a landscape ‘homogeneous and fragmentary’, characterized by urbanized areas indifferently placed before natural areas confined in restricted and protected areas.

Today the processes of urban dispersion do not seem to stop. For this reason, photographic campaigns are still an important tool to document the state of the places but also to raise public awareness of the need for a recovery of the environmental characteristics of the landscape, that originally they celebrated a perfect harmony between man and nature.

The importance played by nature and environmental factors, sometimes still perceptible in the contemporary landscape, therefore leads to question the multiplicity of forms in which nature is presented, as well as on the infinite expressions that it offers to the gaze in the attempt to reclaim the spaces generated by man.

Following the artist residency call for OMNE/NATURE seven international artists were selected: Marina Caneve, Daniele Cinciripini, Sebastian Collett, Dieter Daemen, Giorgio di Noto, Arianna Sanesi, Luca Santini who, together with the two invited photographers Mark Steinmetz and Irina Rozovsky, were hosted in residency in Castelfranco Veneto from 4^th to 12^th September, in order to develop a specific project on the “Nature” theme.

During the residency the artists were involved in a full program of meetings, conferences, workshops and exhibitions, organized within OMNEFEST 2021.

Artists-in-residence
Marina Caneve, Daniele Cinciripini, Sebastian Collett, Dieter Daemen, Giorgio di Noto, Arianna Sanesi, Luca Santini

Invited artists
Peter Puklus, Irina Rozovky, Massimo Sordi, Mark Steinmetz

As part of the NATURE project, the workshop “In Natura” was organised and then held by Mark Steinmetz and Irina Rozovksy in Castelfranco Veneto, Villa Parco Bolasco – University of Padua, from 6^th to 10^th September 2021.

Workshop partecipants
Matteo Bertolini, Silvia Bragagnolo, Tim Brown, Simone Deidda, Derin Dusenkalkar, Daniele Molajoli, Pietro Massimo Nicoletti, Simone Settimo, Martin Schgaguler, Alex Tabellini, Francesco Travaglini.

OPEN NATURE is part of the NATURE project, started by OMNE in 2021 on the occasion of the third artist’s residency. OPEN NATURE confirmed OMNE’s interest in visual research by proposing new appointments with photography; alongside these, new interdisciplinary experimental activities have introduced other ways of exploring the landscape through the sound dimension. These activities were aimed at sensitizing the participants to the relationships that exist between sound, space and body, environmental aspects that we are normally accustomed to perceive passively.

The OPEN NATURE program has therefore offered an articulated program of workshops and performances held by well-known Italian and foreign artists. The experts involved in the conduct of the activities were confronted with the theme NATURE and the Venetian territory and analyzed it through the experience of walking, have revealed new points of view thanks to the installations of visual and sound site-specific.

Special place for the natural, historical and artistic heritage that preserves inside, on the occasion of the event Villa Parco Bolasco of the University of Padua has renewed its collaboration with the project OMNE opening its doors to the initiatives planned for OPEN NATURE. The scheduled activities have been designed to meet a wide and diverse audience with special projects for young people and children.