The Casa di Reclusione Femminile della Giudecca (Women’s Reclusion House of Giudecca) in Venice is located in an ancient monastery founded in the 12th century. Shortly after the 1600s, it became a shelter for “redeemed” prostitutes managed by nuns. The street where the main entrance is still located took its name from it: Calle delle Convertite (street of the redeemed). The Giudecca prison is exclusively for women; there is a special section for mothers, and almost all detainees work.
The Imaginary Place is the result of a listening and writing workshop carried out within the reclusion house: a circular movement between music and text, between the interior of the prison, the outside world, and the mental spaces evoked by the experience of sound. Inspired by listening to the sleeping mixes of five musicians—Caterina Barbieri, Gigi Masin, Courtesy, Lee Gamble, Opium Child—the incarcerated women have produced texts, fragments, stories, dreams, and memories born or imagined in a dreamlike dimension, then given to the musicians to create a new sonic object, at the same time narrative, personal and collective. The imaginary Place is a project curated by NERO and Closer, produced with the support of Società delle Api.
THE CURATORS
NERO is an international publishing house dedicated to art, critical theory, and contemporary culture. It is also a creative studio exploring present and future imaginaries through ever-changing tools and formats. Specializing in art, music, philosophy, and visual cultures, NERO inquires about unconventional perspectives to decipher the core of a constantly evolving reality.
CLOSER is a cultural association born in Venice in 2016 to promote cultural activities in challenging places, wherever the social system shows its limitation, with a specific focus on the prison environment. CLOSER intervenes by organizing workshops and events to include those who have always been excluded; it carries out social projects for the citizenry, those who are less aware of being excluded. It is committed to spreading art for those who have always desired it and technology for those who have never had access to it: the power of learning is the only – true – power.
SOCIETÀ DELLE API (The Bee Society) is an independent non-profit organization founded by Silvia Fiorucci that fosters solidarity, knowledge and collaborative practices across different disciplines. SDA’s mission is to generate research-based platforms where artists, architects, designers and thinkers can develop their own projects in close collaboration with each other and to create new modes of exchange between artists, curators, researchers, institutions, collectors and philanthropists. Società delle Api is a non-exclusive space that endorses the idea of a network as a constantly changing swarm of people and ideas.
The Imaginary Place is the result of a listening and writing workshop carried out within the reclusion house: a circular movement between music and text, between the interior of the prison, the outside world, and the mental spaces evoked by the experience of sound. Inspired by listening to the sleeping mixes of five musicians—Caterina Barbieri, Gigi Masin, Courtesy, Lee Gamble, Opium Child—the incarcerated women have produced texts, fragments, stories, dreams, and memories born or imagined in a dreamlike dimension, then given to the musicians to create a new sonic object, at the same time narrative, personal and collective. The imaginary Place is a project curated by NERO and Closer, produced with the support of Società delle Api.
THE CURATORS
NERO is an international publishing house dedicated to art, critical theory, and contemporary culture. It is also a creative studio exploring present and future imaginaries through ever-changing tools and formats. Specializing in art, music, philosophy, and visual cultures, NERO inquires about unconventional perspectives to decipher the core of a constantly evolving reality.
CLOSER is a cultural association born in Venice in 2016 to promote cultural activities in challenging places, wherever the social system shows its limitation, with a specific focus on the prison environment. CLOSER intervenes by organizing workshops and events to include those who have always been excluded; it carries out social projects for the citizenry, those who are less aware of being excluded. It is committed to spreading art for those who have always desired it and technology for those who have never had access to it: the power of learning is the only – true – power.
SOCIETÀ DELLE API (The Bee Society) is an independent non-profit organization founded by Silvia Fiorucci that fosters solidarity, knowledge and collaborative practices across different disciplines. SDA’s mission is to generate research-based platforms where artists, architects, designers and thinkers can develop their own projects in close collaboration with each other and to create new modes of exchange between artists, curators, researchers, institutions, collectors and philanthropists. Società delle Api is a non-exclusive space that endorses the idea of a network as a constantly changing swarm of people and ideas.
