Default19

Default is an international biennial masterclass project born in 2011 in the midst of a global systemic crisis (political and economic-financial) with the intention of encouraging experimental educational formats with a research-oriented approach.

The state of crisis and potential recession by which technically we mean a Default is only evoked and used as a tool to overturn the perspective and transform a condition of potential weakness in a strength capable of generating alternative spaces of thought.

Now in its fifth edition in 2019, Default has been thinking over the years on two specific themes: in the first two editions (2011 and 2013), developed in the city of Lecce, on the role that public art has and must have in urban regeneration policies, in the reuse of disused spaces, in re-appropriation and interaction with public space. We have worked around specific questions such as: in our era of austerity how can we interact with a broader government policy on redevelopment? Or how can we address the increasingly politicized challenges that underlie research into culture for the regeneration of urban centers and suburbs?

The following editions (2015-2017-2019), with the relocation of the operational base of Ramdom near Gagliano del Capo near Lastation — the last train station the southernmost train station of South East to the south-east of Italy — have seen the conjunction with the broader reflection and heart of Ramdom’s research on the theme of the Extreme Land.

All editions have seen the participation of international artists and researchers accompanied with an interdisciplinary approach, in all editions the participating artists and researchers have been accompanied in their research by international tutors that included astrophysicists, geologists, anthropologists, art historians, critics and curators. Seminars, lectures, direct experiences on the territory, workshops, group and individual work were alternated with moments of personal research.

If the first four editions have not the last one the time of the final production through the realization of real exhibitions, thus testing the artists in a moment of maximum fragility when the idea is not yet formally completed, the 2019 edition has tried to operate as a platform aimed at freeing the moment of research from the moment of the actual production, ensuring among them a state of decompression. The final result was a publication.

Participated artists：
Xiaowen Zhu
Julie F. Hill
Charnjeev Kang
Giulia Cacciuttolo
Tommaso Gorla
Joey Chin and Sarah Maple

Tutors：
Heba Amin
Francesca Girelli
Domenico Licchelli
Eleonora Marzani
Paolo Mele
Claudio Zecchi

Please click here on Default19’s webpage to read the recap.