2018 Open Call

In the year 2018 the open call was carried out in collaboration with the institute Giovanni Caselli, headquarters of the first Real Porcelain Factory of Capodimonte (Naples) and the Museum.
The choice to locate the Institute in the ancient building of the Factory represents symbolically the intention to draw a line of continuity with the historical past. Following the same principle, the artistic residence intended to cross the ancient craft tradition with the aim of putting into dialogue the ceramic manufacture of Capodimonte with new artistic work.
Participants were invited, with the support of the artisans, to experiment with cooking, patinas and decorations, with the aim of encouraging the creation of an aesthetic and historical dialogue between the new productions and the manufactures that have followed each other over the decades.

The Giovanni Caselli Institute

Inside the Real Bosco di Capodimonte, in the 18th century the Istituto housed the Real Porcelain Factory, one of the Royal Manufactures founded by Charles III of Bourbon.
Since the 60s this prestigious building is home to the Istituto Giovanni Caselli which contributes to the diffusion of the ceramics culture through the workshop and the unique processing departments in Campania and in the world for their workers and their manual artistic historicity. The fundamental mission of the G. Caselli Institute is to create technicians and designers who are particularly expert, albeit with different skills, in the different sectors and sectors of the ceramic world.

The Capodimonte porcelain owes its name to the homonymous hilly area of Naples, where King Charles of Bourbon and his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony, in the mid-eighteenth century, founded the Royal Factory of Capodimonte. Since the beginning the main collaborators was lead figures such as the Belgian chemist Livio Ottavio Schepers and the painter Giovanni Caselli from Piacenza. During the early period of research on porcelain at the headquarters of the Royal Palace of Naples, Caselli experimented with the study and application of colors and gold. The porcelain produced in this area has peculiar characteristics that clearly distinguish it from the porcelain of northern Europe.

Material characteristics

There is no kaolin in its dough therefore it consists of a fusion of various clays coming from the southern quarries mixed with feldspar hence a soft, milky-colored mixture results that will make this unique manufactory in the history of porcelain. The porcelain, made in this way, withdraws about 20% during cooking.

During the activity of the Real Factory, in the plastic sector, objects were produced with scenes of court life mostly in biscuit (“Caduta dei Giganti” by Filippo Tagliolini, “Laocoonte”, “Ratto d’Europa”, “Pigmalione”, “Le Tre Grazie” by Canova): a non-polished ceramic material such as porcelain, opaque, as it is not painted with the second firing and the crystalline blanket

Processing steps
• model analysis and feasibility assessment
• creation of original shape
• realization of the prototype (molding, assembly, finishing, plastic applications)
• drying
• baking of the biscuit
• painting / enamelling
• baking “glossy”
• decoration

Diego Cibelli
Winner of the Open Call 2018

Diego Cibelli was born in Naples in 1987. His artistic research focuses on the multiple and possible ways of living, and his visual attention falls on artefacts and spaces organised by living beings. A central point of convergence in the artist’s research is the question of belonging and identity considered in terms of relationships, and articulated according to a practice and poetics of connection, sharing, coexistence and the knowledge they produce. His work has been exhibited on several occasions in Italy and abroad, including: at PAN in Naples in 2012, Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin in 2013, Atelier 35 Gallery in Bucharest in 2013, MSU – Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb in 2016. She also participated in the realisation of Teresa Margolles’ performance for the MADRE museum in Naples during the Corpus Arte in Azione festival, curated by Adriana Rispoli and Eugenio Viola in 2011. He led a workshop at the Weissensee Kunsthochscule in Berlin in 2014 and was a lecturer at the University of Salerno invited by Stefania Zuliani as part of the project Senza cornice. Spaces and Times of Installation (2013).

Residence at the Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte, Naples
October 2018

Oli Bonzanigo (1989, Milan) graduated from the Byam Shaw School of Arts in London. Since 2012 she has been collaborating with Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, a historical Milanese lost wax foundry for which she follows the new productions of young international artists. He has exhibited at the 5-6 Marrakech Biennale and at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair. His research is nourished by collaboration with numerous North African cultural institutions: Le18, Marsaad Draa, Kibrit/Qanat, Voice Gallery. Since 2017, she lives and works in Palermo where she is co-founder of Studio Gibel and a student at the Bourgiba Institute (Palermo-Tunis) in Arabic Language and Culture.

Caterina Morigi, Ravenna, 1991. Lives and works in Rome.
She studied Visual Arts at IUAV in Venice and Paris 8 – Saint Denis. In 2015 she was awarded a studio at the Bevilacqua la Masa Foundation. She has participated in residencies such as Dolomiti Contemporanee – Progetto Borca, Serre delle arti Territori di Pietra. She has exhibited in solo and group shows at the Mambo in Bologna (That’s IT!, curated by Lorenzo Balbi), Villa Brandolini (TV) for the Fondazione Francesco Fabbri, at the MAR in Ravenna, Una Vetrina (Rome) and in other Italian and European cities.