Curatorial texts 14th edition

A field of tension

Every place can be experienced as a field of tension between belonging and foreignness, two ideal segments that contain multiple non definitions including statelessness, the legal condition of a person who is not considered a citizen by any state. Not having citizenship in any country does not only involve the loss of roots, it is not exclusively a form of exile, it corresponds in the language of nations to a state of nonexistence. The 14th edition of the festival, entitled Houses : Homes, has chosen to focus on the theme of housing, encompassing in a single word the sense of belonging to a community and its denial, the material aspects such as the right to be able to have a roof over one’s head, to be able to live in one’s own country, to be able to be an active participant in the choices that determine the fate of a neighbourhood.

The festival reflects the need to collectively address these pressing issues, and it does so by making use of the language with which it best knows how to communicate: moving images, memories, and the meanderings of the authors of the videos on display. Over the past 14 years, Video Sound Art has built exhibition routes in numerous spaces in the city, each inhabited by its own peculiar community. The creation process of the various editions has always been preceded by the construction of a relationship between the artists, the operators and those who live these places every day, an operation that is often critical, sometimes tiring but also capable of testing the validity of the projects and even questioning them. From the swimming pools of Milano Sport, which in past editions of the festival have been visited by the public of Video Sound Art when the swimming activities were on; to secondary schools, which can be visited even at night with a public program built in collaboration with the students and students; from theatres to archives such as the 17th-century Cà Granda archive inside which the works have been set up in the presence of researchers from Labanof – Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology and Odontology. The 14th edition was created in collaboration with the “Luigi” area committee of the Lodi-Corvetto neighbourhood, which is joined by citizens, local shops and associations. 

The choice to intervene in this neighbourhood was a direct outgrowth of the theme addressed by the festival in relation to the ambiguous consequences of gentrification, more relevant than ever in the area of the city home to “Houses:Homes”. In 2026, Lodi-Corvetto will host the Olympic Village for Milan-Cortina, and many are wondering how to create a cohesive critical mass capable of navigating the inevitable changes and whether the neighbourhood will withstand the transition. Through a spread edition that intercepts a piazza, a recreational club and several historic stores, Video Sound Art opens up to a mode of participatory artistic existence, an attempt to use art as a catalyst to activate a dialogue about the fate of the neighbourhood and the city, without losing sight that home, wherever it is (or is not), is part of the world. We orchestrated a public program by inviting researchers and academics who study social changes related to major urban maneuvers. Feeling at home or being a stranger in a place are not fixed conditions, but rather evolving processes of experiences, changes and dialogue between the environment and the people who live it. Inhabiting a place coincides with the right to physically occupy it and transform with it, constantly negotiating one’s place in the world.

Laura Lamonea, curator and artistic director of Video Sound Art.

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Bricks

This year Video Sound Art focuses on “casa”. Everything has been already said and written about this topic. It was discussed ad nauseam during the pandemic, when all social activities (work, rest, play) collapsed into the domestic space. It continues to be talked about in Milan, a city that in its intoxicated upward parabola bookended by the two mega-events (Expo 2015 and the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympic Games), has lost 300,000 people in the last 9 years (out of a population of 1 million 300 thousand!), who have emigrated elsewhere because of the cost of living. 

The idea on which this edition of the festival was built is that it is important, indeed necessary, to keep talking about “case”. “Houses : Homes” doesn’t see itself as yet another encyclopedia on the subject, but rather as a note in the margin that tries to divert attention to corners where we do not usually look. The thesis of this edition of the festival is that “case” can be used as an observational tool (a magnifying glass, as well as binoculars) that can bring into focus micro- and macroscopic social dynamics that would otherwise remain out of focus.

Some of the “micro-stories” that Houses : Homes sheds light on are about gender-based power relations, where certain spaces and objects belonging to the domestic imaginary (the fireplace, the kitchen, the apron) are violently determined by stereotypes related to the female universe. “Case” are also spoken of in reference to migrations, diasporas, and exiles: these are stories of nostalgia, displacement, and projection that hold together the “case” left behind and those longed for elsewhere. Colonialism, past and present, can be read through the lens of “case”: on the one hand, those occupied by force, bulldozed to the ground, and blown up by colonial violence; on the other, the presumption that one can impose one’s “casa” elsewhere through usurpation, manipulation, and theft. Finally, “casa” is also a metaphor for that set of ideas, symbols, affective apparatuses that keep us bound to an extended community: a family, by blood or choice; a district or ward; a nation; a religious, linguistic, ethnic group; finally, the world itself. In each of these connotations, “casa” is thus identity, memory, a sense of belonging, a chance to communicate and to recognize oneself in a community.

In such a brutal historical moment as the one we are living in, in which ignorance is no longer an option and intentionality is required in every act, it is important to question the appropriateness of occupying a space-time of attention through a contemporary art festival. Houses : Homes aims to activate a platform – or rather, share one, together with the reality of the hosting neighbourhood, the Luigi Committee – that we hope will amplify relevant counter-narratives on the theme of “case”, both in their material aspect (house) and in their symbolic one (home). In parallel, the festival hopes to be able to help strengthen the invisible network that connects all those voices that challenge, provoke, or ridicule a monocolor narrative on the topic. In other words, the festival aims to become in turn a “casa” itself. 

Erica Petrillo, curator and responsible for the research on the 14th edition

14th edition
Houses : Homes
October 24 – 27, 2024

Curatorial research of 14th edition
Open Call 2024

Venues:
Circolo San Luis 1946, Via Don Bosco, 7
Cartoleria e Tipografia Bonvini 1909, Via Tagliamento, 1
Eldodo Booksellers & Stationers, Via Vallarsa, 11
Panificio Meraviglia Di Pane, Via Tagliamento, 11
La Stazione delle Biciclette, C.so Lodi, 66
Ristorante Sottobosco, Piazza S. Luigi, 5

In collaboration with:
Comitato “Luigi” del quartiere Lodi Corvetto
Di Studio In Studio

With the contribuition of:
Comune di Milano
Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lombardia
Fondazione Cariplo
Acción Cultural Española (AC/E)

Curated by Video Sound Art
Artistic Direction
Laura Lamonea

Curators of 14th edition 
Laura Lamonea Erica Petrillo 
From a research project by Erica Petrillo 

Open Call Coordinator
Tommaso Santagostino

Education
Thomas Ba, Laura Lamonea

Production
Lino Palena

Press and Communication Office
Francesca Mainardi, Caterina Migliore e
Federica Torgano

Graphic Identity
Francesco Galano