Faenza (Italy)
Press release
Faenza, June 20, 2024
T.NUA collective announces Colombian artist Delcy Morelos as artist-in-residence at Museo Carlo Zauli in Faenza, Italy.
(Faenza, Italy, June 20, 2024)—T.NUA collective is pleased to announce the participation of internationally renowned Colombian artist Delcy Morelos as artist-in-residence at Museo Carlo Zauli. The residency is a collaboration between Museo Carlo Zauli and T.NUA, an experimental collective focusing on international socio-cultural hybrid projects, founded by Italian artists Tao Kulczycki and Ornaghi & Prestinari (OP), with advisor Lindsay Aveilhé. The residency is part of T.NUA’s 2024 Craftsmanship Program, a series of artist residencies dedicated to the preservation of traditional craftsmanship.
Delcy Morelos’ awe-inspiring and sensorial artworks commonly use natural materials like clay and soil, often sourced locally from her sites of engagement, and evoke her spiritual and ecological beliefs in the interconnectivity, reciprocity, and respect between all living things. Morelos’ career has seen a meteoric rise with such prestigious exhibitions as a two-person presentation with Italian artist Ettore Spalletti at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York (2024), the site-specific installation Profundis at Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC) (2024), the solo exhibition El Abrazo at Dia Chelsea, New York (2023) and the group exhibition Il latte dei sogni / The Milk of Dreams, the main exhibition of the 59th Venice Biennale (2022).
“We are honored to have an international artist of Delcy Morelos’ caliber to amplify this historical and important Italian craft in a contemporary context, alongside the prestigious institution Museo Carlo Zauli. One of T.NUA’s primary missions is to safeguard traditional craftsmanship through dialogue with contemporary artists. We believe these residencies can be a great source of inspiration for artists, while also supporting local artisans and disseminating these techniques to the public,” stated T.NUA co-founder Tao Kulczycki.
Starting on June 21 until July 15, Morelos will work in one of the historic workshops of artist Carlo Zauli, one of the most representative ceramic sculptors of the 20th century. The workshops, dating back to 1949, have been frequented in the last 20 years by numerous contemporary artists as part of Museo Carlo Zauli’s ongoing residency program.
During her stay in Romagna, the artist will meet regional artisans, with an invitation to collaborate with one or more of them in the production of new works inspired by the natural surroundings, local materials, and the vast knowledge of traditional Italian ceramic production at her disposal in Faenza. As part of the residency, Museo Carlo Zauli will also organize public convenings between the artist, the city, and its artistic community.
Why Delcy Morelos
As part of the selection process, T.NUA created an international committee to nominate artists to be considered for the ceramics residency. The nomination committee included Caterina Molteni, Dakota Sica, Juana Berrio, Lindsay Aveilhé, and Laura Hakel. These critics, curators, and scholars proposed several outstanding artists. Delcy Morelos was selected based on the quality and maturity of her artistic research and the rich possibilities for dialogue and exchange between her work and that of Carlo Zauli, both of which focus on themes related to earth and nature.
T.NUA also believes that Morelos will be a great stimulus for the Faenza art community. By applying local ceramics traditions to her research related to nature, the earth, and her ancestral Andean origins, she can offer new inspiration for others from the primitive clay of the surrounding blue clay gullies.
Why Museo Carlo Zauli and Faenza
Museo Carlo Zauli is an independent museum, created to continue to bring life and creativity to the workshops of sculptor Carlo Zauli, at the behest of Matteo Zauli, who directs it, and his family.
In recent years, the museum has become a reference point for residencies with international artists dedicated to ceramics, with a rich history of dialogue between artists and artisans and facilitating the design and creation of works of art.
In addition, the museum also focuses on experimenting with the primitive clays found in the surrounding geographical area of the so-called “blue clay gullies.” This area is the basis of the entire history of ceramics throughout the Faenza area and was an inspiration for many artists, and in particular for Carlo Zauli, who dedicated so much of his artistic work to these lands.
Faenza, historically one of the cities where the ceramic tradition was born and developed, is still characterized by the presence of historic workshops and first-rate craftspersons. The city context is thus characterized by an intense and heterogeneous cultural liveliness, in addition to the presence of the International Museum of Ceramics (MIC), with its enormous and important collections.
DELCY MORELOS
Artist in residence at the Museo Carlo Zauli in Faenza, Italy
A project by
T.NUA
In collaboration with Museo Carlo Zauli
From June 21 to July 15, 2024
Info and contacts: tnua.collective@gmail.com
DELCY MORELOS
https://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/394-delcy-morelos/
Born in 1967 in Tierralta in the region of Córdoba in Colombia, Delcy Morelos studied at the Cartagena School of Fine Arts. She lives and works in Bogotá. Her practice is rooted in ancestral Andean cosmovision and the aesthetics of Minimal Art. Morelos’ abstract works, with their formidable evocations, inspire rumination on the interplay between human beings and earth, the human body and materiality.
In her early works, Morelos focused primarily on painting, applying natural red pigments to paper. Her chromatic research directed her attention to the intersection between body and violence. Over time, her material investigations extended into ceramics and textiles, and this work, along with her continued use of natural materials such as earth, clay, fabric, and plant fibers, led her to gradually develop a more sculptural practice, and, more recently, large-scale multisensory installations.
Solo exhibitions include Interwoven, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO (2024); El Abrazo, Dia Chelsea, New York (2023); El lugar del alma, Museo Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Enie, Fundación NC-Arte, Bogotá (2018); Inner Earth, Röda Sten Konsthall, Göteborg, Sweden (2018); La sombra Terrestre [The Shadow of the Earth], Fundación Fuga, Bogotá (2015); Barranquilla Museum of Modern Art (2006); Gt Gallery, Flax Arts Studios Residence Program, Belfast, Northern Ireland (2006); Academia Superior de Artes de Bogota, Santa Fe Gallery, Bogota (2004); and Color que soy, Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (2002).
Selected group exhibitions include The Milk of Dreams, Arsenale Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022); Still Alive, Aichi Triennial in Japan (2022); Something (you can’t see, on the other side, of a wall from this side) casts a shadow, SOMArts Culural Center, San Francisco (2018); Medellín, une histoire colombienne des années 1950 à aujourd’hui, Musée des Abattoirs, Toulouse, France (2017); Du som jag, Havremagasinet, Boden, Sweden (2016) and Sami Center for Contemporary Art, Karasjok, Norway (2017); 7 Mercosul Biennial, Grito e escuta [Screaming and Listening], Porto Alegre, Brazil (2009); MDE 07, Espacios de hospitalidad [Hospitality Spaces], Medellín (2007); ES2002 Tijuana/II International Biennial, Tijuana Cultural Center CECUT, Mexico (2002), and the VI Havana Biennial, Cuba (1997).
T.NUA COLLECTIVE
T.NUA is an experimental initiative run and funded by artists Tao Kulczycki and Ornaghi & Prestinari (OP), with advisor Lindsay Aveilhé, that conducts international hybrid projects at the intersection of art, community engagement, and education.
Through its programs, residencies, exhibitions and an annual publication, it explores the possibility of a socially beneficial art practice.
Referencing aspects of social sculpture theory, which extends sculpture beyond physical objects to include human activity as medium, T.NUA embodies a collaborative sculptural project as an evolving network of artists and experts collaborating on international socio-cultural initiatives. Each year, T.NUA selects new themes to focus on. The two main programs are:
T.NUA Collaboration Program
A grant exploring hybrid projects that combine socially engaged art practices with focused research in a variety of fields to benefit local communities.
T.NUA just concluded a year-long collaboration with world-renowned Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama’s institution Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, (SCCA Tamale) in Ghana. The collaboration focused on a research grant that supported experts, professors, and doctoral students in the field of agriculture and related fields for projects that impact local communities.
Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, (SCCA Tamale) was founded as a contribution to the expansion of Ghana’s contemporary art scene. SCCA is an artist-run project space, exhibition and research hub, cultural repository, and artists’ residency located in Tamale, Ghana dedicated to art and cultural practices which emerged in the 20th Century.
T.NUA Craftsmanship Program
A series of artist residencies dedicated to safeguarding traditional craftsmanship.
In addition to Delcy Morelos residency, T.NUA activated a collaboration between the Italian-based American artist Namsal Siedlecki and the Museo Carlo Zauli, focusing on the relaunch of the museum’s activities and creating support for local artisans after the rare flood that affected the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy in the summer of 2023.
MUSEO CARLO ZAULI
The Museo Carlo Zauli is a space for both exhibitions and cultural productions, founded in 2002 immediately after the death of the artist Carlo Zauli, at the behest of his family, within the sculptor’s historic workshop-atelier. In paying this great tribute to him, the space was redesigned so that it would tell the story of his work and create anew, with current tools, the vitality that had characterized its atmosphere since 1949.
The museum houses two permanent collections: one dedicated to Carlo Zauli and one composed of the works of contemporary artists who have been protagonists of Residency projects, including works by Yuri Ancarani, Salvatore Arancio, Sergia Avveduti, Lorenza Boisi, Pierpaolo Campanini, Gianni Caravaggio, David Casini, T-Yong Chung, Natascia Fenoglio and Patrick Tuttofuoco, Christian Frosi and Diego Perrone, Alberto Garutti, Francesco Gennari, Emma Hart, Eva Marisaldi, Simon McGrath, Mathieu Mercier, Maurizio Mercuri, Luca Monterastelli, Jonathan Monk, Ornaghi & Prestinari, Daniel Silver, Francesco Simeti, Luca Trevisani, Sislej Xhafa, Italo Zuffi. It carries out activities of preservation, archiving and dissemination of the Faenza sculptor’s work through the management of the Archives, traveling exhibitions, publications, and events dedicated to him.
It has become in recent years a point of reference in the production and dissemination of contemporary art, thanks to its many activities in the cultural avant-garde and experimentation: from Artist Residencies, to cycles of conferences, to contemporary music festivals, to exhibition and training projects in the national and international sphere, as well as educational paths. It organizes and manages debates, conferences, exhibitions and in-depth events on art and the artistic use of ceramics; it encourages and organizes promotional initiatives in favor of young artists and their works.
Collaborations with other cultural activities in the city are also numerous, with the idea to develop creativity in the area. Among the many museums and residencies around the world, the Carlo Zauli Museum has been recognized by the internationally opinionated contemporary art system as a “unique space in the world where artists in residence create their works solely with ceramic material.”
The museum is a private institution, almost unique of its kind in Italy: in fact, it has distinguished itself for its innovative relationship between design quality and low budget management, and for its innovative forms of fundraising, which it carries out together with its partners.
T.NUA NOMINATION COMMITTEE FOR FAENZA 2024
Caterina Molteni
Curator at MAMbo – Museum of Modern Art of Bologna. From 2016 to 2019, she was the Head of Public Program and Digital Content at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art Rivoli, Turin. She is the co-founder of Tile Project Space, a space dedicated to the research of Italian artists.
Dakota Sica
Owner of Leslie Feely Gallery, located in New York City, and founder of The Java Project in Brooklyn, a space dedicated to emerging artists. He currently serves on the board of the International Fine Print Dealers Association and is a member of the Guggenheim’s Young Collectors Council.
Juana Berrío
Independent art curator and writer based in San Francisco. She has worked as a curatorial Fellow at the New Museum (NY), the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, curatorial assistant for Massimiliano Gioni 2013 Venice Biennale, associate director of Residencies & Curator of Public Programs at Amant Foundation (NY) and research associate at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Lindsay Aveilhé
Independent art curator and consultant. Editor of the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné, co-creator of the Sol LeWitt mobile app with the LeWitt Estate and Microsoft, contributing author to Locating LeWitt (Yale University Press). Curatorial projects include LeWitt retrospectives at the Reykjavik Art Museum and Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, as well as a biennial exhibition at Oklahoma Contemporary.
Laura Hakel
Curator of the Collection and Artistic Projects at Fundación Ama Amoedo in Uruguay, current 2023/2024 ISLAA Curatorial Fellow at the New Museum (NY). Between 2015 and 2020 she was a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires.
Delcy Morelos
Photo credit: Courtesy of the artist, Dia Foundation & Marian Goodman Gallery, Don Stalh, Tololo Studio, Ernesto Monsalve P, Roberto Marossi
Museo Carlo Zauli
Photo credit: Courtesy Museo Carlo Zauli, Cristina-Bagnara
