An investigation on living from the perspective of the village, but not only. Kora - Centro del Contemporaneo, led by Ramdom, takes us on a fluid path in the Grecìa Salentina to discover the 'extreme lands' as privileged points for networking

Activate and take concrete action for the territory by connecting the various components together.

In the south-east of Italy, among the 'extreme lands', geographically remote and also geologically complex, the thread that stitches together creativity and the community, local administrations, artists and even children is Kora - Centro del Contemporaneo, a multidisciplinary project created by Ramdom association in Castrignano de' Greci (Lecce), an active part of the cultural organizations that in the heart of Grecìa Salentina have undertaken a path of enhancement - and union - of the natural and human, historical and architectural landscape through art.

RAMDOM kora – corutesy ramdom
Kora - Centro del Contemporaneo - Ramdom, Castrignano de’ Greci (Lecce). Ph. Courtesy Ramdom

Living from a village perspective

From 2 December 2022 to 16 April 2023, Kora proposes the group exhibition Talk about your village, curated by Paolo Mele and Claudio Zecchi, the second of three productions that will take place during the year (July 22 - June 23). Intent on investigating the theme of living from the perspective of the village, she develops an articulated vision through a plural body of voices declined in different formats, including masterclasses, talks, screenings and performances.

2. Bianco-Valente Parla del Tuo Villaggio ph. G.Albergo-min
Parla del tuo Villaggio, opera permanente di Bianco-Valente. Ph. Gabriele Albergo

What is Kora?

From'summer 2021 Kora is a place of multidisciplinary production and research.

Housed within the ancient, sober and majestic walls of Palazzo Baronale de Gualtieris, known in Castrignano as Greeks as "The Castle", the 'Contemporary Center extends over 1600 square meters dedicated to exhibitions temporary and permanent, workshops, training and residencies of'art.

KORA_Spaces_Castle_Main Entrance courtesy ramdom
Kora - Centro del Contemporaneo - Ramdom, Castrignano de’ Greci (Lecce). Ph. Courtesy Ramdom

An inclusive and participatory network

Inside there are also a library, a bookshop, a bar, an area dedicated to children and spaces for conferences, events, live performances and shows. It is precisely all these projects, initiatives and different areas that involve, support and embrace the community.

Indeed, Kora stands as a hub – cultural but also convivial – of reference on'entire territory. An area forged from Lecce stone, crossed by ancient underground water networks which are revealed in special places. A contaminated, inclusive and participatory territory. A territory supported by a fabric of virtuous collaborations.

KORA_Spaces_InnerCourt_Screening courtesy ramdom
Kora - Ramdom. Ph. Courtesy Ramdom

The Ramdom network at the base of Kora

Local organization that has been involved in cultural production since 2011 with the aim of promoting contemporary art projects (exhibitions, public installations, residencies, workshops and meetings) in dialogue with the territory of Salento, Random has created a network of companies and associations to manage the space in Castrignano de ' Greeks.

Kora is in fact a project promoted by the ATI set up by Ramdom APS, Muta Impresa Sociale, Pazlab, Doc Servizi and supported by the Municipality of Castrignano de' Greci.

RAMDOM KORA – courtesy ramdom
Kora. Ph. Courtesy Ramdom

L'art as a tool for the investigation of extreme lands

In recent years, first at Lastation, the last railway station in south-eastern Italy and now at Kora, Random has been the promoter of exhibitions, public art installations , residencies, workshops and meetings, including the Survey on the Extreme Lands project of which the exhibition Talk about your Village is the continuation. If the first chapter was Home Sweet Home - Explorations of living, the next will be dedicated to the Mediterranean.

ph. Alice Stella La Sete e l’Orecchio
Kora - Ramdom. Ph. Alice Stella La Sete e l'Orecchio

The exhibition investigates culture on the margins

If the previous installation is the permanent work by the artist duo Bianco-Valente which gives the title to the exhibition, Talk about your village (from “If do you want to be universal talk about your village” by Tolstòj), have opened the reflection on what it means to do cultural practices in a liminal area, this second deepens further the theoretical basis that structures the path.

1. T.Polyviou Alfathi, According to some ph. G.A.Bellitta-min
According to Some, Theodoulos Polyviou e Alfatih. Ph. Grazia Amelia Bellitta
4. G.De Mattia Fatterelli ph. G.A.Bellitta-min
Fatterelli, Giuseppe De Mattia. Ph. Grazia Amelia Bellitta

The power of collective work

The works of the artists (Bianco-Valente, Ruth Beraha, Filippo Berta, Carlos Casas, Luigi Coppola, Giuseppe De Mattia, Alessandra Eramo, Roberto Fassone, Riccardo Giacconi, Ugo La Pietra, Andrea Nacciarriti, Theodoulos Polyviou and Alfatih) help to investigate the possible utopian thrust that resides in small groups, marginal movements and the strength of collective work.

Parla del Tuo villaggio C.Losi, Untiled_animals ph. G. A. Bellitta
Parla del Tuo villaggio, Claudia Losi, Kora - Ramdom. Ph. Grazia Amelia Bellitta

Installations resulting from residencies of 'artist

“That time between after lunch and five in the afternoon”. This is how the concept of contrara in the book of the same name by the writer Arcangelo Amodio which Martina Melilli draws on during the production and research phase of Whistle, and I will come to you, an immersive installation part of A Sud Di Marte, a plan of artistic residencies also curated by Ramdom, ongoing at the Kora spaces from April 2022 to February 2023.

Created in collaboration with the Elpis Foundation, the program stems from a broad reflection on the concept of the margin, to question the notion of the center and lead to the vision of a South not only as a place rich in complexity but as an opportunity for the activation of a transversal gaze capable of soliciting constant questions.

Martina Melilli, Fischia e io verrò da te. Ph. Alice Caracciolo 5-min
Martina Melilli, Fischia e io verrò da te. Ph. Alice Caracciolo

Literature, children, games and Griko: exchange and contamination

Starting from the literary inspiration and the reading of other local authors, but also from the story of the English writer M. R. James who gives the exhibition its title, but above all from the observation of some elements characterizing the austere building that houses Kora – light, shadow, sound, silence – and from the encounters held in the area, Melilli creates a narrative device configured as an imaginative stage, between real and dreamlike, which unfolds over two floors to interpret the history, tradition, folklore and language of the area (the Griko which derives from ancient Greek but only by oral transmission), making them dialogue with the present. 

It does so through the language of play - hide and seek, the four corners, wolf eats fruit - which becomes an aesthetic and epistemological tool, involving the children of Castrignano de' Greci and reworking the workshops carried out with them.

Martina Melilli, Fischia e io verrò da te. Ph. Alice Caracciolo 14-min
Martina Melilli, Fischia e io verrò da te. Ph. Alice Caracciolo

Dialogue and connection, collaboration and support

And it is precisely through the dialogue between entities, ages and heterogeneous languages, the connection, as fluid as the'water that runs through – precious and silent, always – the territory, and the collective collaborative support between people and institutions that Kora - Centro del Contemporary. Because Salento is indeed a wonderful land of sea and holidays, revisited farms and delicious food, but not only. There is an unexpected Puglia, or perhaps just less known to most, fluid, both in the hypogeal water sense and in the marginal borders, from what it has "Thirst for the Contemporary".

spazio KORA 1 courtesy ramdom
Kora. Ph. Courtesy Ramdom
Home Sweet Home. Ph. Sergio De Riccardis
Home Sweet Home, Kora. Ph. Sergio De Riccardis
Pdv opening mostra Parla del Tuo Villaggio, ph. G. Albergo
Parla del Tuo Villaggio. Ph. G. Albergo
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