book launch
CORRISPONDENZE ARCHIVE: OFF YOUR SHOES
artistic editorial project
edited by Paola Boscaini & Cristina Materassi
with the artists Belhassen Handous, Joanna Pianka and Tomash Schoiswohl
Saturday, 13/01/2024, 4 pm
Venue: philomena+, Heinestraße 40, 1020 Vienna
Cover of the Corrispondenze Magazine with the booklet OFF YOUR SHOES, design by Paola Boscaini
The booklet presents the research process and artistic contributions for the exhibition OFF YOUR SHOES by Belhassen Handous, Joanna Pianka and Tomash Schoiswohl. It highlights the issues of the exhibition project from the common theme of shoes to the discussion of migration and border politics and brings them in an artistic editorial form, developed by Paola Boscaini and Cristina Materassi. Additionally to artworks and the visualization of the artistic process, the magazine also includes an introduction written by Paola Boscaini and extracts of a panel discussion on the topic of the externalization of EU-border politics with the activists, researchers and journalists Azizou Chehou, Wael Garnaoui, Leonie Jantzer, Thameur Mekki, Mariama Nzinga Diallo, Petar Rosandić and Katarzyna Winiecka.
The booklet OFF YOUR SHOES is published as part of the new issue of Corrispondenze, a participation-based artistic editorial project that serves as both a physical space made of paper and a platform for the exchange and collective creation of visions concerning the concept of dwelling. The focus of this magazine issue lies on practices of archiving as a daily activity of preserving fragments of personal and collective memory. Corrispondenze: Archive will be developed in five parts during 2024. The first four booklets present the editorial transposition of four artistic projects, realised through a process of collaboration between the editors and the participants. The fifth volume offers a collection of texts analysing the theme from various perspectives.
editors
Born in 1997 among the mountains of Trento, she is a visual artist graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and Turin. Through participatory art practices, photography, video and editorial design, she investigates the relationship between territory and the people who inhabit it, starting from the collection of personal memoirs. She is co-founder of the artistic and editorial project Corrispondenze, in collaboration with Cristina Materassi. Alongside her artistic research, she works as a freelance graphic designer. In 2023 she was part of the philomena+ team.
CRISTINA MATERASSI (IT)
Cristina Materassi is a visual artist interested in exploring the intersections between imagination, collective narrative and historical perception of a place. Her artistic research delves into the analysis and connections she has established with the territories she has crossed. Since 2020, she has been co-founder and curator of the artistic and editorial project "Corrispondenze." Interested in public confrontation and artistic and cultural dissemination, she currently works as a museum mediator and community activator within museums and cooperatives in Turin.
artists
(*1980, lives and works in Tunis) is a visual artist and documentary filmmaker with prehistory and archaeology background. He has been practising analogue photography since the early 2000s. “Hecho en casa”, his first film, was completed in five years and is a unique independent project filmed with a mobile phone. His photo series, “Auto-Excavation”, was presented at the Global Film Festival (Berlin 2013). In 2021, the Central Art Space in Tunis hosted his audiovisual and research installation works “La syncope du mérou”. This latest exhibition on the transformation of La Goulette chronicles the mutilation of the memory of this small neighbourhood which hosts Tunis’ port. For the past years, he has been working on his second documentary “On the Hill”.
JOANNA PIANKA (AT/PL)
(*1983, lives and works in Vienna) works as a photographer and artist. She studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She works interdisciplinarily in the fields of urban space, society and visual art. Her artistic work is dedicated, among other things, to researching the collective memory and transformation processes of urban spaces and the questioning of social and political norms. In addition to work as an artist, she is active as a professional photographer in cultural events.
TOMASH SCHOISWOHL (AT)
(*1979 in Wels, lives and works in Vienna) studied history at the University of Vienna and conceptual art and critical studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. His work combines art and political engagement and is dedicated to themes of urban development, art in public space and historiography. In a long-term project he explores the infamous traffic junction Matzleinsdorfer Platz in Vienna and has developed a profound practice of public art – politically involved and close to historical matters. He teaches at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
Supported by
In collaboration with
