Orfeo Hotel
Saturday, 8 December , 2007 – 10:23
http://www.orfeohotel.com
Contact: Elisa Laraia
This started in 2004 in Bologna as a project Room – Elisa Laraia’s own ongoing work of art. She is actually carrying on her research on the exchange of identities in a spirit of sharing with other artists. It is the aim and evolution of the Orfeo Hotel to help the development of a place for Artists in Italy – not in the sense of traditional art exhibitions but for the realization of ongoing works of art so that the user can follow them from beginning to end. The constant purpose of this project is to create a work-place for both the artist and audience through mutual exchange. All the projects have been developed by means of a close collective survey of our contemporary world – starting with the gender’s identities and endemic creatures, such as plants, up to the contamination of the Internet 3 in “Second Life”. The approach of the Orfeo Hotel to research and experimentation encourages ever-new interactions with national and international artists.
Activities and projects
From 2004 to 2006 the Orfeo Hotel contemporary art project carried on an intense exhibition activity inside its project Room as well as in other places in the town of Bologna, and ever since 2006 it has started up an important internationally involved event, entitled “Art for Art’s Shake”, an observatory on feminine gender art, in cooperation with Comunicative and Agenzia 04. Next year this event will be consolidated in its third edition and is one of the most notable international contemporary and modern art fair’s off-events – “Bologna Arte Fiera”. Since 2007 the Orfeo Hotel has been turned into a virtual studio – www.orfeohotel.com – where Elisa Laraia and Alessandra Montanari plan works of art for Public and Private Institutions and pay particular attention to works of public art, specific-site installations and theatrical performances.
A further development of the project consists in utilizing the experience of these years in the Lucanian territory so as to give people a knowledge of contemporary art by realizing works of public art on specific sites all over the regional territory and putting together local young and well-known artists with their own ongoing exhibitions on the territory.
Basilicata Art Factory Project
http://artfactorybasilicata.blogspot.com/
artfactorybasilicata@gmail.com
This is a plan originated in 2006 and is being carried on by five Associations which are not only creative but also excellent organizers, such as Opera Prima (the Committee which promotes the Contemporary Art Museum in Basilicata), Orfeo Hotel contemporary art project (Contemporary art projects, photography, performances, public art and specific-site works of art), Cartoons (Audio-video expressions, comics and digital art), La Luna al Guinzaglio (Workshops, children’s theatre and exhibitions), Feedback-tragitti sonori (Contemporary and electronic music).
By means of a valid synergy between these five associations Art Factory is planning to create an identity which will be productive on the Lucanian territory and at the very same time active on an international level. This will be realized in a place where art can be offered, planned and produced for the public through creative workshops and the theatre, literature, design, music, cinema and contemporary art events.
The market and sources of income
Public Sponsors such as the Emilia Romagna Region Authority, the Bologna Provincial Council, the Basilicata Region Authority, the Potenza Provincial Council and Private Sponsors, apart from the fact that the Orfeo Hotel is self-sustaining.
Problems and drawbacks to development
Basilicata lacks an economic net of public and private investments connected with contemporary art and a suitable place for ongoing exhibitions and discussions, a publishing net capable of spreading the cultural activities’ content.
