Open Call Residency
SARA CATTIN: MAINTENANCE OF WHAT? A PLACE, A THING, AN IDEA. PART III
by
Presentation by Sara Cattin as part of her residency at Bulegoa z/b. Her proposal Maintenance of What? A place, a thing, an idea. Part III was selected for residency along with Hacia con el brazo (MURO) by Mònica Planes in our 2022 open call. The jury was comprised by Isabel de Naverán (research, curator, editor and writer), Jorge Satorre (artist) and the members of Bulegoa z/b.
Sara Cattin: Maintenance of What? A place, a thing, an idea. Part III
Maintenance of What? is a project started in 2018 as a broad research on the context of nomadic pastoralism, or mobile shepherding, and its powerful engagement with the maintenance of natural resources throughout extended geographies, disrupting the barriers imposed by private land property and law. Seasonal shepherds’ movement is called a transhumance, meaning going over the homeland. The project brought me into dialogue with a few young shepherds and other people inhabiting the alpine valleys of Piemonte, my native region in northern west Italy. Starting from a feminist take on the politics of proximity and positioning myself as a bridge between the shepherds’ individual experience and a critical view of the shepherds’ context, I interviewed them and restaged our dialogues, trying to understand what is that we want to keep alive: a place, a thing, or a mere tradition.
Since throughout Europe nomadic shepherding keeps very similar characteristics, during my residency at Bulegoa z/b I will carry on with the interviews while engaging in a different context. I want to dive into how to materialize this trans-territorial environment that is disappearing into the dystopian landscape of the present.
Sara Cattin is an art worker living in Turin (IT) operating through multidisciplinary practice in visual, participatory and/or performative projects linked to rural geographies and subjects. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (NL) and developed an independent approach to critical studies at the Dutch Art Institute (MA in Art Praxis). In between the experiences in the field of production and management, since 2021, she is a tutor in the AIR residency programme of Accademia UNIDEE, at Fondazione Pistoletto, in collaboration with ArtEZ (NL); since 2023, she is the community referent for CROSS Project in the Lake Orta area, in the field of performing arts. Since 2020, she organizes Isterika Istorika, reading and research horizontal club engaging with feminist and transfeminist sci-fi, establishing connections with other spaces such as BACO (IT). Since 2021, she has worked with independent organizations, on experimental didactic artistic projects of mapping and perception of the environment (Resta Qui Airlines).