Living room
Living Room, the artist residency program that brings contemporary art to the heart of Cuneo, returns on Friday, October 3rd, Saturday, October 4th, and Sunday, October 5th. Four artists, hosted by four organizations in the historic center, were invited to embark on a physical and mental journey to discover natural environments such as caves, mines, and mountainous areas in the Cuneo area.
This year's theme, Back to People, focuses on the human, social, and relational dimensions of the Alpine regions bordering Italy and France. It's an invitation to rediscover the strength of the community and resilient communities, capable of thinking about life in these places beyond the critical issues of the present and imagining new futures. The Living Room 2025 residencies took place in three valleys in the Cuneo area and in the Roya Valley, in collaboration with the Musée des Merveilles in Tende. Drawing conceptually from the artistic-social project "Legarsi alla montagna," created in 1981 in Ulassai by artist Maria Lai, Living Room 2025 focuses this year's reflection on the concept of "mountain alliance." The artist residencies of LIVING ROOM 2025, a project promoted by the Art.ur Association to bring contemporary art to the heart of the city of Cuneo and its surrounding valleys, have concluded. Curated by Andrea Lerda, the project involved four artists: Ruth Beraha, Laura Pugno, Micol Roubini, and Eugenio Tibaldi, who were asked to develop new works based on their experiences during the residency. The works will be exhibited over three days, open to the public on Friday, October 3rd, Saturday, October 4th, and Sunday, October 5th, at four prestigious venues in the historic center of Cuneo: the Diocesan Museum, the Toselli Theater, the Ghedini Conservatory, and the Cloister of the Monumental Complex of San Francesco.
Laura Pugno (Trivero, 1975), an artist whose research has always focused on the concept of landscape as a cultural product and on environmental issues, led her residency in the Varaita Valley to discover a particularly vibrant youth movement. Thanks to the collaboration with the Monviso Park, she also discovered the area's natural beauty.
Eugenio Tibaldi (Alba, 1977), who for over 15 years has explored the concepts of periphery and peripheral places, explored the community context of the Stura Valley, engaging with numerous people who have returned here or who have voluntarily chosen this area as a place to rethink their lives.
Micol Roubini (Milan, 1982), sensitive to the stories that emerge from listening to territories and communities, traveled to the Roya Valley, where she traveled transversally between past, present, and future. Roubini spoke with young people and with the people who, despite the complexities of an area hit by Storm Alex in late 2020, decided to stay. Thanks to the support of the Mercantour National Park, she also visited the rock carvings of the Valley of Wonders accompanied by a park ranger.
Finally, Ruth Beraha (Milan, 1986), an artist with a multidisciplinary practice, capable of creating aesthetically concise yet highly evocative works, spent her residency in the Grana Valley. Through numerous meetings held throughout the area, she discovered a significant presence of young people who are fostering an interesting process of tourism and economic development.
Living Room 2025, as was the case with the previous edition, will coincide with Connecting Worlds, an event now in its fourth year, held at Largo Audiffredi.
Connecting Worlds is a project launched in 2022 and promoted by the Gesso and Stura River Park of the Municipality of Cuneo. Its aim is to raise community awareness of the climate emergency and ecological transition through a dialogue between contemporary art and scientific research.
This edition, works by Ludwig Berger, Sibylle Duboc, Micaela Piñero, and Laura Pugno will be presented alongside commentary by three researchers from Eurach Research in Bolzano.
