TERRA CRUDA

2018





clay workshops
variable number of participants

in collaboration with Annalisa Zegna, Hydro, Better Places APS, Associazione Pacefuturo Onlus

Terra Cruda (Raw Earth) is a series of unfired clay workshops and social gatherings for migrant people and asylum seekers conceived of in collaboration with Annalisa Zegna and two local organizations in Biella, Associazione Pacefuturo Onlus and Associazione Better Places. By creating clay artifacts and objects, Terra Cruda aims to give temporary shape to an unconscious imaginary and shared experiences through a collective moment of handmade production. Terra Cruda serves as a research space and framework within which all the participants may take time to learn a certain craft, and at the same time share a conversation about complex issues of forced migrations and precariousness. Thanks to its flexible and malleable nature, clay becomes the support for an introspective and interpersonal dialogue, where the impressed forms are the result of the work of mind, memory and hands. The temporary images that took shape are like ghosts that emerge within the material, expression of lived experiences, objects seen and used, elements of cultures in transformation that migrate and resist; boats; flags; traditional huts; fireplaces; mortars; bowls; plates; vases; masks and anthropomorphic figures; all kinds of animals; work tools; gym equipment; phones. Only photographs of the created objects remain, reinforcing the process as an immaterial work of freeing images.
Associazione Pacefuturo Onlus, based in Pettinengo (Biella), is an organization dedicated to the promotion of active citizenship, solidarity, and social inclusion in the Biellese territory. It organizes social gatherings and training aimed at generating principled paths of understanding and exchanges between persons seeking international protection and the local community. Associazione Better Places helps formal and informal groups to develop cultural projects related to music, theater, and visual and performing arts that promote active and diverse social participation.