PANE PER POVERI

Pane Per Poveri takes off from the necessity to acknowledge the inclusive nature of art and establish it outside of the elitist attitude that more and more in the course of time the system that represents it, has developed. Through art and creativity much can be done on a social level, but the superstructures existing in the system risk corrupting this approach and reducing the use of such a powerful tool as creativity, to a failed attempt to decorate reality. Pare Per Poveri works together with artists and cultural workers to give an alternative possibility to those who need a space of free engagement with art, a space open to everybody where the experience and the fruition of art is unfolding on a horizontal level with less restrictions possible: art as a benefit of all people.

Embracing people’s everyday negotiations with - and evasions of - the mechanisms of power, PPP occupies a specific location as a temporary meeting point for beautiful strangers willing to surrender to unknown personal geographies and open to mutual understanding, sharing and compassion. PPP's modus operandi is that of a loosely controlled experiment with space for unlimited improvisation, ephemeral performative gestures of resistance and humble interventions. It’s a slippery slope of friendship building, accepting the possibility of failure in an attempt to bring together, if only for a moment, those excluded and/or forgotten by the powers that be.

VENICE_MAY 2015

First realized in Venice, Lido at the site of Teatro Marinoni in May 2015, during the opening days of the 56th Venice Biennial, PPP draws its title and ethic from one of the street curiosities of the old city of Venice, namely, small slots in the walls of the houses and churches, mailboxes of a sort with metal doors and an inscription: “Pane per i poveri” - bread for the poor. Some can still be found in Venice, devoid of the function they used to have in the middle ages, when well off Venetians would leave bread crusts or money for those in need.

The initial PPP, a 72-hour event held in the complex of the abandoned Teatro Marinoni, tried to transpose this social practice from the past to our time, providing those in need (of art) with a larger space, a larger crack in the walls of contemporary Venice, on the fringes of the Biennial’s “sacred” exhibition venues. Adopting the playfulness, curiosity and improvisation of 16th century Commedia dell’Arte on one hand, and the 20th century legacy of Fluxus and Happenings on the other, PPP was conceived around a vague scenario to engage and nurture this environment as a site for inspiration and companionship. The three days event spontaneously produced and presented the work of more than hundred participants, artists and non-artists alike, in situ.

As art itself is supposed to also exist apart from rules and established structures, it has been PPP ambition to transfer this freedom and to create a place where not only the production of art, but also its presentation and perception could be achieved with the least restrictions possible – whether those be personal or time-related. In Venice the events and the participating artists were announced as a unique happening, with no official line-up or planned time schedule to bring art to anyone at any time. The aim of the project was to create a constant flux of running activities, a kind of comfort zone where creativity and lifestyle was developing as the day was unrolling.

ISTANBUL_SEPTEMBER 2015

During the days in which Pane Per Poveri was happening on the Lido in Venice, Hanna Hildebrand and Matthew Antezzo, captured performances, interviewed participating artists and documented the artworks that were part of the project. But most of all, they were able to follow the process during its evolution, with no filters and no script. The result of this footage is a film by two artists about what happened in Lido during that unique moment of experimentation.

The documentary film “L’Uomo del Pane”, made in collaboration with PPP, was made as a record of the Venice festivities. It was presented in the second edition of PPP that took place in Istanbul during the preview of the 14th Istanbul Biennial in September 2015, produced in collaboration with S.I.N.E. and hosted by Sylvia Kouvali. The Istanbul edition of PPP opened up an intimate private space of a rooftop deck for any interested visitors to join this one night gathering of screening and performances, amidst the panoramas of the city.

ATHENS_APRIL 2017

The third stage of PPP in 2017 took place in Athens, following city's selection as a second site for dOCUMENTA 14.

Athens developed the PPP story further: in a “bowl situation” of the skate park Latraac, built by architect Zachos Varfis and his numerous collaborators in the notorious district of Kerameikos, PPP was once again trying to extend the primary function of urban amenities to hopefully meet broader social needs. There, the Commedia dell’Arte and Fluxus ethos meets the collective spirit of local skateboarders, in line with the vision to build “low-impact, greener spaces that use current resources and actually create value in a neighbourhood”.

“Cities are failing people by not providing imaginative spaces which nurture creative potential. It’s a necessity, not a luxury.” Dreams aside, the urgency of this vision requires design and support. The former is already in place, and the latter comes on the wave of surf spirit that all of us in the PPP project share.

PPP got inspired by what has been invented in this city many years ago and decided that the best way to roll there was to give to the artists invited the possibility to experience and use the entire city as a stage for their "drama". PPP - Athens has been spread all over the city using the skatepark as the main venue for the event.

*Photo Series from Athens 2017 by Hanna Hildebrand

BERLIN_MARCH 2018

On the occasion of a support event for “Adopt a ramp”, a project that Eleonora Meoni has developed in Athens during 2018/2019, a free corner speech was made available in the spaces of Supportico Lopez, that hosted the Pane Per Poveri family for a of a night of live music // a day of performances, readings, screenings // a brunch with great food, great music, great people.

ATHENS_2018-2019

In cooperation with the Victoria Square Project, the artist Eleonora Meoni as a PPP representative and the interdisciplinary studio Endboss, designed and realized a small skate park in winter 2017/2018. The park is part of the Souzy Tros Art Canteen, a project of the Greek artist Maria Papadimitriou, started in 2016 as a social art project to revive Eleona's inhospitable neighborhood and for the children of the largest refugee camp in the immediate vicinity. In addition to the skate lessons offered there by Free Movement Sakteboarding, Eleonora and Maria also organized an artistic program with artist residencies and workshops.

ARTISTS_VENICE+ISTANBUL+ATHENS

Marcelo Alcaide
Matthew Antezzo
Will Ascott
Amy Ball
Gaia Bartolini
Beaming Project
George Bekirakis
Irene Berson
Anna Blessmann and Peter Saville
Artspace NZ presents Imaginary date line
Tristan Bera
Marco Bruzzone
Manuel Bruerger
Alexia Caunille
Giulia Carobene
Alex Chalmers
Elena Demetria Chantzis
Adriano Costa
Christian Costa
Teddy Coste
Liz Craft
Luigi D’Alessio
Rossella De Nisco
Giorgio de Battisti
Maria Adele Del Vecchio/ Fabio Teti
Chloe’ Detchart
Pauline Dierre
Merlin Dietrich
Thodoris Dimitropoulos
Discodromo
John Duncan
Martin Ebner
Ian Edmonds
Endboss
Miriam Engel
Jules Etienne
Yusuf Etiman
Αγια φανφάρα
Gabriella Ferrante
Free Movement Skateboarding
Andrew Fremont-Smith
Alberto Garcia Del Castillo
Furfriend
Mandela Gals
GFS
Monia Giannobile
Rosalind Goldberg
Delia Gonzales
Good Times & Nocturnal News
Douglas Gordon
Nathan Gray
Tue Greenfort
Elisa Hähnel
Adel Halilovic
Christophe Hammaide Pierson
Natalie Häusler
Snöwit Hedsternia
Hanna Hildebrand
Hanno Hinkelbein
Jessie Holmes
Karl Holmqvist
Tino Holzmann
Robin Honing
Charles Irvin
Thomas Jeppe
E-Soh Joycy
Kiki Karayinnis
George Kalivis
Valentina Karga
Kassandras
Francisca Khamis
Chosil Kil
Kaspar König
Dorothea Kritikou
Martin Kunkel
Egle Kulbokaite
Carl Luis Lange
Franziska Lantz
Laurent Laughlin
Lucas Leclere
Steev Lemercier
Steev Lemercier & the Lala Boys
Isabel Lewis
Björn Lestes
Isis Lherm
Iro Liatou
Kira Lillie
Makode Linde
Pontus Lindvall
Jana Linke
Ninon Liotet
Trevor Lee Larson
Maria Loboda
Loyal T

Nina Lörken
Natasja Loutchko
Rick Lowe
Federico Maddalozzo
Make some Noiz
Josep Maynou
Claire Manent
Officina Marinoni
Angus Massey
Ruby Mateja
Eleonora Meoni
Zoe Metra
Darius Mikšys
Marie-Christine Molitor
Philip Ignatius Monk
Barbara Mulas
Ariane Müller
Murathenes
Thien Ngoc NGO-Rioufol
Click Ngwere
Simon Olivier
Antonio Onio
Marta Orlando
Massimiliano Pagliara
Cristiana Palandri aka Yokokono
Andreas Palmer
Stefania Palumbo
Barbara Panther
Dora Papadimitriou
Maria Papadimitriou
Anastasia Papaleonida Pounza
Paperman
Panzerotto Man
Marino Pascal
Elena Peters
Filippa Pettersson
Kostantinos Pittas
City Plaza
Spiros Pliatsikas
Matthieu Prat
Project Elea
ClausRasmussen/ErikLavesson /Shane Munro
Johannes Paul Raether
El Razi
RB.TB.MPP
Refugee kids choir from Eleonas Camp
Arthur Rieger
Sophie Reinhold
Mandla Reuter
Ivana Roh
Clementine Roy
Roxymore
Roughtoof
Yael Salomonowitz
Yorgos Sapountzis
Manuel Scheiwiller
Carlotta Sennato
Diamond Simo
Neda Sanai
Louis Scherfig
Skateism
Express Skopelitis
Allegra Solitude
Wahib Soumade
Souzy Tros kids
Starship
Ana Alex Tabatatze
TARIQ
Tash
Carmelo Tedeschi
Resi Tesi
Olympia Theodoridoy
Constantin Thun
Hard Ton
Goro Tronsmo
Sophie-Therese Trenka-Dalton
Ero Tzintroudi
The Unknown
Jules Valéron
Zachos Varfis
Vava Dudu
Viron Erol Vert
Tamara Vignati
Marianne Vlaschits
Gigiotto Von Alt
Voin de Voin
Voin de Voin/Parsifal
Vena Ward
Bob Wan der Wal
Philip Wiegard
Kandis Williams
Woman Skate the world
Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz
Danielle Zorbas
Yolanda Zobel