ECCO

The catalog accompanies the “ECCO” exhibition, open from June 18 to August 8, 2021 at Villa Medici.

Every year, Villa Medici welcomes a temporary, ephemeral community, often made up of people who don’t yet know each other, and who will eventually disperse, but who live here for a fertile, happy and enchanted period, in a magical place where nature and culture, garden and architecture unite in perfect harmony. This enchantment has been maintained despite the encircling urban poisons that surround the Villa, as Hans Obrist noted when we worked here over twenty years ago. This community is made up of artists and intellectuals, working in a variety of disciplines, using all the languages of creativity and often coming from different horizons. The encounter (and sometimes even the confrontation, always positive) between differences and divergences always proves productive and generates new and varied facts.

This year, in particular, the residents, in addition to working on their own projects (sometimes linked to the Villa or the town, sometimes following a more personal path), created something together, drawing on their varied skills to build a common project, something shared and collective: a magazine.
A work in progress, created with many hands, a chorus of many voices. This project was made possible thanks to the openness and constant support of the Villa Medici management. But above all, it is due to the residents who have come through the difficult period of the pandemic here, with its challenges in terms of face-to-face relationships, and who have been able to rediscover this dynamic in a collective conception, open to outside contributions.
They have given this magazine, in digital format and designed to welcome written, visual, figurative and even audio contributions, a name: ECCO.
A short, synthetic, affirmative word, a declaration of presence, here and now.

And so here we are, putting this magazine at the center of attention, with a special paper issue that takes the place of a catalog, but looks more like an artist’s book, conceived and imagined by the residents, as well as a “living” issue, a collective work that will take shape in the exhibition and occupy the physical space where the viewer will be present.

Laura Cherubini