cover: Bili Bidjocka, Ecrtiture Infinie
lettera27 Foundation will celebrate the launch of its new website with two AtWork sessions in Milan led by the artist Bili Bidjocka: from 24th to 25th November at Frigoriferi Milanesi in collaboration with FARE and from 29th to the 30th November, in collaboration with Leo Burnett communication agency at the Primo Marella Gallery.
Certain moments are charged with multiple meanings, and this is exactly what is happening these days. As we are launching a new website that gathers the life of lettera27’s past ten years, we will also implement two new AtWork workshops in Milan. The first one, on November 24-25th at Frigoriferi Milanesi in collaboration with FARE, and the second one on November 29-30th in collaboration with Leo Burnett agency at Primo Marella Gallery in Milan. Both workshops will be led by an exceptional artist Bili Bidjocka. Cameroonian by origin and Parisian by choice, Bili is a long-time friend and partner of lettera27. An alliance born out of elective affinities through his work of art Ecriture Infinie.
The inspiration for this “double date” is Cadavre Exquis: the collective game by surrealists that gave birth to the idea of infinite writing as a creative form to produce shared meanings as opposed to the individual ones. It is with this spirit that the two workshops titled “Concept vs Slogan. The Group Show. Ecriture Infinie/Cadavre Exquis” will put together a group of young creative talents studying various art forms and a group of young advertising professionals. Their experiences will take place in two different moments, but will be connected.
The first group will open the game, tackling the idea of the artistic concept as opposed to the advertising one. A musical counterpoint rather than a juxtaposition. The discussion will start from the conflictual relationship that is often attributed to these two hemispheres of expression, but the goal is to overcome this stereotype. This point of view of the opposition will be questioned. The discussion will not be about “right” or “wrong”, but about different ways to be creative in the XXI century.
As a result of the discussion the participants of the first workshop will start their artwork on the Moleskine notebooks which will be finished by the participants of the second workshop from Leo Burnett agency. During the second workshop the advertising professionals will go through the same process. This experience of sharing, of questioning oneself and one’s certainties, of having the two creative outputs speak with each other will becoming an art piece in itself. The two groups will meet at a later moment during the Group Show, where the co-created notebooks will be exhibited and will reveal the final output of the process.
The collaboration with FARE is born out of the synchronicity of the shared values, programs and goals. Through its international network of partners FARE for years has been involved in training and mobility of the young artists, in particular in the form of residencies. The partnership with Leo Burnett is the first example of applying AtWork format in the corporate sphere. Its goal is to create a meaningful and profoundly enriching experience for the participants and at the same time to make them part of lettera27’s mission and its international artistic network. This experimental space will create a virtuous cycle where AtWork Corporate experience will allow us to implement workshop on the African continent. In fact, Leo Burnett’s contribution for the workshop will help to finance the next workshop in Africa in 2017.
Claude Bunny Massassa is a contemporary artist from Gabon. She created Bunny Studio in 2016, a start-up dedicated to photography production, which became DWABI Studio in 2021. As an artist, she has represented Gabon in many international exhibitions in Senegal, Uganda, France, the United States, and Italy. In her art, she denounces social stigmas around issues of identity and mental health, and explores themes of traditions and myths.
Executive Director Kimberly Aceves- Iñiguez has been passionately committed for over 20 years to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Kimberly served as the Executive Director for Youth Together, the founding organization of the RYSE Center.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently acts as the Associate Director. She supports and guides the implementation and integration of healing-centered practices, grounded in racial justice and liberation, and also develops, promotes, and advocates for policies, investments, practices, and research that enliven healing, justice, and liberation. Kanwarpal believes that the purpose of her work and life is to contribute to movements, communities, and legacies of liberation that honor the ancestors who fought for her existence and survival, and to forge a world that is just and gentle for future generations.
Sagal Ali is the founder and executive director of SAF. After a few years in her career in heritage protection in the cultural sector, she decided to develop the initiative to directly support young creatives in Somalia by launching her own foundation. She hopes to bridge the social gaps and inequalities women face in Somalia, both in society and in the arts scene.
Co-founders Catherine Dunga and Marleen Palmaers created Kitambo to bridge the gap between the African diaspora in Colombia and the narratives from the continent. From Kinshasa and Antwerp respectively, they work to connect African artists from the continent and their peers from the Colombian diaspora.
Martha Kazungu is a curator, art Historian and Founder of Njabala Foundation, an organization that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom.
Alicia Hansen is a photographer and teacher from New York. She founded NYC SALT in 2008 and, beyond teaching valuable creative skills to her students, has developed a long-term support system to uplift them through school and into their early artistic careers.
