Peripheral Memories is a project that brings memory, identity and territory into dialogue through the sensitivity of contemporary artists-in-residence. Through the experiences of Michela Tabaton-Osbourne and Emily Mallia, the project aims to explore and reinterpret the historical and cultural signs that have shaped our border, involving communities, businesses and other local realities.
MICHELA TABATON-OSBOURNE / in residence in DUINO-AURISINA
Michela Tabaton-Osbourne is in artistic residence in the Duino-Aurisina area, with extended investigations in Trieste and Gradisca d’Isonzo. In this context, the artist focuses on exploring the link between colonialism and extractive enterprise, phenomena that have always transformed the border area.
The artist, known for her style that combines heterogeneous materials and artistic languages, will conduct an artistic residency in the Duino-Aurisina area, extending her investigation to Trieste and Gradisca d’Isonzo. In the process, it will collaborate with companies, industrial archaeology sites and local communities, collecting testimonies and involving young people in collective workshops.
The result of this process will be a new sculptural work that will render, with all its complexities and contradictions, an aesthetic and symbolic portrait of the territory and its historical and contemporary dynamics.
ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS WITH THE ARTIST:
Visiting the Gramar Marmi company and meeting with local historical memory bearers
11 February 2025
An immersion in the heritage and history of Duino-Aurisina, thanks to participatory exploration practices involving the company and those who work there, investigating extraction techniques and processing methods.
Afterwards, the artist will meet a group of former quarrymen: a workshop for collecting memories, an experience of telling the complex local history between wartime events and the coexistence of the Italian and Slovenian communities.
‘Between sculpture and counter-monument’
Creative workshop for girls and boys 11+
Thursday 13 February 2025, from 2.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m., at the IC Della Torre-Verni of Gradisca d’Isonzo
With the contribution of the artist and the collaboration of the Comfort Zone art therapists, we will explore the history of the territory in a creative workshop inspired by local monuments and their forms, techniques and materials. Through the use of unusual materials, we will create sculptural counter-monumental re-elaborations that will interpret those monuments in a personal and innovative way: an experience that links art, memory and territory, to reflect on the relationship between destruction, reconstruction and local traditions, rediscovering roots and imagining the future.
Meet the Artist!
15 February 2025, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m,
at Slovenian Cultural Circle Igo Gruden – Location Aurisina no. 89
At the end of her artistic residency, Michela Tabaton-Osbourne, accompanied by historian Federico Tenca Montini, will share the fruit of her research on the Duino-Aurisina area in an event open to the public. The theme of the meeting will be the stories and memories linked to the colonial past and the theme of stone quarries, which together form the basis of her artwork project. The artist will reveal initial insights into how he will transform these stimuli into a sculptural work, reflecting on the historical and cultural tensions of the place.
This meeting will be an opportunity for the public to learn about the artist’s creative journey and how the identity of the territory can be distilled through artistic work, creating a dialogue between memory, materials and contemporary art.
The event is free and open to all, booking required at prenotazioni@iodeposito.org
The Artist
Michela Tabaton-Osbourne (London, 1992) is an artist born and raised in London to an Italian mother and Jamaican father, currently working in Italy. Her artistic career began at Camberwell College of Arts in London and continued in Italy, where she specialised in sculpture in Carrara.
Tabaton-Osbourne uses mixed media sculpture as a tool to explore
themes of cultural hybridity, belonging, tradition and alienation. She favours ‘traditional’ techniques such as sculpture and mosaic as they represent an engagement with heritage and ritual. In addition to her academic career, Tabaton-Osbourne has actively participated in art residencies both nationally and internationally, further enriching her research. Her dedication has been recognised through various prestigious awards, including her recent recognition with the 1888 Orsoni Prize awarded by the MAR (Ravenna Art Museum).
The project is financed by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.
The activities of the programme are free and open to all, with prior booking: prenotazioni@iodeposito.org
