Our main site for summer/autumn 2012 was set in Taibon Agordino (Belluno); twenty minutes north of Sass Muss, even further into the heart of the Dolomiti compared with the 2011 site (Sass Muss), at the foot of the mountain groups called Agner , and Pale di San Lucano. The search for relevant industrial sites in the region of the Dolomiti is achieved through an explorative principle, rather than the logic of what is most convenient.

The factory

It’s a single large building measuring over 3.000 square meters that had been lying unused for a decade, when it was located by Dolomiti Contemporanee in the February of 2012. The building was made in the ’70s, and had housed a glasses factory called Visibilia. We’d like to point out that the area around the town of Agordo is one of the most important locations for the eyewear district, which finds in the larger Belluno area one of its productive key points worldwide, as is made clear by the presence of some of the top international companies (the first Luxottica plant is located about a kilometer away from here). Hence, glasses and glasses factories, like mountains and nature, stand as one of the aspects of the human and work culture of this territory. The former Visibilia factory was a functional structure, suitable for Dolomiti Contemporaree’s necessities. Necessities which were of various nature: logistics, availability, exhibition, inhabitation. The rationality of the architectural structure (developed on a single plate divided in different rooms, easily reachable from the ground floor) has allowed us to make use of no less than eight exhibition halls, an area in which to set up a refreshment bar, a room for workshops, an area for offices and bookshops and, on the upper floor, a dozen apartments, for a total of about forty available beds. Those were necessary to both accommodate Dolomiti Contemporanee’s staff and house the artists in Residence. The factory, as a matter of fact, has become a continuously inhabited place, as it’s the norm for the project’s format.

Repurposing and revival

DC, assisted as usual by dozens of individual subjects-partners who are involved in the unearthing/revival operation, has straightened up this structure in a couple of months, re-opening it and turning it into the principal site of summer 2012. The Residence institution was, in here like in Sass Muss, the heart of an experience of hospitality and interaction, which has lead to over 70 artists crossing paths in this open station. On the 4th of August 2012, the first 6 exhibits of the Taibon block were inaugurated. On the 22nd of September 7 more were launched in the second cycle of exhibits. Several exhibits have been entrusted to independent curators. The innovation in the format, compared to its debut of 2011, is that in Taibon, together with the independent curators and collectives, several private Galleries have been invited as well. They have collaborated with DC, and have organized several exhibits (personal, bipersonal) in the block, bringing in a series of young artists, all in line with the general concept and interested in this operative procedure, effectively promoting the experimental side of their works: no little paintings on the walls, but some construction sites. Real factory and real manufactures. The Galleries have responded positively, supporting the essence of the project. It wasn’t a commercial operation, but an additional cultural opening, which has been well received. The Galleries, accepting to become part of the block, have proven to be in possession, as it happens sometimes, of an inclination towards research; not a fair, then, but rather an interaction and a research for new a format, open and able to cross over traditional codifications and conventional roles. The Taibon block was closed at the end of October, together with the Residence. 5.000 people have crossed paths in it. The activities that have taken place in there are documented in the 2012 website. Following the operation of revival, the factory has started up again. After DC left it, six commercial and productive businesses have taken residence in the factory. They are partners of the DC project who have rediscovered the factory while they helped us exhuming its corpse, and thus have moved in once we’ve left. A productive handover, which has entailed the definitive revival of the site. They say that you can’t eat with art (figuratively speaking), but if you’re hungry enough, of ideas, of sensible procedures, you can. Those who sleep, on the other hand, don’t eat. But this, as evidenced by facts, it’s true for more than just artists.

see a video about the first session of exhibitions at Taibon Block >>

see a video about the second session of exhibitions at Taibon Block >>

more videos here >>

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