“Where is South? ”An exhibition by Moleskine Foundation in partnership with the UNHCR during the Venice Biennale d’Arte 2019​

“Where is South?”is an exhibition promoted by Moleskine Foundation in partnership with the UNHCR which opens at Palazzo Querini in Venice on 17th September. This exhibition showcases notebooks created during Moleskine Foundation’s itinerant AtWork project. An AtWork workshop will also be held in Venice from 9th to 13th September. This workshop will host 25 young people (aged between 18 and 30) from a variety of countries and backgrounds – many of whom are in Italy either as refugees or asylum seekers. ​ 

The exhibition is part of Rothko in Lampedusa, a contemporary art show promoted by the UNHCR (Moleskine Foundation partner) and organized in conjunction with the Biennale d’Arte 2019. 

AtWork is an itinerant educational format created by Moleskine Foundation and its curator and advisor, Simon Njami. At its heart is the principle that every human being is equipped with a unique, one-off creative force capable of contributing positively to the cultural and human development of the surrounding community. AtWork uses the creative process to stimulate critical thinking and debate among participants, with the aim of inspiring a new generation of creative thinkers. AtWork holds themed workshops run by an artist or curator who provides a starting point for group debate and individual reflection. Each participant then uses this theme to shape and customize a notebook that they can then decide to donate to Moleskine Foundation’s Collection. ​ ​ ​ 

The “Where is South?” theme proposed for the Moleskine Foundation AtWork project aims to “free the mind from all the prejudices and ideologies that crowd our heads when we name the 4 points of the compass. Instead, we want to reconsider them for what they are: directions”, writes Simon Njami. “If we manage to do this, we might rediscover that North and South don’t exist as such, but that they actually only take on meaning depending on where we think they are: wherever we are, there is always a ‘South’ [...] ‘South’ always begins with me.”

The Venetian leg of the “Where is South?” ​ tour (the third of six in cities around the world) is based around the central theme of the Rothko in Lampedusa exhibition. Rothko in Lampedusa features the work of eight accomplished artists who have all personally experienced what it means to be a refugee, or who have made this theme a pivotal element in their artistic career. These artists are joined by five emerging creative talents, all of whom currently have refugee status. This exhibition aims to highlight both the condition and the talent of people forced to flee the place they call home. ​ ​ ​ 

With the aim of bringing together diverse points of view, several participants of the B&W - Black & White, la tendenza migrante project curated by Caterina Pecchioli and organized by Nation25 - will also be taking part in the workshop. This project investigates the fashion of young immigrants in Italy, where style and diversity are coming together to challenge a precise ideological position regarding the four points of the compass and, therefore, our own view of our position in the world. 

Through the partnership with the UNHCR, Moleskine Foundation will also take part in Barcolana, the largest regatta in the world, on Sunday 13th October in Trieste. Moleskine Foundation will be taking to the water in Kleronia, a sail boat kindly provided by her owners for the occasion. ​ ​ ​ 

For this event, the founders of Moleskine Foundation will symbolically carry a seafaring manifesto from Venice to Trieste – conceived during an AtWork workshop. The manifesto invites everyone participating in the regatta to make the symbolic gesture of raising the flag of the UNHCR in support of seafaring culture and its binding laws of rescue and welcome for anyone who finds themselves in difficulty in the water. 

“UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, is happy to be participating as a partner in this initiative, firm in the conviction that the Mediterranean Sea must return to being a place of co-existence, and not a symbol of tragedy and closed doors”. These are the words of Carlotta Sami, UNHCR spokesperson for Southern Europe, regarding the importance of the initiative promoted in partnership with Moleskine Foundation. ​ ​ 

The initiative is also endorsed and supported by the Italian association, Giovani per l’UNESCO. ​ 

The Venice leg of AtWork was made possible thanks to the support of many private individuals, as well as the generous contribution made by System Professional, a hair brand of Coty which puts the human and creative potential of its stylists at the heart of its values. 

The workshop space inside Palazzo Querini is kindly offered by Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi.

Moleskine Foundation
​Moleskine Foundationis a non-profit organization that believes that Creativity and Quality Education are key to producing positive change in society and driving our collective future. It is committed to providing youth with unconventional educational tools and experiences that help foster critical thinking, creative doing and life-long learning, with a focus on communities affected by cultural and social deprivation. To achieve this, it works at the intersection of three focus areas: innovative education, art and culture for social transformation, advocacy and cross-cultural sensitization. With a special focus on Africa and its diaspora, the Foundation works closely with local organizations to fund, support and co-create a wide range of distinctive initiatives. Together with its partners and programs’ beneficiaries the Moleskine Foundation strives to catalyse systemic change through an open, participatory and cross-sectorial approach.

AtWork
​AtWorkis an itinerant educational format, conceived by Moleskine Foundation and Simon Njami. It envisions 3 key elements: a workshop, an exhibition, the community of participants. AtWork uses the creative process to stimulate critical thinking, creative doing and debate among participants. It helps to develop the intellectual and emotional skills necessary to develop both a personal and a collective sense of identity. The project was born in 2012 in Dakar and to date has seen 15 editions around the world involving more than 500 participants. From 2018 the workshops are themed: the "I had a dream" tour of 2018 took place in 4 cities and countries. In 2019 the theme is "Where is South?" and is taking place in 6 new cities and countries: New York (USA), Libreville (Gabon); Venice (ITA); Maputo (Mozambique); London (UK); the sixth stage is being defined.

Simon Njami
​Simon Njamiis an independent curator, lecturer, art critic, and writer. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of “Revue Noire.” Previously, Njami was the artistic director of the Bamako Photography Biennial 2000-2010, and co-curator of the first African pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. He has curated a number of contemporary art and photography exhibitions, including Africa Remix (2004-2007) and the first African art fair in Johannesburg in 2008. In 2014, The Divine Comedyexhibition, created and curated by him, started a world tour at the MMK (Museum für Moderne Kunst) in Frankfurt, moving on to the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah and the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, DC. He is the director of the Pan African Master Classes in Photography, a project created in partnership with the Goethe Institute; artistic director of the Donwahi Foundation (Abidjan, Ivory Coast); adviser to the Sindika Dokolo Collection (Luanda, Angola); secretary of the special jury of the World Press Photography Awards; artistic director of the first edition of Off Biennale (Cairo, 2015) and the 2016 and 2018 Dak’Art Biennale (Dakar, Senegal), the first and most important artistic event in Africa. 

Simon Njami is AtWork co-creator and advisor.