edited by Milovan Farronato
published by Salerno Editrice, Roma 2011
Texts by Simon Castets, Milovan Farronato, Nicoletta Fiorucci, Goffredo Fofi, James Hamilton, Arianna Rosica, Rita Selvaggio, Angela Vettese
Participants Loukia Alavanou, Simon Castets, Enrico David, Alessandro Di Giampietro, Milovan Farronato, Nicoletta Fiorucci, Anna Franceschini, Pascal Gautrand, Paolo Gonzato, Christian Holstad, Ian and Mark Hundley, Runa Islam, Alexej Koschkarow, Goshka Macuga, Rupert Mellor, Sefer Memişoglu, Mahmoud Mohamed Mahmoud Abouelnasr, Kenneth Andrew Mroczek, Simone Rainer, Arianna Rosica, Rita Selvaggio, Sissi, Tina Tyrell, Angela Vettese
Roadside Picnic is an artists’ residence project. No formula, no protocol, no need to produce a result, before or after the experience, no obligation on the participants. From summer 2008 to winter 2010-11 the first Roadside Picnic—first in a long series that will always be staged in different and highly distinctive contexts—took shape on the volcanic island of Stromboli, playing host to artists, curators, fashion designers and friends.
‘I was fascinated by the idea of offering artists an opportunity for diversion, a moment of pause and, paradoxically, a break from their work. Of allowing them to experience a state of ‘passivity,’ a passivity devoid of pathos, the opposite of a controlled and targeted activity’, declares Nicoletta Fiorucci, founder of the Trust, to whose words the task of introducing the volume Rolling Stones has been entrusted.
‘Two tamarisks, a table and a parapet from which to gaze at the sea, the mouth of an active volcano overhead and a group of people who have chosen to focus their interests on visual art. No religion has been founded nor history changed in the house on Stromboli, but to understand the meaning of it all it is necessary to get away from the idea of the holiday as an empty hole. You have to turn this perspective on its head and think of a time that was completely full, in which there was nothing but life and all the rest had been set aside. On Stromboli it was possible to wander elsewhere. Lost loves and strange children, fancy dress, superfluous hair and unfinished visions or desires for an exhibition never staged and that, between a sunset and a dawn finally assumed clear outlines.’ Angela Vettese
Rolling Stones is an album of photographs through which the experience can be reconstructed, focusing on the aspects of conviviality and exchange, alternating with works spontaneously inspired by the stay on the island and texts created in response to the residence and/or the surroundings in which it took place.
Stromboli: a geographical reality but also a projection of the mind, an inner landscape but even more a metaphor for existence. Stromboli, a circle around the fire, a small piece of land, a little bit of history, metaphor for time.
Book photo credits Simon Castets, Alessandro Di Giampietro, Anna Franceschini, Paolo Gonzato, Christian Holstad, Runa Islam, Goshka Macuga, Rupert Mellor, Kenneth Andrew Mroczek, Sissi, Mark Hundley
design Tommaso Garner
publishing coordinator Giulia Brivio
English translator Huw Evans
Italian translator Camilla Pietrabissa
format cm 31 x 23.5, paperback, p. 288
ISBN 978-88-8402-739-9
Book launch on October 7th, 2011, Swiss Institute, New York
Moderator Gianni Jetzer
Presenters Simon Castets, Christian Holstad, Milovan Farronato, Runa Islam
Sound by Morten Norbye Halvorsen