FADA - Festival Arts Design Acerenza
Project: FADA - Festival Arts and Design Acerenza
Anatomy of the Project:
Site Reclamation: Transformation of 8 abandoned historical workshops into contemporary digital galleries.
Multidisciplinary Curation: A collection of 50 digital works, including 3D projections, virtual photography, and Metaverse/VR experiences.
Bio-Acoustic Installation: A groundbreaking ambient soundscape generated in real-time by the bio-feedback of living plants, by artist Sam Nester.
Thematic Focus: A deep exploration of sustainability and environmental stewardship set against the backdrop of a centuries-old stone village.
Public Integration: A free, month-long festival integrated into the local "struscio" (evening stroll), making high-concept art accessible to the local community.
Core Competencies:
Urban Revitalization Strategy:
Developed a repopulation blueprint using art as a catalyst to transform abandoned homes into permanent galleries and summer residences.
Identified and negotiated the use of private and public abandoned spaces to create a decentralized museum circuit.
Production & Technical Management:
Managed the complex technical integration of high-tech digital media (VR/AR/Projections) within sensitive ancient architectural environments.
Oversaw the end-to-end logistics of hosting international artists in a remote Southern Italian location.
Creative Curation & Narrative:
Sourced and curated international digital artists to align with the festival’s environmental and social themes.
Designed the visual identity and branding to position Acerenza as a modern destination for the "Specialized Tourism" sector.
Community & Institutional Liaison:
Coordinated with local government and residents to ensure the success of the festival.
Crafted the Sponsorship Program and Pitch Decks to secure funding for a first-year experimental festival.
About:
August 2022 | Acerenza, Italy
FADA 2022 is the inaugural edition of the Art & Design Festival of Acerenza, a medieval village in Southern Italy facing the critical challenge of rural depopulation. As younger generations migrate and the historic center sits largely silent, this festival was conceived as a bold community revitalization project designed to breathe new life into the town’s ancient heart.
For the month of August, the traditional evening stroll (lo struscio) was reimagined as a multisensory creative immersion. The project successfully reclaimed eight ancient workshops—spaces that had been shuttered for decades—and transformed them into immersive art installations. By leveraging the town's abandoned real estate and unused storefronts, FADA serves as a scalable model to transform this small village into a permanent international artist colony.
The exhibition showcased fifty digital works by international artists, creating a bridge between medieval architecture and the Metaverse. From 3D projections and VR experiences to an ambient sound installation generated by living plants, the festival centered on themes of sustainability, climate change, and environmental stewardship, attracting a new sector of specialized tourism to the region.
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