AtWork Tour “Where is South?” 2019 AtWork Venice together with UNHCR

We are very proud to announce the collaboration with UNHCR on the project Rothko in Lampedusa, that aims to promote the creative talent brought by refugees which, if allowed free expression, can hugely enrich the communities that take them in.

Rothko in Lampedusa is an initiative of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and curated by Luca Berta and Francesca Giubilei. The project has been organised to coincide with the 58th International Art Exhibition in Venice and opens to the public on 11 May. Until November 24th, the UNHCR Pavilion will host events, initiatives, experiences and meetings.

As a partner of the initiative Moleskine Foundation will organize the educational workshop AtWork, conducted by Simon Njami from 9 to 13 September for 25 refuges and asylum seekers from Italy’s national network of integration projects (SIPROIMI), followed by an exhibition of personalised notebooks created by the participants, at Palazzo Querini.

Mohamed Keita, AtWorker, participant of Rothko in Lampedusa exhibition

The notebooks will be exhibited in dialogue with the works of eight contemporary artists who have experienced exile, or who
have addressed the theme of forced displacement in their artistic research: Ai Weiwei, Adel Abdessemed, Christian Boltanski, Dinh Q. Lê, Nalini Malani, Abu Bakarr Mansaray, Richard Mosse and Artur Żmijewski as well as 5 emerging refuge artists, among which we are happy to see Mohamed Keita, who participated in AtWork Modena in 2015. A beautiful sign of our AtWork community growth.
The AtWork Venice chapter is part of AtWork Tour “Where is South?” 2019, that consists in 6 chapters in 6 different countries, 150 participants, that will produce 150 notebooks during the different workshops.

With the same spirit, Moleskine Foundation is also supporting the “Rothko in Lampedusa” project at this year’s Barcolana event aboard the Kleronia sailboat. Provided by the owners, this craft will invite all seafarers to take the symbolic action of raising the UNHCR flag among the many other nautical pennants blowing in the wind during the regatta.

“UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, is excited to participate as a partner in this initiative, convinced that the Mediterranean Sea must once again become a basin of coexistence and not a symbol of tragedies and closures.” Carlotta Sami, UNHCR spokesperson for Southern Europe.

These two overlapping and impactful initiatives bring together creativity, education and seafaring culture in support of inalienable human rights.

Let’s inspire a new generation of creative thinkers together!

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