Campsirago Residenza Launches International Academy for Natural Arts

The Campsirago artistic residency space in Colle Brianza, Italy, directed by Michele Losi and run by the Pleiadi collective, is renovating the historic Palazzo Giambassi to create new spaces for training, residencies, and cultural programming. A crowdfunding campaign starting May 8, 2021 aims to raise €20,000 for the renovation. The residency will host the International Academy for Natural Arts, the first Italian center for landscape-applied performing arts, founded in the Netherlands by performance scholar Sjoerd Wagenaar and also active in Japan and France. The Academy introduces the Radius research methodology, a format for studying landscape through a 500-meter territorial radius, involving artists, architects, biologists, and local residents. Pleiadi's first Radius project, "R500 Safari nel labirinto urbano," focused on Milan's Isola district, a former working-class neighborhood now emblematic of gentrification. The performance, presented at Zona K in October 2020 with support from Regione Lombardia, guided ten spectators on a sensory walk through a 500-meter area bounded by Zona K, Bosco Verticale, Biblioteca degli Alberi, and Palazzo della Regione Lombardia. Participants wore headphones transmitting environmental sounds and interviews with residents, created by sound designer Luca Maria Baldini. The project explores urban transformation, social dynamics, and the relationship between humans and their environment.