Essenza Club's Auser Limbo: A Nomadic Curatorial Project on the Serchio River

Essenza Club, a new curatorial project founded by artists Alessandro Nucci (Lucca, 1977) and Jennyfer Haddad (Rosny sous Bois, 1983), launched its first exhibition, Auser Limbo, along the banks of the Serchio River in Lucca. The duo invited artists Alex Bienstock, Marco Ceroni, Ala Dehghan, Laura Gozlan, and Deirdre Sargent to submit works, which were installed among leaves, sand, pebbles, and water. Each piece was photographed under Nucci and Haddad's supervision, and the resulting images form the online exhibition on Essenza Club's website. The project's title references the river's minor branch, Auserculus, and the concept of limbo. Art historian Paolo Emilio Antognoli Vili, co-founder of Pavillon Social with Nucci, contributed a text linking the works to the river's history, stating, "Certainly this project works on suspension, on that moment of pause on the bank, between aquatic and terrestrial vegetation and among polished stones." The exhibition is exclusively online, as Essenza Club is a nomadic curatorial project that experiments with various platforms. The artists emphasized the role of instinct and chance in the installation process, adapting works to different river locations. Photographer Elena Guidi documented the exhibition, with nightly discussions shaping the final presentation. Nucci and Haddad stress that they are artists, not curators, and Essenza Club may evolve into something different in the future.