Flâneur Residency Launches in Molise with Satoshi Hirose

A new triennial artist residency program called Flâneur has debuted in Molise, Italy, as an offshoot of Vis à Vis – artists in residence project, organized by the cultural association Limiti inchiusi arte contemporanea of Campobasso. While Vis à Vis operates in small Molise villages, Flâneur takes place at Palazzo ex GIL, headquarters of Fondazione Molise Cultura, the region's sole official cultural institution, which since 2013 has curated events across visual arts, theater, music, and literature under Lorenzo Canova. For its first edition, the residency selected Japanese-born, Italian-adopted artist Satoshi Hirose (Tokyo, 1963), who will reside in Campobasso from May 2 to 23, 2016, under the curatorship of Silvia Valente and Matteo Innocenti. Hirose will use a studio within the foundation to explore local history, customs, and traditions, ultimately creating an artwork that will become part of the institution's collection. His practice spans installation, sculpture, photography, painting, and participatory action, often repurposing everyday objects to challenge perception. He states: 'the banal daily dimension of existence, where one believes there is never anything new, is in truth a world full of stimuli. Reproducing and remodulating the small facts of everyday life reveals the unsuspected richness of this dimension of human existence.'