Opening Foreignness Fondazione La Fabbrica del Cioccolato

La Fabbrica del Cioccolato Foundation

Opening of Foreignness | Programme 2016
Anna Galtarossa | Kamchatka ’16 | Daniel González | Paper Building
Essays by Noah Stolz Saturday 21st May 2016 | 18:00 | Blenio Valley | Canton of Ticino - Switzerland

La Fabbrica del Cioccolato is a new foundation, open to all cultural and artistic expressions. On Saturday 21st May at 18:00 it will launch Foreignness, a curatorial, multidisciplinary, two-year project, developed by the artistic director Franco Marinotti. The foundation is located in the fascinating Alps of the canton of Ticino, in the Blenio Valley, and it aims at protecting and maintaining the architectural and archaeological heritage of the former industrial complex Cima Norma, established in Torre-Dangio village at the beginning of 20th century.
The site specific works Paper Building, by Daniel González, and Kamchatka ‘16, by Anna Galtarossa, will provide the opening of Foreignness with a dreamlike and fascinating atmosphere.
The word Foreignness highlights different ways of feeling foreign, a stranger, and external to a specific reality.
Foreignness is a fine arts festival that analyses the interaction between art, its different forms of expressions, and the territory, in the sense of an evolving cultural, social, and political heritage.
La Fabbrica del Cioccolato will be a permanent workshop focussing on the creative process, interacting with the audience and the surrounding environment.

During the opening the whole façade of the factory will be covered by the ephemeral architecture of Paper Building by Daniel González: a monumental installation of 890 square metres representing the feeling of being foreign in a certain context, and making the building interact with the audience’s intimate emotions, by applying several layers of white paper to the external façade of the factory.
Paper Building hides the ancient architecture of the Cima Norma chocolate factory, causing a loss of identity, due to a change in the original environment. Citizens will lose an important point of reference for the territory, and they will find a new one by taking part in the opening, when they will tear the paper down to open the factory’s doors and windows.

It will then be possible to start a fantastic and daring journey to discover Kamchatka ’16 by Anna Galtarossa, a map in the mind of the artist, brought into the external world. Kamchatka ’16 is a pręt‐ŕ‐porter trip; an exploration of tensions between culture and nature, started by the artist in 2005 with Kamchatka, at Viafarini, Milan. Visitors will transit this visionary universe and will be carried across a world of fantastic creatures, like pioneers on a wagon. At the end of the track, explorers will meet an ancient and famous fighter, who will be shaped with the help of local artisans, and influenced by local materials and nature: a guardian of the valley; a spirit coming from far away to protect it.
The two works will be further examined in essays by Noah Stolz.

In July the Foreignness programme will also be screening Cacao Collective, a documentary produced by 46040studio, founded by the Spanish photographers and film makers Ivo Rovira and Ana Ponce. Il Pardo in Fabbrica will also take place in July and will schedule cinematographic events in collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival. In August the Austrian artist and director Oliver Ressler, who produces installations, films and projects in public space, will also be involved in the Foreignness programme (4 August – 14 September).
All updates are available on the foundation’s website: www.lafabbricadelcioccolato.ch