The School of Filò
The School of Filò is an educational, social and cultural project exploring the rural marginal realities of ‘contrada’ villages of the Agno Valley in Veneto (Italy). The project brings together local organiìsations, collectives, and associations already active in the area, together with numerous volunteers and residents of the contradas. Every year the School proposes new research-action initiatives in collaboration with artists, academics, researches, and national and international institutions, with the intention of understanding and learning form the contradas to imagine a more sustainable and equitable future for these lands at the margin.
As part of the School of Filò project, I co-produced the event under the guidance of Carlotta Novella, taking responsibility for organizing the artist residency component and collaborating with my collective, testemobili, to curate the final event. I also oversaw the three working groups, with particular focus on the textile group where I contributed to concept ideation and provided practical assistance in sewing together the mobile archive.
Pictures are from Elena Lorenzi and me.
This year’s project created in collaboration with testemobili, Resolve collective, Public works, AA Architecture University, saw seven students visiting from London from 31 March to 5 April 2025. During this week, the students were engaged in developing 3 projects for the Contrade, together with 3 artists who will stay in residence at the School of Filò:
An Itinerant Archive on a FIAT Panda, to collect contrada stories and knowledge, developed with Scottish artist Lizzie Munro and in collaboration with the Impatto Zero project promoted by Progetto Giovani Valdagno, and the residents of the Rossati di Sotto, Lucchetta and Bergamini di Sotto contrade;
A Cultural and Musical Festival in the Bergamini di Sotto district, curated by the Valdagno collective testemobili. The event will be enriched by the fabric works of Berlin-based artist Bettina Mileta, created together with the students of the AA, with the support of the Tailoring Workshop of the Il Cerchio Social Cooperative;
A Murales in Contrada to celebrate the culture of bread made in contrada, developed with Vicenza artist Davide Sozio, together with the residents of contrada Meggiara who still keep alive the tradition of communal contrada ovens. The exploration of these convivial tools will also be pursued through a collaboration with the IIS ‘G.G. Trissino - Liceo Artistico’ for a didactic exchange (already in its third year), which will also include a visit to Valdagno by the renowned Vicenza artist, Galliano Rosset, author of the Vicenza Meteorognostic Almanac ‘El Pojana’. The activities were developed thanks to teachers Elena Bernardotto, Fabio Sandri, Silvia Borriero, Silvia Vincis, Danilo Falcone, and Trissino Headmistress Prof. Maria Cristina Benetti.
Panda archive, an ambitious project to create an archive of the contrade on four wheels.
The panda, with the help of Akil and Seth from resolve collective, Carlotta from the school of filò, artist in residence Lizzie, Andrea from testemobili, Charles and — from AA architechture school, and the help of Lucio from contrada Bergamini and Simone, became a mobile cinema, with screening space on top to project documentaries and multimedia resources, and a indoor cinema too, projecting the pictures of valdagno’s photographer Elsa Visonà, courtesy of Archivio Elsa Visonà. I supported the group with the construction of a in-panda exhibition, sawing together fabrics used also in the textile pieces, and the pictures, linking the two projects together.
The textile pieces were inspired by thinking through what it means to arrive at the “contrada” physically, somatically, and temporally. Nina from resolve collective, artist in residence Bettina, and Haya and Aron from AA architecture school and I created three separate pieces: for the main work we have woven together pieces of fabric that tell the stories of the ancestral knowledges of the contrade we have visited, embedded with the what we were feelings, and the affects we were able to receive and carry. The second piece was a reflection on signaling, marking a path, and waving destination, made of smaller flags placed alongside two trails leading to the home-base in contrada Bergamini, and three main flags, which could be seen from afar amongst the trees signaling the house. The third piece was a sky wall made of fabric, meant to celebrate visually the final event of the school of filò, where after being hosted by different contrade and local associations all week, we hosted a gnocchi laboratory and dinner with ife.collective and party with testemobili.
Here is the final day of the school of filò where artist in residence Davide Sozio presents to the contrada meggiara the amazing mural he created supported by – – from the aa architecture school. It was a beautiful and moving moment to celebrate the end of the school surrounded by the people form all the contrades coming together, the students, artist, us from testemobili celebrating the richness of the wisdom and the culture of togetherness and belonging that the people from the contrade shared with us all week.
