Such Claims on Territory

For their project Radical Hospitality, ar/ge kunst and Lungomare invited the Turkish artist Can Altay to confront with issues related to ideas of welcoming and to question them.

ar/ge Kunst and Lungomare jointly curate the long-term Residency project “Radical Hospitality” and invite the artist Can Altay to deeply confront with issues related to ideas of welcoming and openness and to question them.

Hospitality describes in this context a social space intended as a temporary condition as well as a relationship that is subject to a negotiation between power positions.

Can Altay’s residency and project, starts with a two week-long exhibition at Lungomare. Marking the first part of a durational experiment in making and showing work, this showcase consists of the artist's first impressions and beginnings after the two stays in the region.

Altay’s works start with clues, instead of evidence. He is taking on the Virgolo, the hill within immediate proximity to the city center in Bolzano. Looking at stories and histories of territorial claim, Altay’s work brings together open impressions as well as reflections on little known anecdotes such as the tunnel-dwellers that occupied the unfinished Virgolo tunnel during and after WWII.

With a particular interest on inhabitation and infrastructure space, these first fragments resonate the overarching frame of Altay’s residency, “Radical Hospitality”, where the artist becomes both the host and the guest.