An exhibition space is a place that hosts works and offers those who enter not only a vision, but an experience: a journey through the work and imagination of one or more artists. Over time these spaces have transformed to the point of now also becoming virtual places on social media with the aim of expanding their audience. During the pandemic the transformation process accelerated with the temporary closure of these countless environments considered “unnecessary”. But the need to meet, see each other and talk to friends, relatives or even strangers has not stopped people from queuing interminably at the supermarket, at the post office or in all those places that have remained open, in order to interact with each other.
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Behind the Gran Sasso, between the highest massif of the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea, on the outskirts of Teramo, there is “Lavapiù”, a self-service laundry that washes and dries. Precisely one of those places that remained open during the pandemic which, due to the simple presence of a snack and coffee machine, has become a meeting place for the people of the Gammarana neighborhood.
A place which, for Alessandro Di Massimo, Claudia Petraroli and Andrea Marinucci, three artists from Teramo, was an opportunity to imagine a new type of exhibition space called Celeste.
“Celeste is an essence, it has no gender, it doesn’t have a defined identity” Claudia tells us, “it’s like the sky”. And under the Gammarana sky the three artists, now also teachers in Teramo, Milan and Parma respectively, improvised as curators of these very special exhibitions, initially visible from the shop window on the street, but then insinuated themselves among the washing machines and dryers of the laundry. Each artist is chosen according to the potential of the work to fit into this very particular space, communicating both with the people who knowingly came for the exhibition and with the unaware, who found themselves there to wash and dry their clothes.
Alessandro, Claudia and Andrea’s being artists is also reflected in their way of curating each exhibition: letting themselves be carried away by what they cannot control, by how a work exhibited in the laundry room can take on different connotations thanks to the people who live in that place every day. That work exists and continues to live and walk in another form without being sealed in its definition as can often happen when still visiting many exhibitions today. The three curators reveal to us how this aspect of unpredictability also represents a challenge for those involved.
What emerges from finding oneself at Celeste is that it is not necessary to be in Rome, London or New York: even on the outskirts of the suburbs it is possible to live a unique experience made up of encounters and transformations that involve everyone.
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