The Salento landscape, deeply scarred by Xylella, is not only a place of loss, but a field of experimentation where art can generate “new oases of meaning”. This is the spirit with which the Open Call OMBRA (“Shadow”) has concluded, as part of the European project “On the Shoulders of Giants: Art and Community to Start Again from Xylella”.

The call, promoted by Il Campo dei Giganti and Residui Teatro, with the curatorial collaboration of Carmelo Cipriani, questioned artists of all disciplines on the “morphogenesis of shade”. The result was extraordinary: a cultural dissemination operation that transformed a project search into a device for collective reflection.

Despite the call providing for the selection of only a few interventions, the response was massive: 24 high-profile project proposals, divided between visual (13), performative (5), and hybrid (6) languages.

From land art to cyanotype, from ritual dances emerging from the subsoil to interactive digital installations, each candidacy served as a reflective tool on the theme of environmental and cultural desertification. Many works, although not selected due to budget constraints or logistical sustainability, demonstrated strong methodological rigor, confirming that the art-ecology debate is more alive than ever.

Working in close synergy between the project partners, we identified four profiles that perfectly embody the mission of “On the Shoulders of Giants”.

1. Towards the “Radicate” Residency

Two artists, initially candidates for the Ombra call, were directed toward the intensive path of the Radicate residency due to the particular affinity of their poetics with bodily and material work: Stefania Puntaroli (Tuscany), who was able to rework the natural elements of the Field to build living stage objects—bridges between landscape and performance; and Clémence Dumay (France), a high-profile young performer whose research found the ideal habitat for radical experimentation in the residency.

For the installation and community section, the choice fell on languages capable of uniting care for the territory with aesthetic vision:

Giulia Barone, for the poetic use of cyanotype, a recurring technique in the projects presented in this call. Her project stood out for its ability to directly involve the community in a process of shared memory.

Fabrizio Bellomo and Graziana Di Santo, whose profile perfectly adheres to every point of the open call; the project was implemented in a permanent installation created with waste materials from the community, merging political ecology and visual impact.

The choice of profiles such as Barone and Bellomo/Di Santo responds to a precise vision that aligns with the project’s goals. Although the works speak the language of a Salento shaken by Xylella and its inhabitants, their languages possess a supranational force, immediately understandable in any context. 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.