S-P-O-N-D-E (Landings, Departures, Odysseys, Narratives, Documents, Ecologies)

S-P-O-N-D-E (Landings, Departures, Odysseys, Narratives, Documents, Ecologies)

Coordinator: Teresa Fiore

Artists: Maria D. Rapicavoli (New York) and Marina Sagona (New York)  
Film production company: Awen Films (Valerio Ciriaci, Isaak Liptzin, Mila Tenaglia)  
Scholars: Teresa Fiore (Montclair State University, New Jersey) and Vetri Nathan (UCLA – University of California Los Angeles)

These places, shaped by the encounters and clashes between elements, people, and stories, open up new and unexpected forms of knowledge and ways of inhabiting, thanks to exchange. Shores are liminal spaces, both physical and metaphorical, that divide and connect water and land—separating and at the same time uniting living beings, ideas, objects, civilizations, and materials across time. Active along the eastern and western coasts of the United States in connection with Italy, this project involves artists, filmmakers, scholars, and both emigrants and immigrants who see in shores a reflection of natural, human, institutional, and technological forms of life in constant transformation. Through independent multimedia projects brought into a network, S-P-O-N-D-E reveals their complexity, depth, and scope.

The title itself, S-P-O-N-D-E, is an acronym for Sbarchi (Landings), Partenze (Departures), Odissee (Odysseys), Narrazioni (Narratives), Documenti (Documents), and Ecologie (Ecologies). The hyphens act as bridges and reflective pauses, re-signifying these concepts in a context like Agrigento—characterized by significant migratory flows, both outgoing and incoming, past and present.

In the projects within this network, shores are points of arrival and departure for those who migrate by choice or necessity, often involved in physical, emotional, and legal odysseys. Shores become documents that record the dual belonging of people on the move, navigating borders that generate mobility or immobility. Shores are systems where different life forms—animals, plants, humans, and technological residues—adapt and coexist, transforming challenges into experiments in livability, a “co-becoming,” as formulated by Donna Haraway. They are also geological formations like sandstone, a symbol of Agrigento, which encapsulates fragments of shells, carrying the sea and history within. Furthermore, shores are lands marked by the arrival of military troops, such as the 1943 Allied landing, bringing both liberation and destruction.

The project has been structured in phases to foster deeper dialogue with territories and communities. Between November and December 2024, the participating artists held a first residency in Agrigento aimed at exploring the area and gathering testimonies. A second residency, scheduled between February and March 2025, will serve to develop ideas into concrete artworks and projects.

Maria D. Rapicavoli will create a sandstone sculpture engraved with the stories of immigrants who have settled in Agrigento. After being submerged in the sea to absorb traces of time and natural elements, the work will be placed in the historic center as a symbol of encounter between those who remained and those who arrived.

Marina Sagona will present an exhibition of prints and a video installation on the meaning of identity through documents, questioning the Italian citizenship law based on bloodline. The exhibition will explore the contrast between the rights granted to descendants of Italian emigrants and those denied to immigrants integrated into Italian society.

Awen Films and Teresa Fiore will create a 5-minute video based on archival footage and interviews about the 1943 landing in Licata (Operation Husky). The video will be looped at the site of the landing, accompanied by spontaneous interviews with residents around the theme “How should the landing be remembered?” This project is part of the Liberation Route Europe.

Vetri Nathan and Teresa Fiore, in collaboration with local geologists and biologists, will explore border areas such as the Torre Salsa coastline or the hypogea of Agrigento, offering a narrative on the interactions between flora, fauna, geology and culture, proposing an inclusive ecological vision.

S-P-O-N-D-E will also feature an educational component including summer courses, internships, and exchanges between the Agrigento branch of the University of Palermo (UNIPA) and U.S. universities, beginning with Montclair State University.

With a plurality of languages—sculpture, video, print, digital processing of documents and archival materials—S-P-O-N-D-E opens up reflections on these liminal spaces, spaces of exchange that tell stories of the past, present, and the potential of the future.

Conosci le artiste, la casa cinematografica e gli studiosi:

Awen Films is a New York-based film production company specializing in documentaries and visual projects that explore themes of social and cultural history, with a particular focus on the interconnections between Italy and the United States. Their feature films – If Only I Were That Warrior (2015), Mister Wonderland (2019), and Stonebreakers (2022) – have received accolades including the Globo d’Oro, the Audience Award at the Festival dei Popoli, and Best Documentary at the History Film Festival. Awen Films’ works have been presented at numerous festivals, academic institutions, and cultural venues, and broadcast on international television networks. In collaboration with the Centro Primo Levi, Awen Films produced the video installations The Rome Lab (2017) and Los Corassones Avlan (2019). Awen Films’ contribution to the S-P-O-N-D-E project is led by Valerio Ciriaci, Isaak Liptzin, and Mila Tenaglia.

Originally from Agrigento, Teresa Fiore has lived in the United States for thirty years. She holds the Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies at Montclair State University in New Jersey. She has also taught at Harvard, Yale, and NYU, and her research has received funding from Fulbright, Rockefeller, and NEH. She is the author of the book Pre-occupied Spaces: Remapping Italy’s Transnational Migrations and Colonial Legacies (Mondadori Education/Le Monnier). She has published numerous articles in English, Italian, and Spanish on migrations to and from Italy in journals, exhibition catalogues, and edited volumes (L’Italia Postcoloniale, New Italian Migrations to the United States, The Routledge History of Italian Americans). In 2019, she was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy for her work in cultural diplomacy and her promotion of Italian culture in the United States through public events and educational programs.
montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=fiorete

Vetri Nathan is Associate Professor in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is the founder and principal investigator of a new humanities lab, The Cybercene Lab (www.thecybercenelab.org), conceived as an interdisciplinary space to study multispecies well-being, the connections between cultural and natural identities, and the links between human conflict, climate change, and environmental harm. Born in Mumbai, Vetri Nathan represented India at the prestigious United World College of the Adriatic in Duino, Trieste. He later earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in California. Author of the book Marvelous Bodies: Italy’s New Migrant Cinema (2017), he has also published extensively on global diasporic identities, postcolonial theory, and environmental humanities.
elts.ucla.edu/person/vetri-nathan

Maria D. Rapicavoli was born in Catania and lives and works in New York. She was a fellow in the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York in 2012. She earned an MFA from Goldsmiths University in London (2005) and a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania (2001). Her work has been exhibited in New York (The High Line and Socrates Sculpture Park), Milan (Fondazione ICA), Münster (Westfaerischer Kunstverein), London (Whitechapel Gallery), and San Francisco (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts). A recipient of several awards (Italian Institute and Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, New York, 2021; Italian Council VI edition, 2019; nctm e l’arte, 2013; DE.MO./Movin’Up, 2011), she has participated in various residency programs, including Palermo Calling/Art&Science with the Istituto Svizzero in Rome (2024) and Experimental Arts Education with the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York (2023). She is currently an associate artist at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York.
mdrspace.com

Marina Sagona is an Italian-American artist. Born in Rome in 1967, she has lived in New York since 1995. She studied Art History at La Sapienza University and illustration at the Istituto Europeo di Design. In Rome, she was assistant to postmodern artist Mario Schifano, and in New York she began her career as an illustrator for The New York Times and The New Yorker. Her curatorial experience includes the exhibition Senso Unico at MoMA PS1 in 2008 and Dante Ferretti: Design and Construction for the Cinema in 2014. She was an artist-in-residence at Domus Artist Residency in Galatina (2019) and Chiquita Room Residency in Barcelona (2021). In 2022 she was nominated for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. Her video Stabat Mater (2021) won several awards, including the Cadence Video Poetry Festival Award, Best Script/Concept Award at the Ribalta Experimental Film Festival, and Best Experimental Film Award at the Sipontum Arthouse International Film Festival.
marinasagona.com