Trans:it is an itinerant project that deals with the most urgent themes of contemporary culture and artistic production in Europe. An observatory/laboratory on Europe's various practices of artistic intervention, it consists of a website and three documentary films (featuring interviews with cultural curators, architects and critics) made in different European countries.

Multiculturalism, abandoned places, imaginary and collective memory, social and visual transformation, the image of the city, the significance and the definition of public space in the European perspective: these are the subjects of a reflection that involves theories of art, society and cultural policy. Through their creative and artistic approaches, artists deal with questions related to the complexity and contrasts of contemporary life: from multicultural integration to urban regeneration, from identity to collective memory, from community to alienation.

The website www.transiteurope.org is a platform for the project's development and a starting point for the creation of a European network of exchange (between artistic and cultural institutions, artists, interdisciplinary groups, researchers, curators and public administrations that deal, in different ways, with public space). The site acts as an observatory which promotes the most innovative artistic and cultural projects for public space realised in various European regions, and as a laboratory, a forum for the discussion of the cultural theories and policies that the projects represent or call into question.

The three documentaries realised within the project deal with different aspects of contemporary European society and local cultural practices.

The first documentary, 'The invisible community', explores peripheries and urban realities in Paris, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Rome. Here, 'invisible communities' have developed through a re-organisation of social relationships, leading to 'parallel cultures' with respect to those of the base country.

The core element is that peripheries are similar everywhere; their features do not depend on the country they physically belong to.

The second documentary, 'Ruins for the future', features Berlin, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia. Here, reality is continuously changing, but also constantly re-elaborating its own historical memory. Artists have changed their role: no longer forced to be 'hidden', they can now work visibly and try to combine personal experience with social responsibility.

The third documentary is dedicated to such 'fluid cities' as Athens, Istanbul and Cyprus. These frontier cities are characterised by a sort of 'public intimacy', and their multicultural societies are not the result of globalisation but rather something belonging, in a sense, to their genetic code. The projects presented here deal with the fluid border between public and private space.

Aims of the project

Trans:it intends to build a platform of documentation, analysis and discussion involving European cultural institutions (both public and private), artists, interdisciplinary groups and cultural operators active in socially relevant projects. Through detailed analysis of the most significant public space projects around Europe, applying a theoretical dimension as well as direct investigation in the field, the platform should foster direct exchange between different cultural identities and artistic communities.

Travel to understand (1)

'Working and travelling across Europe has been a key experience in understanding the value of European identity and citizenship, and reinforcing my understanding of the possible different ways of approaching social and cultural issues.'

– Bartolomeo Pietromarchi

Travel to understand (2)

'Without having worked personally around Europe I wouldn’t have realised what is the real shared understanding of certain concepts in the different countries, concepts like ‘multicultural integration’, ‘identity’, ‘collective memory’, ‘community’. And I would not have deeply understood the meaning of public space that people use in different countries.'

– Bartolomeo Pietromarchi

Practical obstacles

'Unfortunately, I have noticed a great difference between Eastern and Western Europe; moving east I encountered several difficulties, especially with regard to bureaucracy (e.g. visa), infrastructures, public transport (distances, low-cost tickets, planning of itineraries) and lack of language skills.'

– Bartolomeo Pietromarchi

The need for a network

'The project wanted to start a process. The idea was not that of having one person (the curator) guiding the whole process, acting as the only reference point.

Instead, the project aimed at building links among those (critics, artists, curators) who pursue similar interests and have a common sensibility. These today are maintaining the relations they established, even beyond the project. The project has therefore acted as a facilitator of links and connections that operate independently of the project itself.'

– Bartolomeo Pietromarchi