"We young people are immersed, more than anyone else, in the new virtual worlds that populate reality, producing and consuming dozens of images, “stories”, representations every day. However, the public narratives that talk about us are often stereotyped and rarely start from our voice and our first-person story. Here we are the ones telling our story. "

Inaugurates Friday 6th September at 18.30pm at the Rossini Gallery (via Rossini 38) '11.39 Re-Creation', the exhibition born from the project 'Digital Suitcases', conceived and created by VersoLab APS in collaboration with Social Cooperative Labyrinth e Mengaroni Art High School, as part of Pesaro 2024 – Italian Capital of Culture. The project uses different artistic languages ​​to develop new perspectives on the relationship between experience and representation, reconstructing together with a group of young people from the area and abroad, personal artistic narratives in which they can recognize themselves.

Present at the press conference were: for the Municipality of Pesaro, Daniele Vimini Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Culture and Camilla Murgia Councilor for Educational and Youth Policies; Christian Gretter Project and development manager of Labirinto social cooperative the anthropologist Thomas Sbriccoli president of VersoLab APS and scientific director of the Valigie Digitali project, Gabriella Carpenter, archaeologist and graphic designer, curator of the exhibition “Digital Suitcases – 11.39 Re-Creation”,

Opened Daniele Vimini: “Digital Suitcases is one of the projects that we most wanted within the Pesaro 2024 dossier, which brings together multiple subjects and diversity, and is characterized by an original formula: starting from digital, we arrive at a story that leaves the personal sphere and becomes a collective dimension. It is mainly focused on the experiences of migrants, with a broad horizontal level that intersects humanity from different parts of the world, placing attention on what a small instrument like a cell phone SIM contains, from here everything starts. From digital – a dimension usually marked by very fast consumption -, we arrive instead at a deep and rooted artistic project. The exhibition is naturally one of the thousand possibilities for restitution of this entire process, in line with the spirit of 2024 which wants to offer ideas for new narrative threads.”

Thomas Sbriccoli: “Digital suitcases is a project initially developed with refugees, focused on the personal and autonomous narration of their stories starting from the materials contained in their cell phones and social media. Here in Pesaro we worked instead with teenagers, both local and foreign, always starting from their digital memories. The final result, of the highest human and artistic value, exposes the process of artistic transformation of the time that we capture absentmindedly in our phones into something profound and personal, into a collective experience, prolonging the instant of a shot into the duration of a story.”

Has continued Gabriella Carpenter: “The exhibition brings together 16 individual works and one collective, and brings together different languages, offering a complex multimedia narration of the experiences and emotions of young artists. 'Valigie Digitali – 11.39 Ri-Creazione' is a fascinating journey into the world of a generation that shows, going beyond the stereotypes and prejudices that concern it, a fantastic narrative and expressive force and that manages, starting from its own experiences, to offer profound stories that speak to everyone.”

“This project has helped to highlight the value inherent in the journeys that our children are forced to make in search of a better life.” So Christian Gretter. “Shades, verses, songs, visions to tell stories of fears, dreams and desires. Valigie Digitali has allowed unaccompanied foreign minors to shake off the label of migrant, making them adolescents just like the girls and boys of the Mengaroni Institute with whom we interacted for the conception and realization of the exhibition. Thanks to this project we want to make known and share with the territory the services that we offer as Labirinto for young migrants. Art becomes a tool that allows us to achieve real inclusion. The meeting between young people from the territory and foreigners is important for everyone: it becomes the opportunity to follow the traces of a shared story, a thread that unites different experiences, as illustrated by an image on display in 11.39 Ri-creazione.”

"Giving voice to young people in this historical moment is an added wealth when talking about cultural and artistic heritage. " He stressed Camilla Murgia. “I am very excited to think that this exhibition tells slices of life and also the name Digital Suitcases is an innovative formula. Usually we put the essentials in the suitcase, even more so when thinking about our migrants – even those of the twentieth century -, and therefore the contents of the suitcases represent a glimpse into the lives of their owners. Having given the migrants and the kids of Mengaroni the opportunity to get involved, gives us adults an opportunity to learn about their world and their perspective on what surrounds them. So the exhibition is also an opportunity to build a new imaginary that will lead us to Pesaro and the Italy of the future. Thanks to Pesaro 2024 that always launches new challenges to tell the story of culture and society.”

To perfectly summarize the spirit of Valigie Digitali, two lines of Anna Grasso, a student at Mengaroni who participated in the workshop: “It was a great experience because it gave us the opportunity to meet new people but also to know ourselves better. By opening up and showing what we had on our phone – something very private – we put ourselves on the line and had the opportunity to tell who we are and what really matters to us, something that doesn’t always happen at school. Even with the migrant kids it was an opportunity for a very intense and profound exchange.”

In the contemporary world, memories, encounters, experiences, even daily activities, are increasingly dematerialized. Every day we go through reality by photographing it and smartphones increasingly allow us to record, or sometimes even live, what happens to us. Our digital memories accumulate in clouds, galleries and social networks, creating huge archives in which our experience is arranged in fragments, frames that often end up forgotten. The creative process developed in this path was based on the experiential baggage, both material and immaterial, and on digital archives, the main place of collection of the memory of young people, through which they remember their past, build their expectations, imagine their identity and manage their daily life. Valigie Digitali is a participatory artistic and cultural project that, starting from the materials contained in the sim cards and social platforms of the participants in the workshop, uses photography, video, writing and sound to develop new perspectives on their stories.. In doing so, it aims to question the preconceived representations produced by public discourse and the mass media and reflect on the relationship between experience, archive, narration and identity.

The visual artist Daniela Black, the graphics Gabriella Carpenter and the social researcher Thomas Sbriccoli, worked together on the digital baggage of a group of 18 young people between 16 and 18 years old, students of the Mengaroni High School and young unaccompanied migrants, welcomed in the Inclusion Reception System (SAI) managed by Labirinto social cooperative. The course was divided into 12 meetings - from February and April 2024 - focused on the study of digital image production and representation codes.

Curated by Daniela Neri and Gabriella Carpentiero, the exhibition displays the multimedia narratives of the existential paths of the participants in the workshop. The works give shape to the thoughts, experiences and emotions of the young artists, starting from a detail. Girls and boys have confronted technical and aesthetic issues, they have undertaken a journey through the emotions that the artistic and narrative choices made have ignited in them, in their companions and in those who, in the end, will be able to observe their works. Among the works exhibited, an image is the synthesis of "an important place": a set of places sewn together by hand, to represent the possibility of creating a shared story wherever there is dialogue, a thread that unites different experiences. Curiosities about title: during the art workshops at the Mengaroni High School, At 11.39 the bell rang for recess. A moment of suspended waiting, which struck at an odd time, an unusual hour, the mid-morning interval has become the symbol of the work done together. 11.39 Re-creation exposes the process of artistic transformation of the time that we capture absentmindedly on our phones, into something profound and personal, into a collective experience. After the inauguration, from Saturday 7th September until 13th October the exhibition will be visible at the following times: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 16-19, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10 – 13 / 16.00 – 19.00; free admission. The opening is possible thanks to the volunteers of Pesaro 2024 and the boys of Mengaroni who participated in the project.

Daniela Black was born in Siena in 1973. A student at the Istituto Marangoni, her work focuses mainly on themes related to migration and memory. She has worked on numerous European projects, including “Playing Identities. Migration, Creolisation, Creation” (2009-2011), and “See Tell Listen, improving refugee's digital literacy through photovoice and storytelling” (2018-2020). Between 2012 and 2015 she followed the project “The future of the rural world? Indian villages, 1950-2015” of SOAS (University of London), investigating a small village in Madhya Pradesh and exhibiting the work at the Brunei Gallery in London. She has worked with various photographic archives, realizing projects and exhibitions for several institutes, such as the Franco Fortini fund, the Historical Archive of the former OP San Niccolò and the Department of Archaeology of the University of Siena. In 2016 he was among the founders of the VersoLab Association, created with the specific aim of promoting cultural activities related to migration, and with which he conceived and developed projects such as “Le valigie digitali” and the “Voci Migranti” Festival.

Thomas Sbriccoli He was born in Treia (MC) in 1978, but grew up in Milano. In 1999 he moved to Siena, where he graduated in anthropology and, in 2009, obtained a PhD in the same discipline. Since 2003 he has been doing research in Northern India and since 2009 he began to deal with migration in Italy, becoming over time one of the major Italian experts on migration from South Asia. He currently teaches Anthropology of South Asia at the University of Siena and is a researcher at UCL (University of London) within the project “EXORT”, which analyses extortion practices in 22 countries around the world. In 2016 he founded, together with other artists, researchers and professionals, the VersoLab Association, which promotes participatory cultural activities related to migration and with which he developed the project “Valigie Digitali” and the Festival “Voci Migranti”.

Gabriella Carpenter was born in Caserta (CE) in 1979 and moved to Siena in 1998, where she graduated in archaeology and continued her studies with a doctorate in Conservation of Architectural Heritage and one in Classical Archaeology. She worked on classical archaeology in North Africa and the Near East where she attended and carried out numerous excavation and research missions for years. She approached photography and then dedicated herself to graphic design, first as a self-taught person and then graduating in Graphics for Communication at the European Institute of Design in Florence in 2021. She is the author of the graphic project and design of the So'quadro and Spiffero notebooks created in 2022 in Siena as a reinterpretation of the colors and coats of arms of the districts. She has been working in the field of museum installations and graphic design for years and has dealt with the scientific and installation design and visual identity of temporary exhibitions and museums including the Museo Alle Origini del Chianti, inaugurated in 2024 in Gaiole in Chianti.

Exhibition curated by Daniela Neri and Gabriella Carpentiero

Rossini Gallery via Rossini 38, Pesaro

Clockwise: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 16-19pm, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10am-13pm / 16-19pm; free admission

Institutional partners: Municipality of Pesaro, UNESCO, Ministry of Culture, Marche Region.

With the support of: Marche Chamber of Commerce, Cassa di Risparmio di Pesaro Foundation, CTE Square – House of Emerging Technologies.

Main partners: Scavolini, Intesa Sanpaolo, Hera Group.

Gold partners: TeamSystem, Enel, Amplia, Freetox.

Partners: Lindbergh Hotels & Resorts, Fox Petroli, Renco, Alpitour World, Fileni, Si con te, Lancia Impresa Edile, Poste Italiane, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.

Supporters: Benelli Moto, Ratti, Coop Alleanza 3.0, Felici Costruzioni e Restauri, Dago Elettronica.

Food partner: Food Brand Marche.

'50×50 Capital Squared' Special Partner”: Banca di Pesaro – Credito Cooperativo.

Technical partners: Maggioli Cultura e Turismo, Fondazione Wanda di Ferdinando, APA Hotels, ASPES spa.

With the contribution of: Confartigianato Imprese Ancona – Pesaro and Urbino, Confcommercio Pesaro and Urbino/Marche Nord, Confindustria Pesaro Urbino, CNA, Cassa di Risparmio di Fano Foundation.

Official airport: Ancona International Airport

Job partner: Adecco

Media partners: Ansa, QN – National Daily – Il Resto del Carlino, RAI, Interni.

Official Radio: Rai Radio2.

Thanks to: Sound D-Light.