From 2 to 24 March 2024 the Elpis Foundation presents the exhibition project 39° North 16°3' Est , a story which, starting from the geographical coordinates of Calabria, unfolds through two exhibitions: Symposium , collective exhibition of the results of the In- ruins held in 2023 at the Archaeological Park of Sibari and the National Archaeological Museum of Amendolara, with the works of Arie Amaya-Akkermans, Simon DeReyer Bellouard, Cañadas & Murua, Beatrice Celli, Akshay Mahajan , Matilde Sambo and Traslochi Emotivi and the solo exhibition 'Nziembru , which presents a series of unpublished works by the artist Fabrizio Bellomo .

The project will be inaugurated on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd March with a program of talks, performances and workshops aimed at introducing and exploring the contents of the exhibition starting from the works and testimonies of the participating artists.

In the basement, 'Nziembru , a solo exhibition by the artist Fabrizio Bellomo (Bari, 1982), presents a series of unpublished works: a two-channel video installation and three tapestries handmade in the Calabrian Sila. Bellomo, who in 2022 participated in the third edition of Una Boccata d'Arte creating a series of interventions together with ceramists from Campania, in this new project works on the world of Calabrian weaving, thus confirming his interest in craftsmanship.

At the center of the artist's research are the unfinished buildings that prop up the Calabrian landscape, present as signs of a promise of progress never respected towards these territories.

It is an investigation that starts from the personal experience of the artist himself, who says: «My family still owns one of these unfinished buildings in Calabria, strongly desired by my grandfather. The building - like many others in the area - has a finished first floor and the upper floors which were never finished and are in a state of total decay, since none of the children ever completed what should have become their own floor of the building."

Stylizations of these palaces are now woven as decorations into the weft of some tapestries, typical of the Calabrian textile tradition, usually depicting scenes of rural life.

The exhibition takes its title from the 'nziembri, specific models that contain the design or motif through which the decorations are created on the tapestries woven on the loom: real matrices from the manual world of weaving.

Bellomo 'stitches' together these two facets of the same territory, thus activating a process in which the social actors involved become narrators themselves - at the same time tender and sarcastic - of these human events.