On 1st June 2019, we will open the first edition of the I.D.E.A. Salento in the wonderful context of an ex-dryer in Gagliano del Capo (Lecce). The double location of the I.D.E.A. residency was born to give the chance to the artists to live two very peculiar realities both from the landscape point of view and from that of the perpetration of the artisan tradition, the Lake Maggiore and Monte Rosa on one side and the meeting of two seas on the other.
The location of the I.D.E.A residency is an ancient building dating back to 1600 that, two centuries later, was used as a drying room with the addition of star-vaulted structures necessary for the processing of tobacco, cisterns for the collection of water, a shelter for the animals, fireplaces and a large garden planted with an orange grove. In 2003 the dryer was transformed into a home while maintaining the architectural layout and the division of the spaces, the restoration was done using exclusively native materials and with great attention to the original details.

For this first edition the artist in residence is Igshaan Adams (Cape Town, 1982), who has just finished his two-month experience at Cascina Maria in Agrate Conturbia (NO) and who in Salento presents new installations, wall and ceiling textile configurations that integrate the most recognizable vocabulary of his practice with the research on new materials recovered in the ancient artisan workshops of Salento.
Alongside the works of Igshaan Adams there is a selection of works by Italian and foreign artists who have collaborated with Cascina Maria and Nicoletta Rusconi Art Projects over the years, including Riccardo Beretta, Mattia Bosco, Letizia Cariello, Luca Gilli, Eduard Habicher, Eva Kot 'átková, Francesco Pignatelli and Luca Pignatelli.

For the occasion, site-specific interventions were commissioned by Mattia Bosco and Letizia Cariello using the materials and suggestions of the place. While Bosco explored the possibilities of Lecce stone, in particular the one of mazzara with a consistency similar to tuff, creating sculptures that turn into masks placed at the height of the observer's gaze, Cariello was instead invited to interact with the trees in the garden through two permanent environmental installations, meters and meters of red rope that wrap the plants together according to a process of reconstruction of bonds, connections and relationships that the artist has developed in her artistic research.

I.D.E.A. Salento
Via Torquato Tasso 16/18
Gagliano del Capo (LE) Italy