BioInspired! So What? Now What!

Nature, Art & Habitat at Soggiorno Mazzoleni -- Taleggio Valley, Bergamo, Italy -- is a residency summer program that aims to unfold and display a sensitive type of culture that relates to nature as a source of inspiration and a measure of available resources.  The resulting goal is to unveil intimate links with all living organisms, and to develop a more resilient and vital coexistence.

The residency, set in the bucolic Taleggio Valley in Northern Italy, offers the residents a lively space to productively interact, taking full advantage of the strength of surrounding nature as well as Italy’s rich cultural heritage, combining cultural traditions, nourishing food and healing aromas.

The program is based on one-month residency (lodging provided) offered annually to four multidisciplinary practitioners with research profiles that are active in arts, architecture, anthropology, economy or natural sciences, and anywhere in between. An international jury will operate the selection of the residents based on their proposals' relevance.

Residencies will be awarded to independent projects proposals exploring the dynamic articulation between nature, socio-cultural practices, and built environment of the Taleggio Valley. The proposals must aim to explore and build upon the strong connections with the powerful nature, landscape, history, memory and identity of the Valley, situated in the heart of the Orobie Alps: the tangible and intangible heritage of rural buildings, artifacts, works, as well as oral stories, knowledge, know how, cheese making traditions, crafts, flavors, habits of local population and communities with their steady participation legitimizing and perpetuating, generation after generation, their in situ existence.

Priority of selection will be given to proposals that demonstrate direct engagement with the surrounding nature and human habitat, through both objectives and methods, and to those that reveal the ability to leave a mark on the Valley's territory: an image, a painting, a research paper, a sculpture, a structure, a food recipe, a destination...

The newly founded program will exceptionally and experimentally start in June 2015, in conjunction with the Milano EXPO2015 taking advantage of the great opportunity offered by the nearby International event. The program will programmatically run for 5 years. At the end of the 5 years the most successful collaborations will be published in a volume.

Disciplines and media

• Art
• Architecture / Design
• Anthropology
• Biology/Natural Sciences
• Biomimicry
• Economy
• Gastronomy
• Visual Arts/Liberal Studies

Duration of residency: 3-4 weeks, June 2015