PROGRAMME:

09.12.2025 H18:00-19:00

Alba Balmaseda & Hotel Regina (Fellows Palermo Calling / Art & Science)
A Palermo l’acqua non c’è
Live Broadcast at Radio Dopo
listen here

During the Art & Science residency project A Palermo l’acqua non c’è, the Spanish architect Alba Balmaseda Domínguez and the art collective Hotel Regina from Basel find themselves in a radio show of the recently opened Radio Dopo. The entry point for the research was their observation of the numerous yet dried-up and fenced-off fountains of Palermo. However, during their exploration they recognized that any study of the fountains is inseparable from an understanding of the broader hydrological situation. The polluted sea, the water tanks on rooftops, the culverted rivers, and uncertainty in the potability of tap water (and the resulting creative depuration efforts) are all symptoms of a water culture shaped by the local climate conditions and the social dynamics on the island, as well within Europe.

The topic is a bottomless pit. During the one hour-long radio show, Alba and Hotel Regina therefore don’t even attempt to clarify the murky waters, but instead approach the subject acoustically and give a voice to bodies of water of Palermo – because water in Palermo is both absent and omnipresent. The architect and the art collective see themselves as an improvising band: they interwave atmospheric recordings from the city with synthetic and acoustic sounds, voices and texts from the population to create an associative, auditory journey along the topic of water. The aim is, not least, to find a common language from both scientific and artistic perspectives that stays sensitive to the complexity of the subject.

11.12.2025 H17:30-20:00

Dimitri Reist (Fellow Palermo Calling)
The Answer to the Crisis, is the Crisis
Collective struggles and speculative dreams shaping design in Palermo
Ex Cinema Edison
Audiovisual Essay Screening and Talk with Mauro Filippi, Paola La Scala and Zeno Franchini 

Synopsis:
Design is never neutral. The visual languages we collectively create, impact how we understand the world. The inequity we witness today is also the result of the promotion of the so-called “neutral” and “objective” mode of visual knowledge Production. My research takes an active choice to move away from this common canon of design, instead highlighting designers that are 
storying otherwise. This audio visual essay gives space to the voices of a network of designers, activists and cultural workers I met during my stay in Palermo. Through our conversations I learned what it means for them to live and work in Sicily and how they embed their practices locally in order to create change from the place they are acting from. In their reflections, design becomes an act of care 
and belonging, rooted in material culture and in 
the shared struggle to inhabit the world differently.

Credits:
A project by: Dimitri Reist
With the voices of and in collaboration with: Andrea Bartoli, Cinzia Ferrara, Francesca Gattello, Laura Mocerino, Mauro Filippi, Michelle Jonker, Nicola Novello, Sergio Sanna, Zeno Franchini
Image: Dimitri Reist
Sound: Mlondi Dubazane
Text: Anastasia Hadjipapa Mccammon & Dimitri Reist
Voice over: Anastasia Hadjipapa Mccammon

12.12.2025 H14:00-16:30

Danniel Tostes (Fellow Palermo Calling/Curator)
How to Redraw Memories. Making a Collective Cartography in Palermo.
Palazzo Branciforte
Workshop
With Carlo Corona
fill out the google form to partecipate in the workshop

What happens when we redraw a city from memory, affection, and lived experience rather than from borders and streets?

This workshop invites participants to engage with historical maps of Palermo from the Palazzo Branciforte library and rethink how we see and feel the territory around us. Starting from a personal reflection on migration, belonging, and the power of cartography, we explore how maps shape our understanding of place, identity, and the narratives we inherit. Participants will imagine new possibilities for Palermo by creating their own reinterpretations of old maps—shifting directions, reinventing neighborhoods, and inscribing personal meaning onto the city.

Together, we build a collective emotional cartography: a shared map marked by memories, connections, and the places that matter. A visual archive of how Palermo is lived, remembered, and continuously reimagined.