THE NACHIRI ROUTES: BIODIVERSITY AND LANDSCAPE
BAROQUE BLUE SE-ART RESIDENCY (V edition)
Curated by Dores Sacquegna
Santa Maria Al Bagno (Nardo’-Lecce), Italy
September 19 through October 2, 2026
In this second and final appointment of BAROQUE BLUE—now in its fifth edition of the art residency produced by Primo Piano LivinGallery and curated and directed by Dores Sacquegna - Santa Maria al Bagno - the seaside town in the municipality of Nardò, becomes the symbolic port of departure and arrival for the project “The Nachiri Routes: Biodiversity and Landscape.” The protagonists are seven American artists engaging in dialogue with an equal number of Apulian colleagues, invited to listen to the territory and transform their experience into a sensory and mythical journey that culminates on Thursday, October 1, from 6:30 pm onward (Via Emanuele Filiberto 142) with the closing event of “The Living Map of Underground Light.”
The project, under auspices by the Department of Culture headed by Francesco Plantera of the Municipality of Nardò, benefits from the collaboration of the Porto Selvaggio and Palude del Capitano Regional Nature Park Authority, Casa Nachiro Dimora di Charme and Dimore Storiche in Nardò, the Bacile Hypogeum in Spongano, and FA Azienda Agricola Ferrara in Galatone, which provide venues, expertise, and meaningful, culturally enriching experiential activities to support the residency.
16 Archetypes, two Ecologies, and one Map
It is said that, long before humans drew maps and established borders, Salento was a place where the sky and the underworld spoke the same language. Beneath the living rock lived the Nachiri, guardians of the “deep light”: they knew that every light is born of darkness, that every route begins in an invisible place, that every journey toward the sea originates in stone. They guided their crew through tunnels and underground chambers, where lamp oil was not merely a substance, but liquid memory and burning wisdom.
In The Nachiri Routes: Biodiversity and Landscape, the artists no longer follow the stars—as they did in the previous project titled Constellations: The Awakening of the Star Feathers but traverse the Salento region as contemporary Nachiri, becoming guardians of the light themselves. The landscape is interpreted through two ecological systems—the Ionian and the Adriatic side—and two dimensions: surface and depth, light as a threshold and darkness as the unknown. The project’s identity is articulated through the triad of landscape (roots), oil (memory), and light (vision), which guides the process of listening, gathering, transforming, and restitution.
At the start of the residency, each artist receives an Archetype, a symbolic compass that guides their gaze and suggests a point of reference - an underground chamber, the sea, the scrubland, an olive grove - which then becomes a creative stance. The journey is guided by Dores Sacquegna, curator and art director, in the role of “cartographer of the routes,” and by Maria Maddalena Armenise, Reiki master and writer, in the role of “guardian of the passage.” Together, they represent the sources of the vision that allow the group to recognize that every place has a voice, every cavity a memory, and every horizon a hidden direction. When the artists are ready, they will be the ones to initiate the final restoration, summoning energies and weaving the circle of the living map.
The Artists and the Routes
On display are works by seven American artists and authors - Marilyn Geary, Julia Kerrys Rensch, Torey Anderson, Sel Sarkin, Catherine Karp, Arthur Karp, and Kerrie Brandau—who represent paths in motion: dynamic energies that interpret the landscape as a transforming organism. Alongside them are seven artists from Puglia - Ugo Bordanza, Daniela Cecere, Teresa Vella, Giovanni Felle, Monica Lisi, Adriano D’Ostuni, and Maestro Alberto Nick Bolettieri—who embody the earth’s paths, those that preserve density, rootedness, and memory.
Together, these fourteen directions generate a system of reflections and correspondences—a dual structure that forms the “Nachiro compass,” a multifaceted orientation that allows one to traverse the territory by land and sea with sensitivity and vision. The fourteen archetypes assigned to the artists correspond to the fourteen days of the residency, marked by moments of preparation, listening, purification, and transformation. During this shared time, the group participates in guided tours, printmaking workshop, agricultural activities, meditation sessions, the autumn equinox ritual, and thematic meetings. What begins as observation transforms into cultural and symbolic memory: in visual culture, the presence of dual boundaries evokes the need to safeguard what lies within, protecting the core identity of the landscape and of those who traverse it.
The Closing Ceremony
The journey concludes on Thursday, October 1, from 6:30 pm onward with a ceremony in which all the individual trajectories converge into a single luminous map. The highlights will include all the artists and their works, the collective performance “The Living Map of Underground Light,” the ceremony of thanks to Mother Earth, the sound painting performance “Resonant Lumen: From the Depths to the Surface” by Daniela Cecere and Maestro Alberto Nick Bolettieri, and the “The Archetypes’ Diner with a welcome drink, a convivial moment celebrating the alliance between cultures, presences, and visions.
BAROQUE BLUE ART RESIDENCY 2026
Via Emanuele Filiberto 142, Santa Maria al Bagno ( Nardò-Lecce)
Free entry to the public on Thursday, October 1, starting at 6:30 pm
Info: +39 349 37 20659 primopianogallery@gmail.com https://baroqueblueresidency.com/
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