Program
House Belsito is a cultural foundation in formation. Artists, makers and designers already use it predominantly as a (physical) platform. Its self-initiated program has seen many contributors, amongst others Charly Bloedel and Roberta di Cosmo. They contributed to a possible concept for House Belsito. While Yeb Wiersma, an artist who lives both in Amsterdam and Arpino, engages in a continuous conversation about the potential of the program. And Lisette Smits, an independent curator/educator, is willing to share her critical perspective. We are confident the program will continue to focus on a ‘more than human’ perspective on ecology, the surrounding landscape and the vast heritage of both the landscape and the city of Arpino. The program will of course change, alter, transform. At the same time always bounded by Arpino itself; a city that used to be the wool centre of central Italy and wool has given vast riches to the human inhabitants of the city. Nowadays the surrounding landscape has changed from a grazing landscape for the sheep to olive plantations, while Arpino has almost forgoten its former wool culture. And sadly, climate change will have its unforeseen effects as well.
Ecology deals in other words with dynamic systems and through a ‘more then human’ lens we like to discuss the changes at hand, the risks and of course the new possibilities. Starting off with the story of wool and how it transformed from an animal’s coat into an economic commodity and nowadays even into waste, which is either dumped or burned.
In the month of May (2024) we started with our first series consisting of a workshop called 'How to transform waste-wool' under the guidance of designer Alexander van Slobbe and curator Guus Beumer, including a so called field expedition aiming to collectively (re)discover and bolster the cultural richness, biodiversity and dormant knowledge of the wider Arpino region. The latter under the guidance of Yeb Wiersma, an artist who lives and works both in Amsterdam and Arpino.
At the beginning of August (2024) we organized a so called food-event, celebrating all those great producers of the region. And as a wonderful surprise Maher Al Sabbagh added his cooking-talents and transformed their lovely goodies into a Mediterranean menu only for one weekend.
And on the 18th of September (2024) we were invited by Bureau Europa to present House Belsito. It is part of the Grand Tour events which is linking different initiatives on European locality. Participants in this program are Chateau du Fresne in Champeon/France, Rademacher de Vries at the ENCI in the Netherlands, Ornamenta in the Black Forest/Germany, and House Belsito in Arpino/Italy. For more information https://www.bureau-europa.nl. Next to a dinner including the abstract references to a local landscape by Frank Bruggeman and the magical food of Maher Al Sabbagh, we organized a workshop, celebrating the forgotten qualities of so called 'waste-wool'. Alexander van Slobbe was kind enough to help realizing this analogy of House Belsito in Maastricht, The Netherlands and he had developed a variety of caps, either hand-knitted or making use of crochet, which formed the basis of this workshop. In order to give the participants a larger context about wool and especially the wool of historical, Dutch breeds, Cynthia Hathaway spoke during the start of the workshop about her practice as an activist designer and the reason why she initiated the so called Wool March, while Nathalie Comans of Ministry of Knits told all participants more about that special yarn she had developed out of waste-wool and alpaca fibers (that yarn which was also used during the workshop).
& for more updated information on House Belsito, please check Instagram and this website.
As part of The Grand Tour, House Belsito (Arpino, Italy) and Bureau Europa organised a workshop on Thursday 19 September, focusing on working with locally sourced brown wool. Alexander van Slobbe and Guus Beumer have started a new label, called ‘Bruin’, as an ode to this natural but unpopular colour of wool. This label not only sells unique handmade designs based on so called waste wool of that colour, but also offers the opportunity to make garments yourself. The required knowledge can be acquired during various workshops. The first one was part of the materials programme of House Belsito and is now being followed up by Bureau Europa as part of The Grand Tour. The focus is on wool from, among others, the 'Blue Texelaar’, a historical breed, which wool is hardly used for clothing because of the stiffness of its coat. However, Van Slobbe is convinced that this stiffness will be appreciated once more in the near future because it will give volume to our clothing. But the yarn should feel soft and we do not appreciate any itching. Nathalie Comans of Ministry of Knits then developed an artisanal yarn based on this desire by mixing this wool with 20% Alpaca fibres. The result is a stiffer yarn that still feels soft and no Itch. The workshop is short and Van Slobbe has developed special designs for this, which are relatively easy to make. A video has also been developed to support the workshop. The workshop is not exclusively focused on knitting, but also on crocheting and tufting. Participants in the workshop can therefore choose a method of processing - or a combination - of the wool yarn. In addition, Nathalie Comans herself will give a short introduction to the yarn she developed. None other than Cynthia Hathaway will commence the workshop and elaborate on her practice as a 'wool-activist'..
