Art Apartments, in collaboration with the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, organises Art Residency - London is Open 2018 to give two Italian artists the opportunity to live and work in London for one month in October 2018.

The winners are Alberto Gianfreda and Alex Urso.

The jury also gave Special Mentions to Luogo Comune, Nausica Barletta, and Noba.

Alberto Gianfreda is a sculptor and a professor of Sculpture Techniques at Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. In his work during the residency he will develop the theme of the fragment and its reconstruction. The fragments are recomposed by mixing them to generate a new and unique element.

The fragmentation and reconstruction set in motion an infinite process of adaptation capable of transforming destruction into rebirth potential. This way, he will tackle issues connected with the London is Open theme, such as integration of differences through actions of contrast.

Alex Urso is an artist who lives and works between Milan and Warsaw. During his art residency, he will work on a graphic work and on a project involving London inhabitants.

He will create a drape integrating the flag of Greater London, with the Refugee Nation flag. Then, he will knock at Londoners’ doors asking them to swap their doormats with new ones with the simple sentence "Welcome". The final result will be a mosaic of doormats representing Londoners' willingness to be or not to be open.

The theme London is Open is inspired by the campaign of London Mayor Sadiq Khan after the Brexit referendum, stressing how the city must remain open to the world.

The winners will live and work for free in one of our London flats from 1 October to 4 November 2018 and will get a grant of £1,000  and up to £700 for materials.

At the end of the residency, their works will be presented in two events in one of Art Apartments’ London flats and at the Estorick Collection.

Please support our artists' residency with a donation on JustGiving.

Here are the full competition announcement  and application form (in Italian). 

The jurors were: Roberta Cremoncini, director of the Estorick Collection; Giovanna Nicoletti, curator; Federica Beretta, deputy director at Opera Gallery London; Laura Bertollo and Alessia Pirolo, co-founders of Art Apartments.