Fondazione Studio Rizoma is an international hub advancing an independent cultural and social program while serving the wider development of its surrounding ecosystem, with a focus on the city of Palermo. Rizoma is a founding member of the upcoming European Cultural Hubs Network of Allianz Foundations.

Our work follows three main lines of action.

Fondazione – We act to foster the growth, internationalisation and professionalisation of cultural and social actors in the city of Palermo and the wider region. We do this via our fellowship program, supporting individuals and organisations in their development, via our residency program, welcoming individuals from across the world to Palermo to foster a longer-term engagement with the city, and our training and mentorship programs promoting research and skill transmission. 

Studio – Our team is a cultural and political collective developing an original program rotating around multiannual research interests that we call Nodes. We leverage our geographical position to focus our work on issues of transnationality, postcoloniality, human mobility, the environmental conditions of the Mediterranean region, and the future of globalisation. We have developed a unique methodology combining original artistic productions with the direct engagement of social and political groups, embedding the production process in existing sites of struggle and political imagination.

Rizoma – Our work is federal and cooperative. While we shy away from fly-in, fly-out events and initiatives, we do not think the solution is a return to localism. Our response focuses on sustainable co-creation processes and partnerships that develop a rhizomatic network of permanent collaborations both locally and internationally. We empower our long-term partners with a say in the direction of Fondazione Studio Rizoma via a dedicated body, the Forum.

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Work with us

If you are interested in the work we are doing and would like to participate, you can always send us an e-mail with a short description of who you are and what you do at info@studiorizoma.org. At the moment we are looking for an intern on graphic design and digital communications. More info about the position here.

Se sei interessato al lavoro che stiamo svolgendo e vuoi partecipare, puoi sempre inviarci un'e-mail con una breve descrizione di chi sei e cosa fai a info@studiorizoma.org. Al momento stiamo cercando un/una tirocinante su grafica e comunicazione digitale. Più dettagli per candidarsi, qui

Team

Studio Rizoma boasts an international and diverse team with members coming from different social and artistic organisations, groups and institutions. The team members are responsible for the management and implementation of the work in Studio Rizoma. Our rhizomatic approach embodies a feminist and horizontal working structure.

Anna Raspanti

Admin manager

Anna Raspanti

Admin manager

Anna is a Financial Administrator. She graduated in Business Economy with expertise in financial management and reporting of local, national and European projects. Since 2022 she works  as Administrative and Accounting of Fondazione Studio Rizoma. 

Email: admin@studiorizoma.org

Elisa Capellini

Digital communications officer

Elisa Capellini

Digital communications officer

Contacts

Elisa Capellini (Milan, 1994) lives and works between Palermo and Milan. She graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts with a thesis exploring artistic practices in urban public space. After graduation, she began collaborating with cultural hubs and associations on projects that link artistic practice to social engagement.

Izabela Anna Moren

Curator & Creative director

Izabela Anna Moren

Curator & Creative director

Izabela Anna Moren (Olesnica, 1990) is a writer, curator and communication strategist. She works on the intersection of art and politics and holds degrees in Curation and Critical Writing from the Royal College of Art. Her book Living in the Desert was published in 2018 by Phaidon. In 2019 she presented Transhumance, an exhibition series in the public sphere which inaugurated in collaboration with Transeuropa Festival and Biennale Arcipelago Mediterraneo 2019. She was the Digital Editor at Museo MACRO in Rome and Communication Director for NOMAD, the travelling showcase of contemporary art and design. For FSR Izabela curates the node Between Land and Sea and is in charge of Communication and Creative Direction.

Ségolène Pruvot

Curator

Ségolène Pruvot

Curator

Ségolène Pruvot is a Cultural Director of European Alternatives. Ségolène has developed extensive experience in designing and implementing transnational participative cultural programmes. She curated, managed and coordinated artistic projects in several European countries, including Transeuropa Festival. Ségolène currently manages, as a partner, the Horizon2020 Artsformation project focused on how arts can help manage the digital transition in contemporary societies, the H2020 Co-creation project. She coordinates Room to Bloom, a project supporting the careers and production of young feminist postcolonial artists.

Ségolène is a Doctor in Urban Sociology. In the course of her academic career and professional life, she specialised in the exploration of the intersection between arts, the city and social change. Her PhD Thesis, realised at the University of Milano Bicocca, is entitled Can Participatory Arts Help Deliver (more) Socially Just Creative Cities?. There she explored how the theoretical input of contemporary art theory can help better understand the role of arts in the city. She trained as a political scientist and urban planner in France, the UK, and Germany. Ségolène is passionate about the city, equality, feminism, migrant and minority rights.

Patrizia Pozzo

Institutional relations & PR

Patrizia Pozzo

Institutional relations & PR

Born in Rome, grew up in Africa and lived first between the UK and US and then in Europe. Currently working as Communication and Press Office both in DiEM25 and other institutions. She has been involved in environmental projects for more than 10 years and she founded an association that has been organizing a Festival on the environment for years.

Eva-Maria Bertschy

Artistic director & Curator

Eva-Maria Bertschy

Artistic director & Curator

Eva-Maria Bertschy works as a freelance dramaturge, playwright and curator at the intersection of theatre and political activism in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and D.R. Congo. With the Swiss director Milo Rau / International Institute of Political Murder, she has conceived and realised numerous international theatre and documentary film projects. She also works regularly with the Berlin director Ersan Mondtag. With the Swiss musician Elia Rediger and the Congolese choreographer Dorine Mokha, she founded GROUP50:50, a collective of artists between Congo, Switzerland and Germany. Her projects have won numerous awards, been invited to the most important international theatre festivals such as the Berlin Theatertreffen, the Festival d’Avignon and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts and have been shown in more than 20 countries.

Marta Cillero Manzano

Managing director

Marta Cillero Manzano

Managing director

Marta Cillero is responsible for general management at Studio Rizoma. She is the communications manager and project coordinator at European Alternatives. She graduated in Media Studies, Journalism and Communication (Madrid, Istanbul and Chicago) and has a master degree in Gender Studies (Rome). She is the author of research reports about gender violence in Mediterranean countries. She is a member of the executive board and project manager at Chayn Italia, an award-winning organisation based in Italy, Pakistan, India and the UK.

Letizia Gullo

Production coordinator

Letizia Gullo

Production coordinator

Letizia worked in the publishing industry as a translator and editor, since 2010 she has been working work as an author and director of documentaries. She also works as an assistant for reportages for French TV and teaches in directing workshops and at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Sicily. After several years abroad, she returned to Palermo in 2016. For Studio Rizoma she is in charge of production.

Giorgio Mega

Project & production manager, music curator

Giorgio Mega

Project & production manager, music curator

After nomadic years of study (Fine Arts in Bologna, UDK in Berlin), artistic practices (between research music, field recordings, sound installations and photography) around Europe, and work on archives between research and digitization, Giorgio settled in Sicily in 2015 where he is involved in the organisation and production of festivals and cultural events (Studio Rizoma, Festival Letterature Migranti, Fondazione Merz and others).

Financial supporters

Allianz Kulturstiftung

Allianz Kulturstiftung

Goethe-Institut Palermo

Goethe-Institut Palermo

Gwartler Foundation

Gwartler Foundation

European Cultural Foundation

European Cultural Foundation

Kulturstiftung Des Bundes

Kulturstiftung Des Bundes

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

Italian Council

Italian Council

European Union

European Union

Creative Europe Programme of the European Union

Creative Europe Programme of the European Union

Governance and Finance

Studio Rizoma is a Foundation that has its legal and fiscal registration in Palermo (Italy).

Studio Rizoma is committed to transparency, being responsive to stakeholders and funders and using our resources in the most responsible way for long-term impact.

Studio Rizoma’s governance and financial information can be found by downloading the statutes of the association (here) and our latest accounts (here). We are accountable to our Transnational board, our partners and the national authorities.

 Advisory Board

The Advisory Board is empowered to oversee the running of the organisation, set its strategy and approve its work-program. It does so in dialogue with individual members, local groups and our partners through regular meetings to understand the priorities and interests of the organisation.

The Advisory Board includes leading thinkers and artists from throughout Europe and beyond, who advise the organisation on its message, its strategy, on formats of activities, on partners and potential stakeholders.

Esra Kücük

Board member

Esra Kücük

Board member

Esra Kücük is Chief Executive Officer of the Allianz Foundation. Her work focuses on future-oriented issues in a changing society and is committed to issues such as cultural participation and social justice in times of transformation. Before the Allianz Foundation was established, she was CEO of the Allianz Umweltstiftung and Managing Director of the Allianz Kulturstiftung.

Niccolò Milanese

Board member

Niccolò Milanese

Board member

Niccolò Milanese is a philosopher and writer. He is a founding director of European Alternatives, a trailblazing and prize-winning organisation active for over 15 years across the European continent exploring and promoting democracy, equality and culture beyond the nation state. He was educated in philosophy Cambridge, Siena and Paris, and has held research fellowships in Oxford, Mexico City, Rio De Janeiro and Vienna. At the European University Institute he is one of the convenors of the Forum on Transnational Democracy, which brings together practitioners, politicians, civil servants and academics. As a leading civic educator, he is involved in developing a new critical, posthuman and planetary approach to citizenship education in hundreds of schools across Europe. He is currently a lead researcher in transnational research projects on how feminist movements are leading democratic innovation; in movement education and political imagination; and in the rights and agency of migrant workers. Together with Lorenzo Marsili he published Citizens of Nowhere: Saving Europe from Itself (2019 – Zed Books); and with Katarina Kolozova edited Illiberal Democracies in Europe: an authoritarian response to the crisis of liberalism (2022 – Washington State University Press). With Alberto Alemanno and Kalypso Nicolaidis he is currently drafting Citizen Power Europe to appear in 2024.

Lorenzo Marsili

President

Lorenzo Marsili

President

Lorenzo Marsili is a philosopher-activist, the cofounder of transnational NGO European Alternatives and cultural foundation Fondazione Studio Rizoma. He previously worked in cultural journalism in London and Beijing, where he founded the journal Naked Punch Review. His latest books are Planetary Politics (Polity Press 2020), Citizens of Nowhere (Zed Books 2018 and Suhrkamp Verlag 2019) and La tua patria è il mondo intero (Laterza, 2019).

Impact

Since the beginning of our first activities in 2020, at Fondazione Studio Rizoma we have always advanced our work and structure, defining our mission and vision through different experimental actions.

One of the biggest social challenges we address is social exclusion and impoverishment of the local territory linked to precarity in the Mediterranean.

By applying artistic methodologies, research and collective co-creation, we seek to interact with the local territory, including social movements, artistic organisations, researchers, municipal civil representatives and emerging artists that work locally and transversally to have an impact on their communities and improve social justice, sustainability and cultural and ecological richness.

By Impact, we mean the effect that our work has on specific segments of society, but also how it influences different social & governance processes that are in line with our mission and values.

Since 2023, we have put in place a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning system with a review of project & programme indicators, development of data collection tools and their adaptation to team needs. The team has also structured its work into thematic streams, with specific objectives which the MEL system monitors.

You can download our annual reports that include strategy and impact of the Foundation here:

BIANNUAL REPORT 2022-2023

E: info@studiorizoma.org

IG: @studiorizoma

FB: /studiorizomapa

YouTube: @studiorizoma4365
Flickr: /197941464@N04/albums/ 

 

 

FONDAZIONE STUDIO RIZOMA

Via Mario Rutelli, 38

90143 Palermo (PA)

Cod. Fisc. 91344240378

 

Design:

Luca Pantorno

Simone Capano

 

Development:

Michele Margiotta

 

Copyright 2022

All rights reserved