Masseria Torre Coccaro & Maizza  Art Project

Started in 2009 for will of Muolo Family, the contemporary Art Project of Masseria Torre Coccaro and Masseria Torre Maizza in Fasano starts for the will to have artists re- interpret the welcoming places of Puglia through the view of an artist, starting also connections between artists coming from different cultures and environments.

The project tries to explore and develop the different views of artists coming from north of Europe and artists coming from Mediterranean culture. The idea starts from the assumption that the visions will be different according to the background of the artist but now probably this idea has been surpassed by the birth of many artists that travel everywere becoming real global artists.  We also ask the resident to try to use local material, local artisans and reinvent spaces that were formerly less utilized.

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The idea came out looking at the artworks of Cy Twombly at Museum Brandhorst in Munich, there were several rooms in which the image of the artist was permeated of primary colors perceived and internalized during his African period, a kind of reaction to his inner fight between the sensation of estrangement he felt in America and the sense of powerness and the energy of the colors of the sun, felt during a period he spent in Gaeta, Southern of Italy.
That’s why we decided to start working with national and international artists that would come to the two Masserie in Apulia, in order offer their vision of our territory and to understand how they connect their vision of the reality with the local contexts and the Mediterranean culture.
There are places that for historical, environmental and landscape characteristics, seem to inspire the artist and their works. That’s what happens in Apulia.
Vittorio Muolo, producer Masseria Art Project and General Manager of Masseria Torre Coccaro.

Apulia has always been a land of crossroads and welcoming different cultures, the same history of the venues of Masseria Art Project represents well the complexity and the variety of its identity. In the Masseria Torre Coccaro and Masseria Torre Maizza, in the sixteenth century, was built a tower to defend the territory against the raids of the Saracens, and in the eighteenth century the Masseria Torre Coccaro was enriched by a small church used by the Knights of Malta during their passage to the main Appian way, sprinkled with olives trees dating back to thousend years, in order to reach the Holy Land.

Beside the projects and the residency programs, Masseria Art Project aims to communicate the current process of artistic and cultural growth of the region, trough the realizazion of P.s., an on line editorial space and newsletter curated by Giusy Checola and Francesca De Filippi, which communicates the activities and the places of the contemporary artistic and cultural scene in Apulia and in the surrounded territories, that covers a deficit of information and creates a database in progress at disposal of whoever wants to know the contemporary artistic dimension of the region.


topics: apulia, residency, identity, cultures, territory, research, mediterranean, excellence