May 25 – September 23, 2017

klippert_try

streetview

LutherunddieAvantgarde_ThomasKilper_mediotv_schauderna003

LutherunddieAvantgarde_ThomasKilper_mediotv_schauderna002

lesbos street side

karlsplatz

from crane

cinestar

LutherunddieAvantgarde_ThomasKilper_mediotv_schauderna007

cinestar

July 17 – September 4, 2016

A-Light-of-Lampedusa001-1

www

IMG_6609.corrected_www

IMG_6550.corrected_www

IMG_6545.corrected_www

A-Light-of-Lampedusa_YM-2322_www

A-Light-of-Lampedusa_YM-2313_www

A-Light-of-Lampedusa_YM-2311_www

A-Light-of-Lampedusa_YM-2278_www-2

A-Light-of-Lampedusa_YM-2276_www

A-Light-of-Lampedusa_YM-2274_www

A-Light-of-Lampedusa001

After showing A Lighthouse for Lampedusa! in 2008/09 at Dispari&Dispari Project, Reggio Emilia and 2009 at Villa Romana, Florence, Napoli is the third stage of my Lampedusa project: to be seen at Lanificio 25 at Piazza Enrico de Nicola right in the centre of Napoli.
It was great fun to set it up. Thanks to all who helped installing it. Thanks to all in Lampedusa who are trying to make this dream come true.
Best wishes
Thomas Kilpper

A Lighthouse for Lampedusa!, Lanificio25, Piazza Enrico de Nicola, Naples, 2010

Napoli.2010.16727

Napoli.Lampedusa.Model3.0016528

R0016572

A Lighthouse for Lampedusa! Lanificio Napoli, 2010

A Lighthouse for Lampedusa! - Lanificio, Napoli 2010 16709

Napoli.2010.16603

A LIGHTHOUSE FOR LAMPEDUSA! Lanificion Napoli, 2010

Napoli.2010.16684

A Lighthouse for Lampedusa! – Lanificio Naples, 2010
Installation made from metal grid, wire, coloured plastic stripes, photos and light, ca. 8m x 5m x9m

September 24, 2009 – January 10, 2010

“A Lighthouse for Lampedusa!” is presented at the 4th INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE ROTTERDAM

OPEN CITY: DESIGNING COEXISTENCE
24 September 2009 – 10 January 2010
www.iabr.nl

The Curator and the Director of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) are pleased to invite you, also on behalf of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI), to the festive opening of the fourth edition of the Architecture Biennale in the NAI in Rotterdam on Thursday 24 September, 2009, from 4:00pm. The Biennale combines six sub-exhibitions by independent curators: Maakbaarheid, Refuge, Collective, Community, Reciprocity and Squat. REFUGE Curated by Philipp Misselwitz and Can Altay “Refuge” can imply a safe haven, or the notion of forced displacement, producing spaces that can range from luxurious resorts to overcrowded refugee camps. Spaces of refuge are generated by the desire or necessity to withdraw from the city, to keep out intruders, or to protect and control those inside. In our societies, protective isolation is as necessary as openness, yet when refuge dominates, urbanity is at risk. Focusing on cities in Turkey and the Middle East, this exhibition approaches spaces of refuge from opposing angles: as threats to urbanity that need to be prevented or dismantled, and as intimate, but still undeveloped forms of the Open City. Refuge will present projects from Rome, Istanbul, Beirut, Amman, Cairo, Dubai, Tripolis/ Nahr el Bared, Jerusalem, Diyarbakir, Tbilisi and other sites across Turkey, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Address:
Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI)
Museumpark 25
3015 CB Rotterdam

For more information please check www.iabr.nl or contact the IABR Service Desk +31 10 4401342

www.iabr.nl

April 15 – May 15, 2009

Thomas Kilpper
A Lighthouse for Lampedusa!

We cordially invite you and your friends to the opening
of the exhibition on Wednesday 15th April at 7 p.m.

Opening Times: Tues – Fri 3 – 7 p.m. and by appointment

Villa Romana / Via Senese 68 / 50124 Florenz / Italie
www.villaromana.org

————————————————————————–
Last autumn the artist Thomas Klipper, who lives and works in Berlin, set up the project  A Lighthouse for Lampedusa!

Every year approximately 20,000 people, most of whom are immigrants from Africa, try to reach Europe via the island of Lampedusa. According to the Italian Home Office, in 2008 this number reached as much as 35,000 people. Thousands die at sea: humanitarian organisations have estimated that nearly a tenth of the total number of migrants die during the dangerous crossing. Thomas Klipper plans to create a major lighthouse and arts centre, in collaboration with architects, engineers and island residents.

A lighthouse equipped with a powerful beam could provide important support to those navigating at sea and reduce the danger of shipwreck. The light would also convey an important message to migrants: “We’re here, we aren’t hiding”. For those living in Lampedusa the lighthouse could become a meeting place, exhibition space and a venue for conferences, concerts and other cultural events.

The building of the lighthouse will now be possible thanks to wide local and International support. Over the winter an initial model was presented at the “dispari&dispari project” exhibition space in Reggio Emilia. In Florence Thomas Klipper has designed a model to be set within the urban context of Piazza San Pancrazio, right next to the Museo Marino Marini.

Other works by Thomas Klipper will be presented at Villa Romana, among which two documentary videos and some large scale xylographs from London and Frankfurt.

Thomas Kilpper, class of 1956, is renown for his works that intervene with artistic readings of specific social and political contexts. His work has been shown in prestigious spaces such as the South London Gallery, the Generali Foundation in Vienna, the Schirn Kunsthalle, the Kunstverein in Frankfurt and the Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe. He is currently preparing an engraving on linoleum, in collaboration with Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, measuring 800 square metres and intended for the floor of the ex Ministry of State Security building (the Stasi) in East Germany.

Un Faro per Lampedusa! [pdf]
Ein Leuchtturm fuer Lampedusa! [pdf]

dispari&dispari project is pleased to invite you, to the opening of the exhibition “A Lighthouse for Lampedusa”. This is the first show in Italy of Berlin artist Thomas Kilpper (born Stuttgart). With this project, the artist reflects on the current phenomenon of immigration focussing on the extraordinary case of Lampedusa. On this island, just 80 nautical miles away from the African Continent, this year more than 30.000 refugees have reached (about 50% more than in 2007) – mostly in heavily overcrowded little boats. For them the shores of Lampedusa became a Synonymon for the dream of a better life in Europe. But often their “journey of hope” turns into a deadly tragedy – help organisations estimate one out of ten die during their dangerous crossing.

“A lighthouse with a maximum strength beam can provide essential orientation at sea and help to reduce the danger to life. Over the last months, Thomas Kilpper developed this idea for a new art project with a double function: in collaboration with architects, engineers and local people he wants to build a lighthouse with an adjacent cultural center on Lampedusa.

A tower and a landmark building, capable of hosting a diverse and transnational programme of communication, negotiation, exhibitions, concerts and other cultural events on its ground floor; a place that attracts not only new visitors to the island but also local people – making Lampedusa not just a location to talk about, but also somewhere to learn from and listen to each other…”

From the appeal – please see appeal.

To understand the situation on the ground and to start to develop a network of contacts and relations with local people Kilpper travelled the island. On his second trip a meeting with interested “Lampedusian’s” on this project could be held. With ‘A Lighthouse for Lampedusa’ Kilpper proceeds with his site related and socialy engaged interventions like ‘Al Hissan – The Horse of Jenin’, 2003 in Israel / Palestine and ‘Pigisback’ 2006 in London. At dispari&dispari project ‘A Lighthouse for Lampedusa’ will be presented to a wider audience for the first time – as a sketch for an utopian idea to come true in the near future. A Lighthouse for Lampedusa is an event produced by dispari&dispari project of Reggio Emilia and the artist Thomas Kilpper. Thanks for support and cooperation to: The German Institute for the Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa), the House of Artists Villa Romana in Florence, the Lampedusa and Linosa commune and Radio Delta in Lampedusa. The exhibition is open until 14 February 2009 from Tuesday to Friday from 10.00 – 13.00 and 15.00 – 19.00. Saturday and Sunday by appointment.

For more information, visit: www.dispariedispari.org or write to info(at)dispariedispari.org

Installation views @ dispari&dispari, Reggio Emilia

Almost every day we get news of stranded refugees in the south of Europe. Annually about 20 000 refugees try to reach Europe via the Italian island of Lampedusa. Thousands drown in the sea – aid organisations estimate 10 out of 100 migrants die during the dangerous crossing.
Endeavours to improve and sustain living conditions in the immigrants’ country of origin are of prime importance – but even if rich countries are willing to help, this will take time and it will be a matter of decades, if not generations, before people are confident enough not to leave their homelands.
As long as people put their life at risk, as long as people die crossing the Mediterranean in a small nutshell for the sake of a better future… we have to ask ourselves: what can be done?!
A lighthouse with a maximum strength beam can provide essential orientation at sea and help to reduce the danger to life.

Over the last few months, Berlin artist Thomas Kilpper developed this idea for a new art project with a double function: in collaboration with architects, engineers and local people he wants to build a lighthouse with an adjacent arts center on Lampedusa.

A tower and a landmark building, capable of hosting a diverse and transnational programme of communication, negotiation, exhibitions, concerts and other cultural events on its ground floor; a place that attracts not only new visitors to the island but also local people – making Lampedusa not just a location to talk about, but also somewhere to learn from and listen to each other.

This project underlines the need for a solution to the refugee problem: it’s not possible to solve it via restrictions and declaring a ‘state of emergency’. We call for a humanitarian and just immigration and integration policy in Europe. None of the refugees is illegal. We oppose any idea to establish a ‘Fortress Europe’. The lighthouse will be a self-confident signal: ‘here we are, we do not hide’.
In December the first stage of the project will be launched. Thomas Kilpper will build a symbolic model made from boats of immigrants who have arrived in Lampedusa, first at the dispari&dispari project space in Reggio Emilia, and then again, in spring 2009 at Villa Romana in Florence, in order to present the idea to another public.
The second stage – finding ways to realise the tower on Lampedusa – will start as soon as the project gets local and international support.
This project ties in with a history of magnificent lighthouse constructions that have already been built, for example in Alexandria in 300 B.C. – mentioned as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Let us once more build a ‘wonder’ of welcome – this time on the other side of the sea!

We the undersigned are in support of this project.
November 2008

NAME:
PROFESSION:
HOMETOWN:

Please write down your full name, profession and home town and send these informations back to sender. You are kindly invited to forward this appeal to all your friends and colleagues !

Enquiries to
dispari&dispari : 0039.3356097304 / info[at]dispariedispari.org
Villa Romana: 0039.055221654 / info[at]villaromana.org

[Appeal.pdf]
[Appello.pdf]