13 November, 6pm
Artistic Exchanges between Britain and Italy: A collaboration between The Italian Cultural Institute in London and University of the Arts London.
ICI London and University of the Arts London present and evening of artists talks showcasing the research and artworks created during the University of the Arts London’s Fine Art Research Fellowship at the British School at Rome and the inaugural Italian Cultural Institute’s artist-in-residence at Camberwell College of Arts.
This Note is for You – Lorenzo Modica Artist Residency
A talk by Lorenzo Modica, the visual artist selected as an Artist in Residence in Camberwell Space through an open call for an Italian artist exploring place through painting and its expanded field. The residency forms part of an inaugural partnership between ICI London, Camberwell College of Arts and the University of the Arts London, built on a shared commitment to supporting emerging Italian talent, strengthening cultural exchange between Italy and the United Kingdom, and creating new international opportunities for contemporary artists.
Lorenzo’s practice moves between abstraction and figuration, where traditional investigations of colour, form, surface, and composition intersect with visual languages drawn from illustration, comics, collage, and graphic communication. His work is characterised by a process-driven approach that introduces irony, vulnerability, and experimentation into contemporary painting.
During the residency (2-26 November at Camberwell Space), Lorenzo will develop This Note Is for You, a site-specific project unfolding across the neighbouring areas of Camberwell and Peckham through a series of participatory initiatives. These include noticeboards inviting reflections on small, everyday acts of disobedience, a free “drawing on request” workshop, and a monotype workshop. Gathering images, objects, stories, and encounters along the way, he will transform these experiences into a new body of paintings and works on paper, to be presented during an open presentation event on Wednesday 25 November. Lorenzo will also deliver a lecture series with the BA Fine Art: Painting students at Camberwell College of Arts.
At a Crossroads: What Crossing the Road Reveals About How We Are Governed – A talk by Mark Farid
At a Crossroads treats the pedestrian crossing as a moment where the state, governance, infrastructure and culture intersect with the body, and follows how obedience becomes so habitual it no longer looks like obedience at all. Over three months at the British School at Rome (April to June 2026), Mark Farid worked with filmmakers to film crossings in eight cities across seven countries: Warsaw, Berlin, Rome, Istanbul, Ankara, Chengdu, Phuket and Accra. In Berlin a woman waited two minutes and fifty-four seconds at an empty signal, checking her watch six times. In Warsaw crowds gather on an empty side street with no car in sight, and wait. In Istanbul vast footbridges have been built over the roads, and people cross underneath them. In Accra an official with a stick keeps pedestrians out of the middle of the road. Each would say they were just crossing the road. Move them to another city and the way they cross the road stops disappearing. This talk presents the filmed material and the thinking that came out of Rome: that the system does not need to determine every footstep, because it has already taken the ground the footstep moves across. It also introduces the project’s English phase, supported by Arts Council England, a series of research walks with the Ramblers and a social scientist that widens the question from the crossing to access rights, private land, fencing, signage, and the devices and technology that shape our movement in public space.
Book your place HERE
Important: Welcome to our new home
We are delighted to welcome you to the new home of the Italian Cultural Institute London.
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