The artistic research of the duo UCCI UCCI, composed of Salvatore Crucitti and Gloria Zeppilli, blends with anthropological, ethnographic, and archival studies and practices.
The artistic duo UCCI UCCI was founded with the aim of developing artistic research through an ethnographic approach. Sociological analysis and aesthetic research are the essential tools for creating their language. The works emerge from immersion in a specific territory, which is activated in its anthropological and environmental sense.
The work is neither decontextualized nor detached from the environment in which it lives; instead, it captures its emergences.
Their artistic research takes shape in performative and visual works. Languages, stories, traditions, rituals, and landscapes of communities constitute the layers of the works conceived as “hypertextual objects.” This is achieved through a relational practice and the activation of anthropic landscapes.
Aesthetics and ethnographic research engage in dialogue, aiming to evoke unexpected theoretical and aesthetic disruptions that arise from the artistic practice. This allows for a dimension where reflection is as poetic as it is political, addressing cultural and social issues through an interdisciplinary and relational artistic practice, with the intention of evoking territories, subcultures, and hidden or near-extinct cultures.
BIO
In 2024, the duo is a finalist at La Biennale di Venezia College 2024 with HÒS. They win Mittelyoung 2024 with Twisted World for "its relevance, risk-taking, innovation, and complexity of construction." They begin a collaboration with the archive of "Societas Raffaello Sanzio" in Cesena. That same year, they establish the scientific journal IMPURE, Journal of Art and Anthropology, which involves international artists and anthropologists in exploring the common practices between art and anthropology.
In 2023, they pursue their research between Contemporary Art and Anthropology during a residency at the International Performance Art Archive Black Kit in Cologne. They present two solo exhibitions: Artificial Hells at the Quartier am Hafen in Cologne, and Sedimenti at the Italian Cultural Institute in Cologne.
In 2022, they win the ArtèEuropa award, conferred by the European Parliament, Ragnarock Association, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. In the same year, they receive a special mention at the "Premio Scenario Infanzia."
In 2021, the duo participates and wins the Best Show award at the 64th Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, as part of the European Young Theatre.
Gloria Zeppilli, (1998) graduated in "Sculpture" and "Sculpture and Applied New Technologies" from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, with theses entitled Beyond Dominance. The Act of Creation as Subversive to the Dominant System and Notes and Attempts for a Hypertextual Work, written with advisor Paolo Canevari. Since 2020, she has collaborated with Salvatore Crucitti, founding the artistic research duo "UCCI UCCI" and the scientific journal IMPURE, together with Salvatore Crucitti and anthropologist Francesco Marano.
Salvatore Crucitti, (1998) studied "Theories and Techniques of Audiovisuals" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, and graduated in 2022 in "Directing" from the National Academy of Dramatic Arts "Silvio d'Amico." He won the "European Young Theatre" award in 2021 for Best Show (Festival dei Due Mondi Spoleto). One of his latest theatrical projects (Ninnoli) received a special mention from the jury at the Premio Scenario Infanzia 2022. Since 2020, he has collaborated with Gloria Zeppilli, founding the artistic research duo "UCCI UCCI".