Unfolding Desire
A project by AiR Trieste in partnership with La Collina Social Cooperative, Trieste Contemporanea, Griffin Art Projects
Curators: Francesca Lazzarini, Elham Puriya Mehr
Artists: Ofri Cnaani, Evann Siebens
In collaboration: Escuchame, Collettivo Marte
Aperitif with the artist Evann Siebens
Thursday, May 22, at 18:30
Il Posto delle Fragole, via G. De Pastrovich 4, San Giovanni Park, Trieste
Exhibition at Trieste Contemporanea
May 30 – June 20, 2025
Opening: Friday, May 30, at 18:30
Followed by Performing the Unpredictable, a performance by Evann Siebens with Samuel Codarin and Pavel Berdon, at 19:00
Curatorial tour: Thursday, June 5, at 18:30
Via del Monte 2/1, Trieste
Unfolding Desire is a research project that uses art, memory, and archives to envision alternative futures amid growing authoritarianism. Curated by Francesca Lazzarini and Elham Puriya Mehr, it is focusing on San Giovanni Park, a key site of Franco Basaglia’s psychiatric reform.
Through works by Ofri Cnaani and Evann Siebens, Unfolding Desire explores San Giovanni Park as a living, emotional space where hidden desires can inspire collective care, knowledge, and resistance. Starting from the precious material kept in Oltre il Giardino, the Documentation Centre of the former Psychiatric Hospital, the project questions the possibility of imagining ‘other futures’ starting from a past marked by the struggle for deinstitutionalisation and emancipation.
Cnaani approaches digitisation as a political and relational act, challenging extractive archival methods and advocating for participatory, proximity-based practices.
Siebens reimagines the “monster” as a symbol of subversion and desire through photo collages and performances, inviting a sensory engagement with the memory that challenges fixed narratives.
The resulting artworks will be exhibited at Trieste Contemporanea from May 30 to June 20, 2025. The opening will feature Siebens’ performance Performing the Unpredictable, created during her residency - with sonic and performative contributions from Samuel Codarin and Pavel Berdon. On June 5, curators Lazzarini and Puriya Mehr will guide a tour with an online talk by Cnaani.
