In the summer of 2019 Castello San Basilio was transformed into a project space - an informal environment, dedicated to research, artistic experimentation and collaboration, facilitating cultural exchange within artists, curators, collectors and art professionals.
Artists are invited to reside at Castello San Basilio and produce new works to be exhibited in the property from June to September. An international audience including curators, collectors and art professionals are welcomed each year to visit the studios and exhibitions, initiating a new artistic discourse regarding the artists’ practices and the history of the place. Castello San Basilio is situated in Basilicata, a hard to reach, remote area in the South of Italy, removed from fashions and distractions. An ideal place to bring together people united by the same passion.
Located between the ancient cities of Metaponto and Matera, Castello San Basilio was built as a fortified farm by the monastic community of the Basilians in the 7th century.
It later became a Norman fiefdom and as a consequence took on the physical resemblance of a castle with the construction of the central tower.
Site Specific Installations are a characteristic element of the collection at Castello San Basilio. This aspect came about when the Berlingieri family invited Christo to the property in 1971. Since then, Castello San Basilio has become a travel destination for artists and art professionals from all over the world - slowly developing into a home for monumental indoor and outdoor installations.
Basilicata is one of the least known regions of Italy. It is one of the few places that can still be described as relatively undiscovered as it is tucked into the instep of the country’s boot, with Puglia to the north and east and Calabria to the south. Having been inhabited since the 10th millennium BC, this makes it one of the oldest regions of Italy. Its churches and castles bear witness to Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Norman, Angevin civilizations that have settled in this region throughout the centuries.