Giordano Donatini (He/Him)

Giordano is currently studying mathematics in Italy. Whenever he’s not studying, you will find him in a climbing gym, dancing tango, or trying to learn how to handstand.
One of the things he likes the most about Calcinaia is the hilly landscape, and its inhabitants: he could spend all summer watching the swallows fly and nest around the farm, and he always patiently waits for the baby chicks’ first flights!

Irene Donatini (She/Her)

Irene graduated from Fine Arts BEAR at ArtEZ in 2024. The Barattolo Project started with her vision to turn Calcinaia into a residency space for artists. She often finds herself in contrast with the world, and so she writes her world to her public, narrating life through her eyes. Intrigued by monsters and their perceptions of their worlds, she engages in dialogues with them questioning not only their monstruosity, but her own (ab)normality. Irene craves knowledge, and processes it through her explosive emotions, making her art a continuous research endeavour. The Barattolo Project is for her a chance to change the art world for the better, focusing on community and non exclusive art spaces.

Ellen Tabea Fleig Gracia (She/Her)

Ellen graduated from Fine Arts BEAR at ArtEZ in 2024 and works, both in her artistic practice and her personal life, between and across borders and cultures. In constant dialogue with her roots, her heritage and history, she researches physical traces and tales in archival material and imagery, searching in the memory of the body and for a sense of belonging. This often results in spacial multi-media installations, where temporality gets stretched and shifts of perspectives occur.
In the Barattolo Project her affinity for memory-creation (physically and through different media) and working with a diverse community of people come together.

Milan van der Stouw (He/Him)

Milan graduated from Fine Arts BEAR at ArtEZ in 2024, and is now trying to navigate the scary world of contemporary art. His artistic practice involves finding materials on the street, creating weird shapes and a variety of craft/DIY technique. Through drawings and sculptures he tries to capture the feeling of wonder and potentiality. Milan does not like definition.
Besides his artistic practice Milan is also learning woodworking.
Milan’s interest in the Barattolo project lies in finding a meeting point between the arts and craft, exploring art as communal effort, creating a low-threshold learning environment and providing a place that fosters experiment within (and outside of) the arts.

Jole Donatini (They/Them)

Jole graduated from Gender & Diversity at the Hochschule Rhein-Waal, with the dream of bringing together social justice and practices of sustainability through creativity and community. Their research brought them to study food as a way of belonging, and then sourdough and fermentation, not only as health boosters, but also as cultural practices that tie us to our past. When they are not cooking, they are thinking about their next sewing project, or mending their clothes over and over again. They find solace in the small rituals of every day life, and enjoy making things by hand, creating meaning as they go. The Barattolo Project is a dream come true for them.

Ro Smit (They/Him)

Ro graduated from Fine Arts BEAR at ArtEZ in 2023. In their practice, they strive to create art that provides the softness necessary to face the hardships of the world, even when it seems that the world itself is ending. Ro makes pieces that inspire togetherness, community, and hope by working with care; care of the people and the world around us, and care for oneself. Over the years, their work has evolved into an exercise of time, playfulness, physicality, and commitment to art. They find in the Barattolo an expression of the concepts they hold dear, and an occasion to expand their artistic practise in community.