Atelier dell’Errore

∗2002, Reggio Emilia, Italy

Atelier dell’Errore is a collective of eleven neurodivergent artists who have been working together since 2002, basing their collaboration on a few clear rules: graphite as the tool of choice, animals as subjects, no erasing allowed. In over twenty years of activity, Atelier dell’Errore has created a bestiary of hybrid beings: part insect, part inhabitants of the abyss, and in rare cases, mammals. They are monstrous, disturbing and magnetic creatures, the result of a group work that right from the start of their work approached large formats and more recently drawing and painting on unconventional surfaces. In 2018, the collective was established as a social cooperative art studio, and its members were employed as drawing artists. Their salary depends on the sale of their works, and their activity – which has never been equated with so-called ‘outsider art’ – is completely independent of the public health service. For The Parliament of Marmots, Atelier dell’Errore will present a six-metre high Vela Alpina (Alpine sail) hoisted up a lamppost in Pontives, in front of the Biennale Gherdëina headquarters, in reference to the sea that shaped the Dolomites two hundred and fifty million years ago. The work is based on an experimental material that transforms the thermal blankets used to shelter migrants on the shores of the Mediterranean into a real sail, from a material of rescue to one of hope. Inside the offices, Atelier dell’Errore will transform the space with specific drawings and works that feature several ‘Marmottoloids’, including the Marmot-Punk design adopted for the visual identity of The Parliament of Marmots.