AMBER ARIFEEN & ELENA RIGHINI

Amber Arifeen is a masters graduate from Wimbledon College of Arts, Amber Arifeen’s feminist practice and interest in the South Asian female subject draws inspiration from philosophers she studied as an undergraduate at U.C Berkeley and her experiences of living abroad and in Pakistan.

After graduating from U.C Berkeley in 2011, she returned to Pakistan to work with an international women’s reproductive health organization. After three years of working in this sector she transitioned into the visual and performing arts full time. Since then, she has participated in several group shows in Pakistan, Paris, and London and has had two solo shows in Karachi, Pakistan. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the Ashurst Emerging Art prize and the Ingram Collection Purchase prize.

Elena Righini is an Italian born curator. She graduated at IULM University, in Milan, in Arts Design and Media, with a curatorial project on the photographer Michael Wolf. During the last year of bachelor, she participated in the Erasmus + program in Bordeaux, France, and she did an internship at the Triennale di Milano. She has just finished the master Arts Museology and Curatorship at Bologna University with the final dissertation Sustainability into practice. The Eco-Feminist Earthworks of Agnes Denes. She collaorated to the Visible Project archive, deepening her concern on social artistic projects. She is mostly interested in sustainable curatorial practices and Eco Art, firmly believing in the concrete change Art can provoke.

Amber Arifeen and Elena Righini used the historical and contemporary context of Puglia region in Italy to explore themes of ecofeminism and freedom through a performance project. Using Dance as medium to express freedom, Arifeen draw’s parallels between the feminist struggle in Pakistan and the socio-cultural transformations taking place in Southern Italy, allowing for a deeper connection and understanding of the current challenges faced by the global feminist movement. 

By exploring the relationship between historical Tarantismo phenomenon, the current contemporary issue of Olive Tree decimation, and the female body, Righini’s curatorial Instagram page connects the past to present, body to landscape, and local with global, giving context to the performance project and a voice to the female experience of the 21st century. Through interviews, performance videos and photos, the page @bringitbacktoher is meant to communicate and raising awareness on Taratismo, Ecofeminism, Desertification and environmental urgencies connected to Sothern Italy.