Methods
Amigdala has long been engaged in relational artistic forms and participatory interventions in territories. Over time, it has come to recognize the powerful transformative potential of this kind of work for all those involved.
The collective firmly believes in the possibility of combining artistic and cultural practices with the generative power of relationships. At the same time, it is aware of the risks inherent in this approach, especially when participatory practices are treated as neutral ground. While acknowledging that these practices cannot be reduced to fixed models or standardized procedures—since they are deeply shaped by the complexity of the contexts and relationships they engage—Amigdala has, through ongoing reflection between theory and action, developed specific working methods that have taken shape over time as methodologies.
These reflections give rise to a set of guiding principles that orient Amigdala’s work. They are not intended as rigid rules, but as tools to support artistic processes and foster critical reflection on relational artistic practices and place-based research models. The aim is to problematize the interdependence of a complex system—composed of cultural institutions, artists, and communities—not to control or simplify it, but to inhabit its necessarily entropic dimensions with shared awareness.
The methodologies outlined here are grounded in action-research, forming a circular movement between fieldwork and theoretical elaboration, within a continuous tension toward learning and experimentation.
Being Present in the Territory
Amigdala works year-round in different areas of Modena, maintaining daily contact with residents, local organizations, institutions, and the spaces involved.
This continuous presence allows for a deeper attentiveness to the nuances of each context. Relationships with spaces and their inhabitants are essential to identifying tools for understanding everyday life.
Some communities encountered over the years—such as the group of girls from Bottega Baleno, the editorial collective of Fionda, and the feminist choir Le Chemin des Femmes—are considered resident artistic communities with whom the collective maintains ongoing collaboration.
Amigdala supports medium- and long-term artistic research and social engagement processes, with the understanding that time is essential not only for the success of artistic and cultural outcomes but also for maintaining the ethical integrity of the relationships involved.
The communities engaged in Amigdala’s projects—as well as those who provide space for performances, workshops, and residencies—represent a valuable relational capital that the collective seeks to nurture even beyond the festival timeline. For this reason, the Amigdala team accompanies projects through all phases, taking care of the needs of all parties involved and responding directly to the trust that has been placed in them.
The goal is not to control artistic work or the relationships that emerge, but to care for them collectively. The continuity of these relationships allows for the welcoming of new perspectives, modes of being together, vital tensions, and expressive urgencies. In some cases, it may be necessary for the Amigdala team to step back to make space for new relationships to emerge. The balance between these dynamics is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Building Bridges
Central to Amigdala’s work—particularly within the context of the Periferico festival—are the figures of territorial curators: members of the collective who nurture the relationship between artistic practices and territories undergoing transformation, linking each artistic intervention to broader processes that inherently carry a deep cultural dimension. All hosted and produced artistic projects involving an in-depth engagement with places and communities are directly supported by a territoriale curator from the team.
Over the years, Amigdala has come to recognize the professional specificity of this role, which requires an understanding of both the artistic needs of the project and the unique characteristics of the territory and its people.
The role of the territorial curator is subject to ongoing reflection, which defines its boundaries and functions. This figure never replaces the direct relationship between artist and community, but supports and accompanies it—and, in some cases, may step aside to allow that relationship to develop autonomously.
Amigdala sees this as a new and emerging form of curatorship, specific to socially engaged and participatory artistic practices, still under exploration and definition in the contemporary landscape.
Situated Making
In site-specific practices, the site is not only a geographical location but a complex ecosystem, with its own memory, history, and relationships. Amigdala does not intervene to "reveal" something, but to engage with a context that already exists before the artistic project begins.
The everyday experience of those who live in a place is seen as situated knowledge that should guide the artistic process. Amigdala therefore avoids extractive logics, constantly questioning how artistic urgency intersects with the invitation to participate.
The collective engages in multidisciplinary listening and observation practices to identify connections between different dimensions of a place, and to develop new forms of knowledge co-production, communication, and education—at school, university, community, local and supra-local levels.
Establishing clear agreements
In community-based practices, artistic work takes shape through the active participation of communities, which play a specific role in the project’s development.
These projects are conceived as platforms for expanded learning, where different forms of knowledge meet and influence one another.
While respecting the autonomy of the artists involved, it is acknowledged that community-based work often goes beyond traditional authorship, opening up to co-creative forms whose vocabulary—artistically, ethically, and politically—is still in the making.
Particular attention is given to the transparency of project conditions and intentions. Key questions include:
What degree of decision-making power do the participants have?
Is the outcome of the project already defined, or is it based on an open co-creation process?
What forms of reciprocity does the project activate?
What kinds of recognition—economic or symbolic—are provided to participants?
Not Being Afraid of Conflict
Situated and participatory practices can generate tensions and moments of conflict. These are not seen as obstacles but as vital spaces of negotiation and transformation.
Artistic and cultural projects that involve communities actively often move between critical friction and the production of social cohesion, sometimes combining both elements in unexpected ways. For this reason, Amigdala views participatory artistic practices and intervention-based approaches as dynamic fields for the creation of public space—and thus as inherently political practices.
Thinking and Acting Across Scales
Situated projects are fertile when they are capable of generating networks and connections. To prevent micro-local work from falling into localism, it is essential to keep open the possibility of connecting local contexts with external actors, encouraging an incremental vision of resources, opening up to new perspectives, and fostering dialogue.
This approach also helps generate alternative imaginaries and build networks among local residents, organisations, and public institutions across different levels.
Making memory
A sense of belonging to a place arises from an emotional bond activated by memory. Recalling past experiences and generating new ones allows connection to the imaginaries of a territory, initiating processes of creation, awareness, and shared interpretation. When these memories are recognized and shared, they can become central elements through which the territory and its communities are narrated and understood.
Over time, Amigdala has developed several tools to explore and deepen the unique characteristics of a specific context, including:
Individual experiences that contribute to collective narratives (interviews and oral sources)
Collective descriptions and contextual analysis (relational dynamics)
In-depth investigations based on public information (archival research and perceptual hypotheses as both scientific and sensitive feedback)
Tapping into Transformative Imaginaries
Artistic action in the territory engages with needs and desires while also stimulating a sense of belonging through emotional resonance rooted in memory.
These actions become vehicles for generating forward-looking thinking, fostering local activation and the creation of new everyday policies that value situated knowledge, enhance the territory's existing resources, and strengthen ongoing processes of transformation.
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