Ezra Antonio Campelli “Creek Goddess” (2018). Author’s private archive.

RISK CHANGE is a project that focuses on contemporary migrations, continuous social and cultural change in 21th Century and the geopolitical changes in EU and neighboring countries. RC aims to research, create, connect, compare, disseminate and promote contemporary interdisciplinary art related to science, especially social and applied sciences, and ICT. Within the framework of the project a residency program is welcoming new media artists to participate and, using the means provided by residencies, create new artworks; the theme of the residency programme in 2020 is "MIGRATION + ECOLOGY".

RIXC's "Risk Change" Residency programme 2020 welcomes applications by artists who are critically exploring the topics of migration and ecology, approaching them from the very diverse perspectives – experimenting with new immersive technologies, participatory media and critical art practices, exploring the potential of interdisciplinary practices on the edge of art and science, and contributing towards building a new discourse of "techno-ecological" art.

Ezra Antonio Campelli “Yggdrasil, Axis Mundi’’ (2018). Author’s private archive.

In 2020, Ezra Antonio Campelli has been selected as a participant of the RIXC Risk Change residency program. Ezra Antonio Campelli, known also by pseydonyms Ezra Jude and Antonio P. Campelli,is an interdisciplinary artist based between the UK, the USA, and Italy, whose work engages with ecology, the Anthropocene and eco-feminism. The artist creates installations that raise the issue of the ecological crisis through an eco-feminism perspective, offering a variety of possible and fantastic solutions to ecological problems, for example, portraying pharmaceutical companies’ monopolization of access to hormones or water pollution that mirror the scenarios of a dystopian future. He explores the duality of man and nature, equating the sexes with the analogy of separating nature from culture.

His most recent research focuses around the idea of “Transcaping” or the formulation of a symbiotic landscaping and agriculture practice. Beginning with a series of plants that naturally produce compounds called phytoandrogens and phytoestrogens, (organic substances from plants that have the effects of testosterone and estrogen in mammals) artist is creating a compendium of these plants, how to cultivate them, and how to harvest them. Intended as a means to democratize access to sex-changing hormones, the research also encompasses an approach to permaculture and how to care for our land in a manner equivalent to how it cares for us. Cultivating these hormone-producing plants, offering workshops on DIY urban farming and hydroponics, and staging performances around the themes of Transcaping, would be the work that the artist intends to pursue at the Risk Change Residency.

Ezra Antonio Campelli “Creek Goddess” (2018). Author’s private archive.

In his most recent works, artist continues to explore ecological problems by applying fantastic solution depicted in fantasy scenes. In 2018 Ezra Campelli created an installation “Creek Goddess” using live spirulina algae, water, plastic, makeup, burlap, twigs and blending ecology, song, eschatology, and fairy tales into a narrative about fantastic apocalyptic futures. Artist’s installation “Yggdrasil, Axis Mundi” (2018) is inspired by Norse mythology, symbolically depicting Yggdrasil or World tree. This project is an installation of recycled plastic tubes filled with live, edible, Spirulina algae. Referencing the mythological tree Yggdrasil, the work demonstrates how plants function as an Axis Mundi, linking together all other forms of life, connecting animals, humans, the earth, they sky, and the stars. The most recent artist’s work is “Heliotrope the Thames” (2019) which is a digital collage depicting a possible solution for the ongoing problem of pollution in the River Thames. The collage shows Thames with purple phototrophic bacteria that can be used to convert this waste into clean water and hydrogen energy.  

Ezra Antonio Campelli “Heliotrope the Thames” (2019). Author’s private archive.