Amigdala / OvestLab

Amigdala is an artistic collective and a cultural association active in the fields of contemporary performing arts, urban recovery and social innovation in Modena, Italy. OvestLab is one of the dismissed workshops in the area of the Villaggio Artigiano on the west side of Modena, an area created in the mid-50s from an audacious political intuition during the socio-economic situation following the Second World War, and which represents the first model of a craftsman's area in Italy.

Since 2017, Amigdala and Archivio Cesare Leonardi have directed it in collaboration with Modena's Municipality. The OvestLab project aims to be a connection between different artistic disciplines, artisan productions, urban regeneration and citizens' involvement. It is a multicultural centre where training activities, artistic production, civic experimentation, urban transformation and buildings' heritage are interlinked, activating new dynamics to increase the territorial quality of life. Amigdala aims to create permanent processes in the area, through artistic productions, creative residencies, cultural calendars, publishing initiatives and training sessions, to foster new considerations on abandoned spaces, their role and their new possible identities. Re-activating a former mechanical workshop fully complies with Amigdala's goals to interweave artistic experimentation with research and interventions on the city's urban landscape.

OvestLab is unique as a territorial incubator seeking the enhancement of the neighbourhood where it is based. It does not work exclusively as a place for programming activities, but tries to work as a detonator of the cultural development of the area. Amigdala has well-established expertise in the temporary reuse of abandoned buildings, and works with private proprietors to open their dismissed buildings to artists and the community for temporary reuse.

At TEH, Amigdala/OvestLab is part of the Italy Hub (Italian Network of Independent Cultural Centres).