Residenze Play Brindisi: donate tre installazioni

The first year of experimentation of the Play Brindisi Residencies, promoted by the Municipality of Brindisi as part of the National Programme Metro Plus and Medium-Sized Cities South 2021–2027 – Play Brindisi project, has come to an end.

From Thursday, 8 October, Cillarese Park will offer the city three new lightweight architectural installations that bear witness to an experience bringing together urban regeneration, art, training and participation.

These are not simply installations, therefore, but the story of a collective process taking shape in wood, colour and form, and offered for the enjoyment of those who use the park: an experiment connecting public space, youth policies, training, inclusion, creativity and social activation, as part of the broader “Brindisi Per” strategy.

Because a park changes when the objects that inhabit it change. But it changes even more when new people begin to look at it, move through it and imagine it as a space of possibility.

From project to making: 60 young people create new ways of inhabiting the park

During 2026, three placemaking residency sessions involved a total of 60 young people aged between 18 and 35, selected through open calls that received more than 150 applications.

Young people from Brindisi, as well as from other Italian cities and abroad, worked side by side, bringing to Cillarese different experiences, skills and perspectives. They were supported by tutors and curators, as well as by GRRIZ, an international studio working at the intersection of public-space design, placemaking, architecture and artistic installations. The artist Geometric Bang contributed to the artistic and visual component.

Exploring the area, observing how the space is used, training, collaborative design, self-construction and artistic production became the stages of a single journey: learning by transforming, and transforming by learning.

The Residencies thus experimented with a model in which young people are not simply the recipients of a public initiative, but directly participate in shaping the ways in which places can be used.

The Island, the Boat, the Lighthouse: three signs for three Cillarese landscapes

Cillarese Park, the largest urban park in Puglia, was chosen as the first laboratory for this experiment.

Not as a homogeneous space to be “filled” with objects, but as a complex system of landscapes, routes and areas with different purposes, to be observed and interpreted.

The first Residency, held in June, gave rise to THE ISLAND, a large multifunctional wooden platform designed for resting, meeting, playing and collective activities: a place within a place, capable of suggesting new forms of social interaction.

The second Residency produced THE BOAT, located in the large central meadow near the ponds. This multifunctional piece of furniture can serve as seating, a picnic area, a play structure or a gathering point, leaving people free to interpret its uses.

The third Residency has brought THE LIGHTHOUSE to life: a landmark designed to shift attention towards the lesser-known and less frequented side of Cillarese. It is a feature capable of providing orientation and sparking curiosity, while also helping to reinforce the park’s ecological value as a habitat for biodiversity. The presence of a bat box, integrated into the project as a refuge for bats, introduces a broader reflection on the possibility of designing natural public space not solely around human presence, but as an environment shared by different species. THE LIGHTHOUSE thus becomes a small device for experimenting with forms of interspecies coexistence, recognising Cillarese as a key ecosystem within the urban fabric of Brindisi—one in which the protection of biodiversity, public enjoyment and the quality of space can mutually reinforce one another.

When the transformation of places becomes personal growth

Play Brindisi represents one of the most concrete expressions of the integration of the ERDF and ESF+ within the Brindisi Per programme.

ERDF resources support the physical transformation of public space through regeneration, placemaking and lightweight infrastructure projects; ESF+ resources, on the other hand, fuel its social, educational and training dimension, enabling young people to participate directly in the Residencies and in the design processes.

It is precisely through the meeting of these two dimensions that the model tested at Cillarese has taken shape: not regenerating spaces without the people who use them, and not training people without giving them the opportunity to have a real impact on the places they inhabit.

The result is therefore measured not only by the works created. It also lies in the skills exchanged, the relationships built, the ability to work together across different disciplines and backgrounds, and the concrete experience of being able to leave a mark on public space.

For information and further details: www.brindisiper.it

Play Brindisi is promoted by the Municipality of Brindisi as part of the National Programme Metro Plus and Medium-Sized Cities South 2021–2027 and forms part of the Brindisi Per strategy.
Web: www.brindisiper.it