Diego Segatto is an architect and designer. He develops his trajectory as a design consultant and advisor, as well as a creative director.
As a result of the collaboration with artway of thinking (Venice), which began in 2001, he adopts hybrid methods, initiating and engaging with contexts aimed at cultural policies.
In 2009 he co-founds OpenQuadra design studio.
The same year he begins a collaboration with DAAR – Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (Bethlehem, Palestine), focusing on the visual and editorial expressions of the research, which resulted in exhibitions at the Biennales of Istanbul (2009), Beirut, Rotterdam and Sharjiah (2010), at the International Edinburgh Festival (2011), and in the publication of Architecture after Revolution (Sternberg Press, 2013).
In 2010 he co-founds Re:Habitat – an organism for urban regeneration (Bologna) tackling with the city narratives and interventions in the public space.
Between 2012 and 2013 he takes part in the educational programme Campus in Camps (Dheisheh’s refugee camp, Palestine) as coordinator and designer.
During his stay there he also collaborates, as a visual designer, with the UNRWA Camp Improvement Programme.
In 2013 he takes part in the founding of the artistic project Ateliersi (Bologna), through which he enhances his experience of the relationship between art and cultural policies.
In 2017 Diego co-founds Al Maeishah, a mobile dialogical and learning environment experimenting with varied forms of gathering where mixing assembly, design thinking, editorial production and exhibitory design are stages for creating common grounds: from Inhabiting (2018, Lesvos, Greece), during the Moving Together week dedicated to Angela Davis (2018, Utrecht, NL) and at the HOME event curated by ArtEZ (2018, Zwolle, NL) and at the Parliament of Schools at Bauhaus for the centenary of the institution (2019, Dessau, Germany).
From 2017 to 2018, he participates as a fellow student at BAK – basis voor actuele kunst (Utrecht, NL) in the programme Propositions for Non Fascist Living.
Since 2019 he is part of the editorial unit at DAAS – Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies, realizing and curating the online archive.
He is co-author and editorial designer for commissioned or self-produced publications and his articles were published in online cultural magazines.
Diego believes in founding and partaking collective endeavours as a form of political engagement.

Education

Fellowship at BAK’s research itinerary Propositions for Non-Fascist Living, 2017-2018
BAK – basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands

Course in graphic facilitation, 2011
Housatonic, Bologna, Italy

Performative languages, 2000-2007
with artway of thinking, Maria Teresa dal Pero, Teatrino Clandestino, Alessandro Berti

Cultural planning, Nuovi Organismi di Formazione Culturale, 2005
Fabbrica La Ginestra, Montevarchi (AR), Italy

Postgraduate-degree in Participative Planning and Urbanism, 2003
IUAV (Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia), Venice, Italy

Master of Architecture (M.Arch), 2002. IUAV, Venice, Italy

Initiated, commissioned or participated co-creations

Granarolo Bottega – neighborhood shops (2021 – ongoing)
Creative direction and naming, shop design, visual design and coordination.
With Roberto di Rocco (OpenQuadra)

GROUND – independent space for art and architecture in Stockholm (2021 – ongoing)
Artist in residency, graphic design, narrative design
With Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal
Residency supported by: i-Portunus mobility program (selection Architecture 2021)

DAAS – Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies web platform (2020 – ongoing)
Tutoring, graphic design, book design, web design and management
With Alessandro Petti, Marie-Louise Richards and Tatiana Letier Pinto
Supported by: Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm

Al Maeishah (itinerant process, 2017 – ongoing)
CO-foundation/conception/development/direction
With Isshaq Al-Barbary and Elena Isayev

Mìnera school of yoga (online project, 2016 – ongoing)
Visual and conceptual research, web design for the yoga online school by Francesca Proia, artist

B! The biological kitchen at DLF (Bologna, Italy, 2016)
Refurbishment, visual identity and communication for a biological kitchen.
Commissioned & sponsored by GoGreen Store Srl; in collaboration with Arca di Noè Social Cooperative

Ateliersi theatre and art production company (Bologna, Italy, 2013 – ongoing)
Co-creation, visual communication and spaces re-invigoration.
Supported by: Ministry or Culture; Region of Emilia-Romagna; Bologna City Council; Dal Monte Foundation

UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees), (Palestine, 2013)
Envisioning-designing maps and games for Refugee Camp improvement programme

Campus in Camps educational programme (Palestine, 2012 – ongoing)
Systemic design, coordination and co-planning.
Funders: GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbei); Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

Re:Habitat association for urban regeneration (Bologna, Italy, 2010 – ongoing)
Co-foundation, coordination, communication and project activation.
Supported by: Bologna City Council; Consorzio di gestione del Mercato delle Erbe.

DAAR – Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (Palestine, 2009 – ongoing)
Visual art, co-planning and book design.
Supported by: Price Claus Prize for Architecture; Foundation for Art Initiatives; Delphina Foundation

OpenQuadra design studio (Bologna, Italy, 2009 – ongoing)
Co-foundation and art direction of the physical and digital studio

artway of thinking art collective (Venice, Italy, 2000 – ongoing)
Community-based public art, co-creation and visual design.
Supported by a conglomerate of numerous public and private organisations

Editorial and research units

Concepts and Sites of Architectural Decolonization (Stockholm, Sweden, 19th-20th February 2019). Workshop at Alessandro Petti’s course in Decolonizing Architecture, at the Royal Institute of Art. How to build a connective and expandable atlas.

Haay/Ahaali (Utrecht, NL, 17th May 2018). Workshop by Al Maeishah in the framework of Moving Together: Activism, Art and Education – a week with Angela Davis. A look into questions of citizenship, communal knowledge sharing, intergenerational activism, and relevant artistic practices. Hosted by BAK

Inhabiting (Lesvos, Greece, 20th February – 4th March 2018). Coordination of a work-group, production of a Collective Dictionary and an exhibition at Thresholds, convened by Office of Displaced Designers and Al Maeishah

Xenia (Exeter, UK, 16th – 28th February 2017)
Coordination of a work-group and production of a Collective Dictionary at Ancient Journeys and Migrants, convened by Professor Elena Isayev (University of Exeter), on behalf of Campus in Camps

Political (Utrecht and Amsterdam, Netherlands, 5th – 9th April 2016)
Coordination of a work-group and production of a Collective Dictionary at Here We Are Academy / Learning from the Forum, convened by BAK basis voor actuele kunst, with We Are Here Association, on behalf of Campus in Camps

Forum PA – 25th edition (Rome, Italy, 27-29 May 2014)
Interviewer and social media manager

Corniolo Art Platform (Corniolo, Italy, 31th July – 2nd August 2012)
Live visual thinking at Diaphasis, by Archiviazioni association

Nosadella.due art residency (Bologna, Italy, 27th January 2012)
Live visual thinking at Journal 2007-2011: a book and other ways of story-telling

Fondazione Pistoletto (Biella, Italy, 20th – 24th May 2010)
Coordination of the editorial unit at Methods – Process of Change programme

Art&Gallery (Milan, Italy, 2002)
Coordination of the editorial unit at Relation:ships, mapping territories for artway of thinking

Key Note presentations

Polis Universiteti (online with Tiranë from Bologna, 18th December 2020)
Design as an open journey

Studium Generale – ArtEZ (Zwolle, NL, 8th November 2018)
Al Maeishah — un/making home. Workshop HOME

University of Exeter (Exeter, UK, 14th July 2016)
A park in play. Common, public and private quests between ownership and belonging. Workshop Locating Memory in the Materiality of Heritage

Zurich University of the Arts (Zurich, Switzerland, 14th – 16th November 2013)
The communal learning experience of Campus in Camps seeking for a new role of University in the social order. Symposium The Diagrammatic Practice of the Micropolitical – the Spatio-temporal Expression of Play between Power, Knowledge and the Aesthetics of Existence

Fabbrica La Ginestra (Montevarchi, Italy, 26th November 2011)
100% Mercato Cantiere InErbe urban regeneration project at Creative Net cross meeting

Documenta 11 (Kassel, Germany, 17th July 2002)
The welcome of seafarers at the Venice harbor at the public chat Cityscape / Imaginary territories with RAQS Media Collective

Invited talks – a selection

Bauhaus (Dessau, Germany, 20th-24th March 2019)
Parliament of Schools
with Elena Isayev and Isshaq Al Barbary

BAK basis voor actuele kunst (Utrecht, Netherlands, 30th June 2018)
Toward a Voluntary Exile: Unconditional Hospitality and Islands
with Isshaq Al Barbary and Pelin Tan

BAK basis voor actuele kunst (Utrecht, Netherlands, 7th October 2017)
Autonomous Infrastructure and stories of hospitality
with Isshaq Al Barbary and Pelin Tan

Arts Academy of Bologna (Bologna, Italy, 9th April 2014)
Campus in Camps programme in From representation to action. Meetings on public art

Chiostra d’Onofrio (Corato, Italy, 16th September 2013)
Campus in Camps programme at the roundtable RI-CREA il Territorio (Re-create the territory)

Teatro Studio Krypton (Scandicci, Italy, 23rd May 2012)
Campus in Camps programme at the workshop Piano con Paesaggio: un punto di vista speciale (Plan with a Landscape: a special point of view)

Nosadella.due art residency (Bologna, Italy, 16th April 2011)
The experience at Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency for THE WALL Project

Al-Feneiq cultural centre (Deheisheh Refugee Camp, Palestine, 22nd January 2010)
CAMP at the symposium Architecture, Pedagogy & Politics of Spatial Knowledge on behalf of Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency

Candiani Cultural Centre (Mestre, Italy, 13th October 2009)
The welcome of seafarers landing in Venice at the seminar Harbour and City: relations and opportunities of
dialogue in continuos transformation on behalf of artway of thinking

Radio interviews

Radio Città Fujiko at Coxo Spaziale (Bologna, 24th November 2018)
Concibò – Bolognina in transito

Radio Città del Capo with Aelia Media project (Bologna, 17th October 2011)
Regenerating the City Market

Radio Papesse with Pietro Gaglianò (Florence, Italy, 24th May 2012)
The experience at Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency

Exhibited works – a selection

La Caffetteria del Sì (Bologna, Italy, 2015), Angelo Mai Occupato (Rome, Italy, 2015)
Compatibile, installation for URBAN SPRAY LEXICON PROJECT by Ateliersi

Bologna Urban Center (Bologna, Italy, 2011)
100% Mercato Cantiere in Erbe, project exhibition and public relations for Re:Habitat

Sharjiah Art Biennal (Sharjiah, U.A.E., 2011), Beirut Art Fair (Beirut, Lebanon, 2010), Rotterdam Biennale (Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2010), REDCAT (Los Angeles, U.S.A., 2010)
The books of DAAR for Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency

University of Exeter Commission by AHRC funded De-Placing Future Memory (Exeter, UK 2010)
The book of Returns for Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency

MUFF – Museum of Frontiers Commission by Forte di Bard (Aosta, Italy 2010)
Signposts from the contested landscape photographic journal

Istanbul Biennal of Art (Istanbul, Turkey, 2009)
How to re-inhabit the house of your enemy for Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency

Candiani Cultural Centre (Mestre, Italy, 2001)
MS3 – 100 days of relation with the city with artway of thinking

Published research through art and text – a selection

A Conundrum
self produced | Dyghez and the Pataphysics Temporary Makers, 2020
www.soundcloud.com

What does it mean “to decolonize”? #2
Royal Academy of Arts | Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies, 2020
www.daas.academy
issuu.com/daar_ria_2020

What does it mean “to decolonize”? #1
Royal Academy of Arts | Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies, 2019
www.daas.academy
issuu.com/daar_ria_2019

Quantum Notes on Classic Places
Humanities 2017, 6(3), 54 (ISSN 2076-0787); doi:10.3390/h6030054
Special Issue Displacement and the Humanities: Manifestos from the Ancient to the Present
[download pdf]

Complex and incomplete. Fertile nevertheless, with Re:Habitat for i Quaderni #08 | URBANISTICA tre
Roma Tre Università degli studi, ISSN:1973-9702, http://bit.ly/1qKnZVO

Cover art for Architecture after revolution, S. Hilal, A. Petti, E. Weizman
Sternberg Press, ISBN 978-3-943365-79-5, sternberg-press.com

The transports of goods is a common good as long as in network | If living becomes a collaborative process | In Toronto every movement starts and ends by walking. Smart Innovation online platform. http://www.smartinnovation.forumpa.it/search/node/diego%20segatto

Reactivating the common: the initiatives of Campus in Camps | New routes of the University in the social function, Lavoro Culturale http://www.lavoroculturale.org/tag/diego-segatto/

Campus in Camps project dispatches, DOPPIOZERO (February – November 2012)
http://www.doppiozero.com/rubriche/campus-in-camps

Book design and written intervention about Campus in Camps, A-Journal issue #0
Archiviazioni / ISBN: 978-88-909398-0-8 (online version)

Visual travel report from Signposts from a Contested Landscape, Arena of speculation
http://www.arenaofspeculation.org/2012/01/07/signposts-from-a-contested-landscape/

Book design, methodology analysis and diagrams in Nosadella.due | Journal 2007-2011,
Nosadella.due, ISBN: 978-88-906348-0-2 (download pdf)

Magazine design, editorial coordination and written journal in Decolonizing Minds, SISPA n.11
http://www.issuu.com/ReHabitat/docs/sispa_n11/1