Tale of Place is a series of projects that brings together fieldwork and creative translation. Through images, sound, and various forms of artistic production, it explores personal geographies that connect our creative community in Qatar to locations of particular significance.
The series begins with Roccella Jonica, a small town in southern Calabria and the hometown of one of the four curators. Facing the Ionian Sea and nestled among hills planted with olive trees, it is a place of ancient history and remarkable light, situated along the Costa dei Gelsomini. Our intention is to build geographic, cultural, and artistic connections between Roccella, the Mediterranean, and the creative community in Doha.
Over the years, we have documented people, landscapes, rituals, and everyday life. Our most recent visit focused on the olive harvest and the cold-press process, a practice shared with many countries of the Arab Mediterranean world and widely represented in Qatar. From these images and observations, an archive emerged, organized by themes, from which the project has taken shape.
Tale of Place seeks to transform this archive into a layered cultural dialogue. By sharing it with a group of artists, designers, and makers based in Qatar, the project invites reinterpretations of Roccella shaped not by direct experience but by distance, imagination, and memory. The artists are invited to explore the archive and respond in any language that resonates with their practice. Their voices compose a multifaceted narration of a place told through multiple perspectives, revealing how geography, distance, and belonging interweave.
The video above is a playthrough of the special edition catalog, printed in Italy, which includes a translucent yellow special edition flexi-disc vinyl single with the track ‘Harvest’.
Curated by Stella Colaleo, Michael Hersrud, Eman Makki, Simone Muscolino for Sonic Jeel. Publication Design by Michael Hersrud & Eman Makki. Exhibition Design by Stella Colaleo with Sofia Isabel Flores and Claudio Armocida. Music by Gabriele Albanese, traditional instruments and arrangement; Simone Muscolino, synths and arrangement; Mastering by Giuseppe Novella; Produced by Sonic Jeel. Printed by Rubbettino Print, Soveria Mannelli, Italy. Flexi-disc Pressed by DMS, United Kingdom.