Clanz is a physical, conceptual, and social space, situated in the former trattoria De Maria e De Doro in Trieste/Trst, and is operated by translocally active artists.
It provides infrastructure, situated knowledge, and curatorial support for cultural workers engaging with the territory and conditions of the region.
The former trattoria is located on Scala Santa, the steep road connecting the neighborhood of Roiano/Rojan with Opicina/Općina and the Karst plateau above the city. From Roiano, the site can be reached within a short walk uphill and through a clanz. Historically shaped by agriculture and craftsmanship, Roiano/Rojan remains a socially and linguistically mixed area, with bilingual Italian/Slovenian institutions and everyday infrastructures. Despite its peripheral atmosphere, the neighborhood is closely connected to the urban center, the railway station, and the sea.
The trattoria ceased commercial activity in the 1970s, but the site continued to function as a place of hospitality and informal exchange, frequently hosting guests from the fields of art, research, and cultural production. Through biographical connections to the place, art collective Gangart is progressively rooting its practice within the cultural and political development of the city and its surroundings.
The building contains living facilities for up to five residents, multiple indoor working and performance spaces, as well as gardens and terraces. Following a series of self-organized pilot projects that demonstrated the operability and resonance of the site, collaborations initiated since 2023 with Small Forms and various curators in the fields of fine arts, architecture, social practice, and environmental design have gradually consolidated Clanz as a long-term infrastructural and institutional project.
Activities include a yearly sound residency, visiting artist programs, indoor and outdoor public formats developed with local partner organizations, conferences and assemblies of cultural workers, and initiatives connecting cultural, urbanistic, and environmental forms of activism.
