Angelika Burtscher and Daniele Lupo are designers and curators. Since 2003 they have been sharing their ideas and working methodologies, experimenting with a long-term form of work and friendship. They are co-founders and artistic directors of Lungomare, a platform for cultural production and design. Their work and research focus largely on how social and cultural projects impact the public sphere and shape our coexistence. Their work has always followed a transdisciplinary approach. Hence, after running the design studio Lupo Burtscher for almost twenty years, they decided to fund the Lungomare Cooperation in 2021 in order to interweave their design practice more closely with their curatorial practice, working across an extended network of people and partnerships. Together with their work on exhibition and publishing projects, they deal with communication and awareness-raising campaigns as well as site-specific artistic productions. They teach at various universities, e.g., at the Art University Linz and the Faculty of Design and Arts at the Free University of Bolzano.
Lungomare is a platform for design and cultural production and carries out commissions and initiate artistic projects. In collaboration with clients, artists and other experts Lungomare develops strategies and concepts that focus on finding the appropriate form for the content to be conveyed. The work encompasses communication and exhibition design, spatial concepts and curatorial projects. Operating in a variety of different spaces—public and private, virtual and print, urban and curated—Lungomare creates meeting places and experiential spaces in the urban context and invites artists to develop thematic and site-specific projects.
In each of these spaces, whether physical, virtual or conceptual, Lungomare creates the potential for exchange and discussion, always putting socio-political issues front and centre. The team combines knowledge from art and design in theory and practice. The working processes involve dialogue with artists, scientists and experts from all walks of life; this allows Lungomare to explore new perspectives and collectively negotiate the spaces which are thought and designed. This approach is also linked to the interdisciplinary European project B-Shapes and creates the possibility of an alternative perception of borders through cultural and artistic production.