Throughout the month of May, DSCENE Magazine and cultural platform D’Puglia hosted a group of international artists for a dedicated residency in Castro, a cliffside town along Puglia’s Adriatic coast. The program, titled Go Where the Wind Takes You, invited artists to immerse themselves in the rhythms, stories, and textures of the region, using Southern Italy as both subject and studio.
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What emerged from this experience will shape Puglia, Unframed, a forthcoming guide set for release in December during Art Basel Miami. But this isn’t a guide in any conventional sense, instead, it’s a visual and emotional mapping of the region through the eyes of those who arrived without an itinerary. Each artist was invited not to document Puglia, but to respond to it. Their work, spanning photography, drawing, writing, and installation, captures a place that is felt as much as seen.
Over four weeks, the artists traveled across Pugliese cities and villages, from Lecce’s baroque facades to the limestone bluffs of Otranto. They visited local markets, climbed olive-studded hillsides, cooked with families, and spent long afternoons in quiet conversation with farmers, poets, and fishermen. Days unfolded slowly, shaped by nature, intuition, and the wind itself, the namesake and metaphor for a program built on openness and creative movement.
The results of the residency will debut in Miami this December, with Puglia, Unframed launching as both a limited-edition print volume and a global exhibition. The artists’ work will be presented in a group show coinciding with Art Basel, followed by year-long activations in cities including New York, Paris, Belgrade, and Milan. Each stop will continue the dialogue between place, memory, and artistic practice, extending the program’s influence far beyond the Italian peninsula.
From the cliffs of Castro to the deck of Evrima, D’Puglia carried the energy of the DSCENE x D’Puglia Art Residency into new territory, joining The Experience of a Lifetime by The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection as an activation partner. Fresh from a month of artist-led exploration in Southern Italy, D’Puglia continued its mission at sea, weaving together culture, storytelling, and purpose alongside partners like Imperial Moto, Parea, Dolce & Gabbana, and Dame Helen Mirren. Through a powerful collaboration with Save the Olives, the initiative spotlighted the urgent need to protect the region’s ancient olive trees, turning the yacht into a moving platform for dialogue and activation.
Together, DSCENE and D’Puglia have created a platform that resists conventional tourism narratives, instead opening up space for slowness, attention, and cultural exchange. Go Where the Wind Takes You is both an invitation and a reminder, that art begins not with arrival, but with how you let the place move you.
Photographer Federica Livia captured the quiet intensity and spontaneous beauty of DSCENE x D’Puglia residency, documenting moments of connection, reflection, and creative process as they unfolded across Puglia throughout the month of May.
