POP APE is the itinerant variant of the future experimental art center HUMANGERIE, a project aimed to increase visibility and accessibility to emerging arts and artists, and make art circulate independently.
​
Through a formula of pop-up events with focus on new media, art & technology POP APE creates space for unique and experimental experiences, audiovisual aperitifs and digital performances. We research new multimedia languages in the art field and offer workshop and artistic guidance.
​
Our goal is to create closeness and dialogue between contemporary forms of expression, create a collaboration between the analog and the digital, enhance art as a means of communication and socialization.
​
POP APE is a space for sharing, comparing and get out of you comfort zone, both as an artist, that as a spectator. Is the space to create new collaborations and transversal dialogues between the various artistic disciplines. In POP APE every performance explores the encounter between the analog and the digital, allowing space for unique experimentations.
​
THE MISSION:
​
By focusing on the aperitif time, we make the approach to certain contemporary practices more accessible and dynamic, encouraging dialogue and interaction between young artists and professionals, passionate and amateurs. We offer an ever-evolving experience and interactive artistic paths that make avant-garde art forms more approachable and visible. Furthermore, we carry out a continuous research to find available exhibition spaces, offering new market opportunities and visibility both to the artists and to the hosting venues.
​
Through events built and aimed at inviting well-established people in the field, with POP APE artists are confronted with new techniques aimed to improvement and growth into their sector, as well as the possibility of networking to unlock new opportunities. With the goal of exploring new attitudes, we create workshops for professionals and amateurs, activating, like this, a growth at the city level.
​
We aim to an open communication directed towards a growth in simultaneous. Through this approach, artists are encouraged to step out of their comfort zone by broadening their views within their practice and confronting new realities.
We offer the chance to perform and fail, to get in touch with the stage as a beginner, and to continue your research outside of the school protection.
​
Furthermore, through advertising campaigns on our platforms, tailor-made for each artist, we give the possibility to increase one's visibility, to create new connections and collaborations.
Our focus is to find the best formula to be able to support and enhance every young artist and promote emerging arts by strengthening their circulation.
​
​
ABOUT us
Meet the Team
isea
karsli
Co-Founder
Creative & Art Director
With international experience in the world of art and communication, Isea is an artist who combines her personal practice with a freelancer career, between artistic direction, branding and communication.
Graduated in photography at Middlesex University in London, she had her first work experiences in Paris among galleries and art and design magazines. She then continued her studies with a short Masters in Marketing and Communication at the Numen Institute in Milan and a Masters in Media Production & Management at The New School in New York City.
Isea spent ten years traveling around the world collaborating with brands and artists of different calibre, and maturing, thanks to a continuous search for distinct and innovative forms of expression, trends and practices, a predilection towards the creation of identity and image for more emerging realities. Her passion for research and discovery has always been accompanied by a great interest in local cuisines, for her an art form itself and a constant starting point for exploring the relationship between artist, territory and expressive practice.
Recently repatriated, Isea decides to rework what she has seen and learned aborad, starting from the most evident needs that the city manifests. This is where POP APE borns, which aims to create an expressive union between fun and art.
.png)
marcela
florian
Artist Producer
& Cultural Management
From Colombia to Florence, Marcela is an artist, writer and researcher focused on cultural management, the production of artistic-cultural projects and the promotion of transversal pedagogical processes with art and society. Graduated in Master of Plastic Arts from the TADEO University in Bogotá, she is now resident in Florence and is developing her work between the two countries. Marcela has participated in several group exhibitions (2016-2021), has developed, managed and produced projects of artistic creation with, and for, the different communities of the Colombian and Italian territory.
She is currently studying the two-year specialist course New Expressive Languages ​​with a specialization in Decoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, and is part of the staff of the Tecum - Cucina di Quartiere restaurant where he deals with public relations, management and production of cultural initiatives, communication and marketing .
With an innate sensitivity to understand, absorb and visually process that line between the artist, its practice and its origins, Marcela is capable of creating unique worlds for artists and has had, and has, a significant cultural impact for our communities and territories.
CHIARA
NATALI
Scientific Director
Chiara is the scientific director of PopApe. She began her PhD in Computer Science to study if, and how, Artificial Intelligence can enhance or atrophy human decision-making and creative abilities. In addition to scientific production, she has dealt with digital cultural heritage at ICCROM, museum communication for the Municipality of Milan and experimental museology as part of the MuseoFuturo project of the MaDRe Museum in Naples. She was a TEDx speaker with the talk "The Power of Creating Imperfect Art" and since then she daydreams (and plans with her feet on the ground) how to combine science dissemination, entertainment and artistic production.
alessandra
barabaschi
Co-Founder
Finance Manager & PR (for passion)
A Bocconi graduate in Business Economics, Ale has now gained over 15 years of work experience between Milan and Florence.
Her mission is to support the entrepreneur in the specific management of his company and in the launch of start-ups in general, offering complete assistance in the development of entrepreneurial projects. But Ale is not just numbers!
Maturing, over the years, a predilection towards bars, restaurants and accommodation facilities, she has always tried to combine her "numerical" knowledge with the reality of events and catering, thus trying to give added value to this type of activities. In fact, parallel to her daytime career of financial manager, a more nocturnal activity sees her as a protagonist in the creation of events aimed at satisfying a well-defined public, with the possibility of ending up behind the counter as a bartender for pure and simple fun.
A parallelism that has become almost a necessity, to diversify the numerical world, or simply to combine it with a more playful, but no less serious activity.
From the union of these worlds, Ale couldn’t create a more fitting reality than POP APE to combine her professional career with her passion for excellence.
MATTEO
SANAGO
Head Mixologist & Chef
Born into the world of hospitality, Matte began clearing the first tables in his father's restaurant at the age of 14. Growing up, he continues his journey by attending the Scuola Alberghiera Saffi and perfecting his technique with numerous barman courses at the Campari Academy such as Mixology 1, 2 and 3, Bar Chef, Work in Flair and Bar manager, immediately understanding his passion and talent within the hospitality world. He then moves to Milan to enter the world of luxury hotels where he continues to climb the peaks of the world of mixology. Very young, but with a great career already underway, Matte returns to Florence to start a bar project with a Florentine starred Chef at the Chic Nonna restaurant.
Enthusiastic to combine his talent and explore new techniques through the union between art and mixology, Matte decides to join the POP APE project to create unique creations that perfectly combine the world of our artists with that of the aperitif.