ECHOES (resonance) A visionary cultural exchange continues

An exhibition curated by Monica Pirani featuring work from Kara Lyons, Paul Haywood, Maryanne Royle, Marta Martino, and Anne Grebby.

With a new collaborative performance from Maryanne Royle and Marta Martino at 7.30pm.

After the success of ÌNSITO (2024) in Schio, which planted the roots of a new international dialogue between communities, artists, and cultural institutions, the project now unfolds into its second chapter: ECHOES (2025). Building on the foundations of ÌNSITO, ECHOES amplifies its resonance, carrying forward the ideas, collaborations, and artistic practices that emerged from the first edition.

The trajectory from roots to resonance embodies the spirit of this visionary program: to create cultural connections that are deeply grounded in local histories and identities, while also expanding outward, reverberating across borders and disciplines. If ÌNSITO represented the seed, the act of planting, and the establishment of a shared ground, ECHOES represents its continuation — the traces, reflections, and reverberations that arise when artistic gestures meet new contexts and audiences.

Conceived as an evolving dialogue rather than a single event, the program highlights the transformative power of contemporary art to foster exchange, reframe heritage, and generate new forms of collective imagination. With ECHOES, the initiative expands its reach, inviting diverse voices to contribute to a living network of resonance, one that grows from its origins yet continuously reinvents itself.

Echoes are not just sounds that return, but traces of memory, gestures, and cultural connections, shaped by a shifting and hybrid new era — that reverberate across time and space into new forms of understanding.

At Gallery FRANK, within the post-industrial landscape of Littleborough, the exhibition becomes both a mirror and a resonant chamber, amplifying the dialogue between individual practices and collective experience. It unfolds as an encounter between perception, memory, and transformation, shaped by five artists whose practices interact with one another across material, place, and sensibility. Here, the echo emerges as a metaphor for connection, resonance, and transformation.

ECHOES is part of a visionary international cultural exchange launched in 2024 with ÌNSITO in Schio (Italy), connecting Greater Manchester and Schio through their shared industrial heritage, vibrant communities, and the transformative power of contemporary art.

ABOUT US

Ebor Studio Group is an artist-led community at Ebor Mill in Littleborough, providing studios, a gallery, and workshops for professional artists and designers. Housed in a former Victorian mill (c.1870), it supports artistic practice and enriches the cultural landscape through exhibitions, events, and educational activities.

Curator Monica Pirani’s collaboration with the group began with ÌNSITO in Schio, Italy (2024) and continued at Ebor Studio, UK.

Gallery FRANK, launched in 2018, is our contemporary art space and the main public-facing feature of Ebor Studio, hosting exhibitions, workshops, and projects by resident and visiting artists. It is named in honour of Frank Haywood, the building’s former owner and a great supporter of the Ebor Project, without whom it would not exist.

Frank was a skilled engineer and had a pattern making business based at the mill.

THE ARTISTS

Marta Martino conceives her works as moments of contemplative suspension, where the hyper-controlled aesthetic is radically disrupted during the performative act, engaging the audience in a constant re-evaluation of a perceived reality.

Anne Grebby focuses on research, applying a diverse range of methodologies with creative outcomes which invite us to review our physical and perceptual boundaries in order to redefine their limits. Each work represents a step further on this productive and conceptual journey and also asks us to reflect upon our own existence from both a personal and collective perspective.

Kara Lyons explores deep themes such as resilience and adaptability. Amorphous forms suggest vital energy, change, and sensuality, aspects of the human condition that acknowledge flow as a central element in our understanding.

Maryanne Royle explores the narrative potential of space and situation via spatial cues, objects, literature, video, lighting design, and audience-performer relationships. She often draws on folklore, modern literature, social and philosophical theory, and her background in performance to build immersive, participatory environments.

Paul Haywood is a visual artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, and photography, with a focus on abstraction, colour, and landscape memory. He often explores the relationship between geometry and perception, creating works that investigate depth, tone, and compositional balance.