Inside Art International

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TERNA, FURLA, TALENT & OTHER PRIZES NEW FACES IN NEW YORK ART BASEL,VENICE & PRAGUE BIENNIALS WHO’S WHO ON THE SPOTLIGHTS GALLERIES, ARTISTS & CRITICS THE BEST OF MADE IN ITALY

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE GUIDO TALARICO EDITORE

SUPPLEMENT TO INSIDE ART N. 56 - ALLEGATO AL N. 56 DI INSIDE ART

six-monthly contemporary art magazine www.insideart.eu

# 01 JUNE 2009

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EDITORIAL INSIDE ART INTERNATIONAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Guido Talarico MANAGING EDITOR

Maurizio Zuccari m.zuccari@insideitalia.it ART DIRECTOR

Gaia Toscano EDITORIAL STAFF

Giorgia Bernoni, Silvia Bonaventura, Sophie Cnapelynck, Simone Cosimi Maria Luisa Prete redazione@guidotalaricoeditore.it CONTRIBUTORS

Massimo Canorro, Giulia Cavallaro, Flavia Montecchi, Silvia Moretti, Jan Pellissier, Claudia Quintieri, Marilisa Rizzitelli PHOTO

Manuela Giusto

GUIDO TALARICO EDITORE SPA CHAIRMAN

Guido Talarico CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICE

Carlo Taurelli Salimbeni MANAGING DIRECTOR

Benedetta Geronzi ADVERTISING AND MARKETING MANAGER

Raffaella Stracqualursi adv@guidotalaricoeditore.it

SIGNS OF VITALITY

T

he Italian art system, in its widest meaning, gives signs of vitality and growth, despite the cultural and political decline that impoverishes the better part of Europe and despite the financial crisis that has shaken worldwide productive systems.The Italian art system holds up well and thrives since it is the heart, brain and muscles of a nation whose genetic code is characterized by a high aesthetic sense, good taste and creativity.These are gifts that make this country unique in the world. Inside Art International, son of the Italian edition of Inside Art, was created to enhance this immense cultural heritage, to make the international community know the excellences and qualities produced by Italy in the field of art. From unique initiatives to new trend, from the works of institutions to those of experts. In the field of contemporary art, mainly, but also in all the other fields like fashion and design, that have recently helped strengthening the century-old artistic Italian tradition mainly abroad.This first issue will feature a round up of the most meaningful events of our Country of the first semester 2009.We will start with an analysis of the most important prizes to contemporary artists, a segment that has proven to be particularly lively, as shown by the Terna Prize, to which our cover and leading article are dedicated, that has reached NewYork at its second edition with the approval of critics and an international level and dimension.And then gradually all the other articles. Starting fromVenice Biennale, analytically presented because, as a matter of fact, with the Pavilion Italia and its exhibitions, it is the most authentic synthesis of recent Italian contemporary art production. And then the activities of the various private foundations like Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Fondazione Bicocca or Fondazione Roma to end with the activities of the various galleries. In short, the best of Italy in a hundred pages.

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Inside Art International, the best of Italy in a hundred pages

by GUIDO TALARICO

COVER

Luigi Ontani, Electricthrone, 2007 Š Copyright Guido Talarico Editore All rights reserved INSIDEART

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PARK SOFA DESIGNED BY CARLO COLOMBO. WALL SYSTEM BOOKCASES. SNAKE ARMCHAIR DESIGNED BY ROBERTO LAZZERONI. DAMA COFFEE TABLE. POLIFORM USA THE A&D BUILDING 150 E. 58TH STREET, 6TH FLOOR NEW YORK WWW.POLIFORMUSA.COM

MY

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CONTENTS

AWARDS 9

TERNA PRIZE Energy transmission a contemporary metaphor by Giulia Cavallaro

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LUIGI ONTANI Hybrids idols of earthenware by Giulia Cavallaro

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FRANCESCO ARENA Energy in movement of the new italian art by Simone Cosimi

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ANDREA CHIESI Triumphant return by Toby Blackbird

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HÔTEL DE LA LUNE A matter of system by Simone Cosimi

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OTHERS GIGAWATT WINNERS Giovanni Ozzola Elena Baldelli Gabriele Giugni Riccardo Albanese David Eron Salvadei Gabriele Bonato

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OTHERS MEGAWATT WINNERS Laura Cantarella Rocco Dubbini Davide Bertocchi Raffaella Mariniello Antonio Riello Giovanni Albanese

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TALENT PRIZE Visionary talents by Giorgia Bernoni

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ITALIAN ART AWARDS Make way for the youth by Margherita Stella

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NEW YORK PRIZE A bridge between Italy and the Big Apple

by Claudia Quintieri

Luigi Ontani Cilielefia

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PHOTO: ENRICO SUÀ UMMARINO

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MILANO, via Santo Spirito, 14 - ROMA, via del Babuino, 105 - CAPRI, via Camerelle, 8/A PARIS, 63, rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré - GENÈVE, 19, place Longemalle ST.MORITZ, Palace Galerie, via Serlas, 22 - MOSCOW, GUM Red square BEVERLY HILLS, 9546 Brighton Way - MIAMI, 4425 Ponce de Leon blvd. Coral Gables

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CONTENTS

EVENTS 47

NATIONAL EXHIBITIONS IN 2009 The streets of italian art by Maria Luisa Prete

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VENICE BIENNIAL Philippe Daverio: the fair of shrewd plebeians

by Maurizio Zuccari Parallel worlds by Giorgia Bernoni Travel to Italy of B & B by Massimo Canorro The twenty “azzurri” at the Biennale

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PRAGUE BIENNIAL Italy speaks up wanting to be re-cognized

by Flavia Montecchi

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ART BASEL Belpaese is away in Basel by Marilisa Rizzitelli

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ITALIAN ART FAIRS The art market invades the peninsula

by Marilisa Rizzitelli

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ABROAD EXHIBITIONS Beyond Futurism by Silvia Bonaventura

PEOPLE 72

SARACINO, RABBIA, DI MARTINO Italians in New York by Maurizio Zuccari

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MASSIMILIANO GIONI A transantional community by Silvia Moretti

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PATRIZIA SANDRETTO RE REBAUDENGO An experimental foundation in Turin

by Jan Pellissier

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GIANLUCA WINKLER Hangar Bicocca, spectacular space by Silvia Moretti

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EMMANUELE EMANUELE Fondazione Roma, the strenght of lonely runners

by GuidoTalarico

90 MASSIMO DE CARLO From Milan to London by Giorgia Bernoni

Luisa Rabbia Fra la ragione e il caso 2008

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CRISTIANI, FIASCHI, RIGILLO Continua, contemporary Marco Polo

by Maria Luisa Prete

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MATRICARDI & PUIATTI Il ponte, a strange couple of talent scouts

by Marilisa Rizzitelli

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GIAMPAOLO ABBONDIO Pack, everything started in a bar by Silvia Bonaventura

Up there: Ca’ Giustiniani in Venice

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Whenever I draw a circle, I immediately want to step out of it.

Richard Buckminster Fuller

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AWARDS

Marziani: «An inquisitive public is needed»

TERNA: ENERGY TRANSMISSION A CONTEMPORARY METAPHOR

by GIULIA CAVALLARO

T

he Terna Prize Project was established in 2008 by Terna, a Company that holds and manages the electricity transmission grids in Italy, to promote and support contemporary art and artists through a strong synergy between culture and economy.Among the many goals, it aims at contributing to a new virtuous relationship among businesses, the art world and public authorities thus creating a strong cooperation between artistic research, the economy world and the society as a “business answer” to the huge creative and participation potential of artists in Italy.Thus,Terna aims at promoting new talents, by enhancing the Italian genius thanks to a “state-of-the-art patronage” that makes the best combination between the market, businesses, the society and culture. Of a crucial interest is the restitution of value to the territory and the social promotion of art, with scholarships and then practical support to public and private cultural institutions and bodies. The

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Prize also has many elements of innovation: the introduction of a theme on which artists must express themselves, the free access to artists of all ages, the usage of the Internet as a privileged communication channel and fundamental meeting point of the public and artists thanks to the on-line real time upload of competing artworks on www.premioterna.com. The award is divided into three categories: Megawatt, Gigawatt and Terawatt, the latter only for invited great masters.The Terna Prize was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage with whichTerna has signed a memorandum of understanding in 2008 for a three-year plan to enhance and support contemporary art in Italy.Among the goals of the prize there is also the creation of a corporate contemporary art collection through the purchase of the award-granted works. Many qualitative and quantitative specific surveys and two interesting ISPO (important institute for the studies on the public opinion) surveys on the perception of art and the artist’s profile by Italians have been carried out in connection with public and private partners: through a series of targeted market research studies the Prize is “building” a scientific memory on contemporary artists and art in Italy.The results of the three studies, carried out on a pool of experts and launched last July, are giving rise to a very interesting picture that will function as research basis for experts and for all those who are interested in this important cultural phenomenon.

The system of prizes is increasingly becoming the way to support Italian art; in this connection the Terna Prize is an excellent example of creating a “system” inside these complex mechanisms of Italian contemporary art.The 2009 edition aims at promoting a deep analysis on the needs to look at the future by caring for the environment, man, energy as the necessary elements to grasp the essence of contemporaneity. Together with the second edition, this prize will launch Connectivity 01, a project to set a new connection between Italy and foreign countries. Every year Terna will select the art world capital with which to exchange and share activities and experiences. NewYork is the capital of the first edition: 16 works winning the 2008 edition will be exhibited at the Chelsea Art Museum from June 25 till July 12, 2009. Previously these works had been exhibited at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni of Rome and had been part of a project to make the public become closer to contemporary art that has brought art in the squares of downtown Rome, at the inauguration of Milan Contemporary Art fair, the Miart and at Siracusa in Sicily region during the G8 Summit for the environment.

This new category, Connectivity 01 NewYork, is added to the previous ones: all artists, Italian and non Italian, working in the Big Apple may participate in the competition.This second edition will select a set of three winners for every category: two

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AWARDS

RamonaVada Comunicare energia, 2008

scholarships in NewYork and one in Italy among the new prizes.There are also purchase bonuses.The prize money of 100thousand euros to the winner of theTerawatt category will partly benefit an Italian museum and partly the artist who will be linked to the following edition to express his/her creativity.The curators of the 2009 edition are Gianluca Marziani, expert of the new languages of contemporary art and Cristiana Collu, Director of the Art Museum of Nuoro – Sardinia. Francesco Cascino will be in charge of the new committee of managers of art gallery created to make artists closer to the market, practically.The jury will be made of prominent members: together with the Chairman and Managing Director of Terna, Luigi Roth and Flavio Cattaneo, Massimiliano Fuksas, architect; Matthew Higgs, Director of theWhite Columns of New York; Luigi Ontani, artist – winner of the first edition; Giuseppe Piccioni, movie director; Marco Senaldi,Art Critic and Professor of Cinema andVisual Arts at the University of Milano Bicocca; Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, President of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation ;VicenteTodolì, Director of London Tate Modern.The Committee of Honor is chaired by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Sandro Bondi.The programme also features a new forecast on the future of the Italian art system that will be presented at the Ravello Festival on August 29, 2009 within the Terna forum.

«The way viewers get curious by looking at an artwork depends on educational patterns, on how you tell things, the tones you use to feed attraction.We would like an enlarged public of attentive readers, aware but questioning readers, fond of research and non-trivial ideas. Many should remember that Caravaggio and Michelangelo did change the world because someone opportunely offered them the time and place to do so».This is what Gianluca Marziani said, the former curator of the prize.“Transmitting energy: a contemporary metaphor” was the subject on which 3,100 artists have worked for the first edition of the initiative promoted byTerna.The project was accompanied by the implementation of specific qualitative and quantitative research studies carried out with public and private partners.

«Italian contemporary art is an extraordinary reservoir of ideas and projects, a complex and many-faceted system of various interests and economies – said Marziani – and the flow of capitals should be enhanced by decreasing the number of proposals and strengthening their quality.The picture is almost complete but a higher synergy, a serious structural dialogue, a high institutional quality, the control of qualitative parameters are needed. In this framework, the prize is a good starting and ending point: private and public structures, the dialogue between the public and the private, the strict quality control, the coexistence of those diversities representing the value of today should be put in between them. Italy should be finally turned into a system».

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Conversation with Luigi Ontani, the winner: «Long live art»

HYBRIDS IDOLS OF EARTHENWARE

«L

ong live art» is the message on the answering machine belonging to the Master Luigi Ontani which greets those who phone him at his studio in Rome. Ontani’s art seems to be configured as a system of thoughts rather than a togetherness of figurative and aesthetic moments. The master has recently won the category Terawatt of the Terna Prize 01 with the work Electricthrone. The prize money of 100,000 euro will be entirely devolved, in agreement with the artist, to the creation of the Maxxi documentation centre, in conformity with the arrangement between Terna and the Ministry of Fine Arts, for the promotion and valorisation of contemporary art in Italy.

The winning work depicts a priest in red, a throne which is really an electric chair, and serpent skin straps which bind the artist: the intensity, the drama and the mystification are the main characters of this

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work, as they are of his entire work which reveals a unique vision of the world. Ontani states that he is very happy to have won this award and declares his enthusiasm for New York, where his new creation will be kept: «I feel gratified by the relation that I have with the city of NewYork since the 70s. I lived there on and off for many years and my first showing was at the Sonnabend Gallery. I liked living there: I used to meet many other artists and visited very interesting museums. I consider my victory at the Terna Prize as a very significant event, as is my relationship with the Chelsea Museum». Ontani believes this prize is a great opportunity to promote contemporary art in our country: «It is fundamental for the budding young art to sustain young artists through significant experiences of this kind». Ontani’s art is known to the general public who has seen him over the past 30 years using his own corporeity as a work of art, configuring his body as if it were an

Up there: Luigi Ontani “La CadutaDEICiechiim ManiBrancusiani”, 2009 To the right: “RidonDanzaRondini”, 2005

TERAWATT WINNER

by GIULIA CAVALLARO

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AWARDS

«The hybridol is the hybridisation of the idol a mystic dimension which embodies and preannounces a moment of adoration»

instrument of his, as an aesthetic object and a place of experimentation. As the artist explains: «One of the definitions that I attribute to my art is hybridol, that is the hybridisation of the idol, a mystic dimension which embodies and preannounces a moment of adoration. I am driven by a desire of coherence, a type of behaviour that I attempt to acquire in my artistic path which proceeds suspended between art and life». Ontani also reveals the rapport that is often created with a work of art after its completion: «The relation that I create with my work is procedural: from the beginning I started my artistic activity in view of a ludic-objective need, playing with my being and with my “desire of being”. I then continued on my way making use of a mask, reconsidering the expressive possibilities of sculpture, as I had already expressed, through the use of a cast, in photography. I proceeded to make a cast of my hands, my face, my feet and other parts of my body to re

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create a hybridol.This was a testimony of the relationship between art and myself, with the sublimation of my physicality, and through a constant playing with colour.Through the elaboration of the statue and of the mask, his physiologic process transformed the sculpture into something different in relation to his corporeity, giving life to something comparable to a simulacrum». Ontani’s statues stand out from among his work.The artist explains how his path started with the use of photography, considered the best instrument to filter the athletic vitality of existence. He carries on talking about how pleonastic objects were necessary to arrive at the use of a mask which permitted him to feel, on his own skin, the typical caricature of the Commedy of Art. «I started using papier mâché, he explains, passing in a natural manner to pottery. My sculpturing lives a temptation of fantasy, of ideas, besides virtuosity; it has the unavoidable quality of inheriting the expression of matter which transmits its own language. The language of pottery is so expressive, so sweet, so precious, so symbolically decorative, that it releases my ideas and my imagination. It is not a relationship which depends on a project, it is a relationship lived through habitually meeting the people and visiting the places where pottery is

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made. At the end Ontani loses himself talking about the places where he lived: from Vergato to Bologna, passing through Rome. «I was born atVergato, near Grizzana Morandi, location of my ideal studio, where I make hybridols of pottery, mosaics or glass windows. I have a very particular relationship with Bologna: after having lived there I left to follow my existential adventures. Notwithstanding this escape I am often gratified by and invited to this city where I have held various exhibitions. I left the capital of the Emilia region for family reasons: it was time to make a personal choice, to move away from the indigenous context towards another dimension. In that period, due to ideological contradictions, the conditions and the relationship with the art and culture of Bologna were ambiguous. However, I always enjoy rediscovering Bologna as a special place where to exhibit my work. Since the 70’s I have lived in a Rome which I consider “ideal”, a reality which no longer exists.

Rome is a city where contemporaneousness cannot survive notwithstanding numerous museums and places of art. I like being a prodigal son. In Rome I am always a guest, a lazy tourist, I can walk without having to study, without respecting those that are her contradictions».

Up there: Luigi Ontani Ermafrodito Mignolo, 2006

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LUIGI ONTANI 1st place Terawatt Luigi Ontani was born on November 24, 1943 inVergato (Bologna). He lives and works in Rome Reference Gallery: Lorcan O’Neill, Rome Personal exhibits: 2007 Mambo, Museo of Modern Art, Bologna 2007 Lorcan O’Neill Gallery , Rome 2007 Auditorium Parco della musica, Rome 2007 Bortolami Gallery, NewYork 2007 Claudia Gian Ferrari, Milan 2007 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston 2006 Peggy Guggenheim Collection,Venice 2006 International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza 2005 Lorcan O’Neill Gallery, Rome 2004 Smak Museum, Gand, Belgium 2003 Museo napoleonico, Rome 2002 Bangkok,Thailand 2001 P.S. 1, NewYork 2001 Rome Aquarium, Rome

«Through a mask I search for the ideal heirs of a rituality that is everywhere in the world, independently from present conditions.My quote is always from memory, therefore in some way elastic and fragmented or grammatically incorrect».

Electricthrone Lentiform photograph in gold frame, 216 x 132, 2007

Luigi Ontani represents an unusual case since it is impossible to define his work or assign him to a particular artistic trend. Born inVergato (Bologna) during the SecondWorldWar, Ontani is a self-taught artist and attended the “Free style course for nudes” at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. He moved to Rome in 1970 and soon began to travel frequently to the Orient. During his time in Italy, he began frequenting the ideal studio “RomAmor” at the Rocchetta Mattei in Grizzana Morandi. Recognized as one of the most significant experimental figures and a pioneer in developing various languages of contemoprary art, Ontani expressed himself in tableaux vivants, creating various life-size color photographic enlargements already since 1969; through masks, he reconsiders colored sculpture as a hybrid, with the collaboration of craftsmen skilled in paper machè, in wood techniques, in ceramics, bronze and marble and through videos, performances, oil and water colors. Ontani is a complete artist, he masterfully moulds cultures and different expressive languages and techniques with original and unpredictable results. Based on D’Annunzio’s concept of making life into an artwork, Ontani always places himself in the center of his research and experimenting,proposing himself as the“artistic object”, while also representing a laboratory of identity and transformation, constantly in search of “another self ” and “another place” that are always plausible.

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Arena: «Regions of the world once considered marginal are now fundamental»

ENERGY IN MOVEMENT OF THE NEW ITALIAN ART

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obility of the new generation of Italian artists and supplementary work of galleries and foundations: Francesco Arena, winner of the Gigawatt category with the work “Pannello spaccato con testa di Nietzsche”, talks about his experience with Terna and its programmes.

What did it mean to you to participate in the Terna Prize and how did you experience the opportunity offered byTerna to exhibit your artwork at the Chelsea Museum in New York?

«The Terna Prize provided me with the opportunity for obtaining greater visibility in my work and to exhibit my artwork at the Chelsea Museum in New York; it is also an opportunity for seeing the impressions and reactions to my work within a context that is different from the Italian one».

What is your perception of the consideration received by Italian contemporary art abroad?

«In this particular historical moment, art produced by artists from regions of the world considered marginal

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until a few years ago, attracts more interest and curiosity than that produced by Italian artists. The greater mobility of the new generation of Italian artists, as well as the work carried out by private galleries and foundations trying to fill the vacuum left by the public institutions, has tried to make up for this».

What are your plans for the following months? Cooperations, personal shows?

«Luca Cerizza has invited me to take part in the LUM Award Exhibition, which will be inaugurated in Bari towards the end of May. In June, a collective show on the concept of real and virtual communities, of which Teresa Macrì is the curator, will be held at the Monitor Gallery of Rome; immediately after I’ll begin a project with the Casoli Foundation of Fabriano with the realization of a piece in collaboration with the employees of the firm Elica (which will be presented to the public in December) and always in June the Terna Prize Exhibition at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. Other collective exhibitions in July, August and September as well as my own personal showing at the Monitor towards the end of 2009 beginning 2010».

GIGAWATT WINNER

by SIMONE COSIMI

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FRANCESCO ARENA 1st place Gigawatt Francesco Arena was born on June 19, 1978 in Torre Santa Susanna, Brindisi,Apulia.

He lives and works in Cassano delle Murge (Bari) Reference Gallery: Monitor Personal exhibits: 2008 Nomas Foundation Rome 2006 Monitor Gallery, Rome 2005 Gam, Gallery of Modern Art, Bologna, Bologna 2004 Monitor Gallery, Rome

A split multiplayer panel with the clay head of Nietzsche placed inside.The philosopher creates the void and also occupies it, ideas travel to inaccessible places.

Pannello spaccato con testa di Nietzsche (Split panel with Nietzsche’s head) Other on a multilayer of poplar, 252 x 185, 2007

During the exhibition on the 1970’s organized in 2007 in Milan by the Triennale, Arena drew the public’s attention and the critics’ interest with a large wooden box that was spartanly decorated as a room: a bed, a wash bowl, a shelf. It represented the “free” reconstruction of the cell in via Montalcini where the Red Brigades held Aldo Moro prisoner. The artist, Francesco Arena, from the Puglia region, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce in 2001.The work entitled:“3.24 sq. m” (an echo of the famous installation of the famous Pino Pascali, also from Puglia, “32 mq. di mare, circa”-32 sq. m of sea, nearly, from 1967), was bought and exhibited at the newly established Nomas Foundation in Rome. «My works are always inspired by a story, an event, or a person that really existed. The work created for the Terna 01 Award, for example – reveals the artist – is inspired by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The large moustache that covers half of his face represents the metaphor of his philosophical thought and an interpretation of reality». Just as the “elements from Padre Pio’s cell”, displayed at the Gam in Bologna in 2005. Based on a real story is also “Impannellamento” (Panelling) (2006): an arch made of lights for the feast of a patron saint, hidden between two panels of plywood, or again the “fountain”, from which water gushes out onto an artist’s agenda, erasing it.Today,Arena is among the protagonists of the new Italian generation that renews with cold fantasy the conceptual heritage of the people’s art.

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Chiesi: «Our artists must go beyond our borders»

TRIUMPHANT RETURN

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fter six years,Andrea Chiesi, winner of the Terna Prize, category Megawatt, with the work Kali yuga 57, returns to New York. During the next months he will be working on the community theme as he is convinced that the problems faced by Italian art are related to a wider socio-economic context.

What did it mean to you to participate in the Terna Prize and how did you experience the opportunity offered by Terna to exhibit your artwork at the Chelsea Museum in NewYork?

«I feel that at the moment, the Terna Prize is one of the most successful initiatives based on collaboration between the public and private sectors for promoting contemporary art in Italy. It is important for an artist to have his work recognized, both within the visibility of a museum, and in terms of his artwork being purchased.Terna has succeeded in both these objectives. I imagine that it is every artist’s dream to exhibit in a museum in New York. Personally, I will be returning to this city after 6 years and would like

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to recapture the light that I remember seeing one Sunday morning in the deserted streets of Queens lined by abandoned buildings».

What is your perception of the consideration received by Italian contemporary art abroad?

«Abroad Italian art is considered in relation to the influence our country is accorded on an international level – this influence is related to all fields: from politics to economics. Furthermore, as our museum sector does very little to promote our artists, we should not be surprised if good artists are little known beyond our borders».

What are your plans for the following months? Cooperations, personal showings?

«I’m working on a project for the next Festival of Philosophy of Modena which will be held in September. The theme is the community; I will develop this utilising comparison and contrast, in continuation of my recent study on light and shadow in empty and solitary places, where time seems suspended».

MEGAWATT WINNER

by TOBY BLACKBIRD

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ANDREA CHIESI 1st place Megawatt Andrea Chiesi was born in 1966 in Modena Reference Gallery: Corsoveneziaotto, Milan Personal exhibits: 2008 “Kryptoi”, Corsoveneziaotto Contemporary Art, Milan 2007 “KaliYuga”, Guidi &Schoen Contemporary Art, Genoa 2006 “La Divisione del Piacere”,Allegretti Contemporanea,Turin 2005 “Nero”, Corsoveneziaotto Arte contemporanea, Milan 2004 Winner of the 5th Cairo Communication Award 2004 “Thule-Altrove”, La Fabbrica Foundation, Losone-Locarno 2004 “La Casa”, Otto Gallery, Bologna 2004 “Thule”, Lipanjepuntin Artecontemporanea,Trieste 2002 “Spk”, Luciano Inga-Pin, Milan 2002 “Generazioni 2”, Palazzo S.Margherita Civic Gallery, Modena 2001 “Moloch”, Lipanjepuntin Artecontemporanea,Trieste 2001 “8 Artisti, 8 Critici, 8 Stanze”,Villa delle Rose, Gam, Bologna 2000 “In forma di libro”, Luigi Poletti Library, Modena 2000 “Gru”, Maurizio Corraini Gallery, Mantova

Kali yuga 57 Oil on linen canvas, 70 x 100, 2008

The painting was created following my visit to the area where the Cornigliano steel plant used to stand, in the outskirts of Genoa, before it was pulled down.The tall tower was part of that industrial complex where for many decades steel was produced. Heavy industry can be interpreted as a metaphor of our times and the tower I depicted, with its vertical strength, becomes a metal object asking for energy, new energy, transforming energy into other energy.

Chiesi’s paintings are based on real places, mainly connected with the history of work, but through painting he places his locations in a mental dimension removing them from reality and bringing them into a greater emotional and sentimental sphere. «The paintings still echo the real location they are based on, but in the end they become an emotional state». His base is Modena, a choice based on family attachment, but he recognizes that «when one has contacts with the galleries, one can also go to the top of the world». He is essentially a painter and is very focused on painting: «It is a very profound universe, infinite, impossible to fully explore, a lifetime is not enough».

Chiesi is self-taught, very attracted by the great pictorial tradition. On one hand he is very receptive to all stimulation, he lives in a contemporary dimension, he allows himself to «be contaminated by my own times and this reflects in my approach, in my outlook». But painting requires concentration, silence and tranquility. «Painting is slow and requires time». His work is a balanced mix of contemporary elements so as to be absorbed by the contamination to then turn back to tradition. «I only work as a painter, I don’t have time to teach, my work is all-absorbing.

I can’t do anything else since the painting is there, calling me and I must respond».

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Tosatti: «Italian artists are among the most interesting»

A MATTER OF SYSTEM

A

way of looking beyond Rome, where the greater part of the work is concentrated, to the world. Gian Maria Tosatti, the man behind the project Hôtel de la Lune, winner of the on line award, believes that Italian artists can and must have their say and achieve the success they deserve.The doubt relates rather to the system, still rather slow.

What did it mean to you to participate in the Terna Prize and how did you experience the opportunity offered by Terna to exhibit your artwork at the Chelsea Museum in New York?

«The Terna Prize arrived at a very important time for Hôtel de la Lune’s work since the winning artwork belongs to the ninth phase of a cycle of ten large environmental installations we have been working on in these last five years.The award came at a moment when we were taking stock before closing this series with the last installation. In this sense, the victory felt as a recognition of the entire path we had taken.At the same time, it has given us the possibility to exhibit in New York with this photograph, giving an international dimension to our work that had been focused on Rome and that

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at this point intends to open up to exchanges with other cities and areas».

What is your perception of the consideration received by Italian contemporary art abroad?

«I believe that Italian artists are considered among the most interesting. Proof of this is that when they go abroad, as often occurs, they encounter a reasonable success. The point is the system, and by system I mean the market as a whole beginning from the gallery owners up to the experts in general, is neither one of the most efficient nor among the best in existence. The Italian system is still on the fringes, but the artists are good. If only the system would make an effort to move forward».

What are your plans for the following months? Cooperations, personal showings?

«I have recently inaugurated an installation at the Quotidiana gallery of Padua, which will close on 30th June.

Another site-specific installation is then programmed at the Ciac of Genazzano, near Rome, under my name and not as Hotel de la Lune, which will remain open until 26th July.Without mentioning,of course,the exhibition at NewYork with the Terna Prize; while in autumn the project Devotions should be concluded».

ON LINE AWARD WINNER

by SIMONE COSIMI

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I giorni del silenzio-devozioni-ix-i (The days of silence-devotion-ix-i)

GIAN MARIA TOSATTI 1st place on line award

Digital photography on lambda print on aluminum and acrylic glass, 150 x 100, 2008 Gian Maria Tosatti was born in Rome in 1980, where he lives and works Personal exhibits:

The photographic installation – created by Hôtel de la Lune inside a draining pump abandoned for years – reconstructs an old hangar. Everything seems still, the mechanical power is frozen into a plastic stagnation.Time, however, continues to pass determining a constant friction of forces and energy that dominate even immobility and that which has been forgotten

2008 “I giorni del silenzio, devozioni IX”, draining pump along the Ostiense bank of the Tiber, Rome 2007 “Il sangue speso di tutte le mie stelle, devozioni VIII” Unione Gallery Rome 2006 “Klaus, devozioni VII”, villa Aldobrandini, Rome

Gian Maria Tosatti began experimenting theatrical research in performances. As of 2004 he has worked mainly with architectural installations and for several years his name has been linked to Hôtel de la Lune,an art studio where he works together with Elisabetta Mancini. Beginning as an experiment with the performing arts, Hôtel de la Lune began its activity in 2002 at the Theatrical Experiment and Research Center in Pontedera.Tosatti is particularly interested in the archetypes of western man and contemporary man, exploring the performance of architectural spaces, the central problems of existence: the sense of questions, identity, abandonment, self-inflicted failure, death. Another line of study is represented by urban spaces (streets, buildings, etc.) where a social conflict is underway.Tosatti directs the cultural journal “Le differenze”.TheTerna Prize 01 is the first contest he participated in, stimulated by his appreciation for the curators and the high quality of the jury. Being open to the world, internationalization, from the outskirts to the center: the ability lies in emerging from borders, also geographical ones, and to enter into the international market, this is how Tosatti sees the future of art and of contemporary artists.

2006 “Deadline, landscape II”, former Angelo Mai Institute Rome 2006 “Bandiera bianca, landscape I”, former Angelo Mai Institute, Rome 2006 “Nella città di K, devozioni V”, former Angelo Mai Institute, Rome 2006 “Litanies pour un retour, devozioni IV”, former Angelo Mai Institute, Rome 2006 “Madonna con bambino, devozioni III”, former Angelo Mai Institute, Rome 2006 “I guerrieri fratello, i guerrieri del sogno che ti narrai” piazza del Campidoglio, Rome 2005 “Magdalena, devozioni II”, former Angelo Mai, Rome 2005 “Le lait miraculeux de la Vierge, devozioni I” former Angelo Mai Institute, Rome

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GIOVANNI OZZOLA Gigawatt Giovanni Ozzola was born in Florence in 1982 Personal exhibits: 2008 “Shining curtain, Sun inside”, special project for Leon Bianco, Pisa 2008 “Omnia Munda Mundis”, special project for Castello di Ama, Gaiole 2007 “Giovanni Ozzola” sala della palazzina at forte Belvedere, Florence 2007 Project for Art First palazzo Re Enzo, Bologna 2006 “In a Sentimental Mood”, Continua gallery San Gimignano In 2007 he won the premio Seat Pagine Gialle, for the

Two stories addiction Traditional photography on durable 3m Adhesive Pvc protected with lamination, variable size, 2007

The installation of this photograph is for hanging, exploiting the line of the angle corresponding with the lightning.

Giovanni Ozzola is self-taught and wants everyone to know. He began very young as a fashion photographer to support himself and at the age of 18 he held his first photography exhibit. Photography and videos are the media he uses to manipulate according to his own creation the images of the world around him. «My works – he explains – are like a sort of entrance door towards the possibility of a different perception of reality». A search «that is complex and loaded with strong vital tensions» is matched by «simple representation, based on an analysis of small events, seemingly insignificant: fragments of life, natural phenomena that are repeated daily, miraculously, always the same yet always unique and different». As a sensor he slips into daily life to observe, filter and reproduce representations capable of emerging as new creative forms and of transmitting his own vision of life. Based on recording simple external “events”, his images venture into the “private dimension” touching memories, feelings, love.Through these emotions, the artist performs a «crossover of emotional pulsations and ethical values» that involve the viewer. Ozzola is considered as being one of the most significant emerging Italian artists. His personal exhibits were held in Florence at the forte Belvedere in 2007, and in the Continua gallery in San Gimignano in 2006;“Scirocco” at the Künstlerhaus in Bregenz;“Guardami, percezione del video” at palazzo delle Papesse, Siena;“In-visibile in-corporeo”, at the Man in Nuoro;“Museo Pecci progetto collezione” at the Pecci museum in Prato;“Happiness.A survival guide for art and life”, Mori museum,Tokyo; “Via Pal 2. Il confine delle notti”, at the Civil Gallery of Contemporary Art,Trent.

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OTHERS GIGAWATT WINNERS

region of Tuscany

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ELENA BALDELLI Gigawatt Elena Baldelli was born in Savona on March 24 1983, she lives and works in Savona In September 2008 she was selected at the Celeste award She attended the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan

Rx-underwaterbreathing-#1oscillating rhythm Lightbox mixed technique with laser print on transparency and vegetable cardboard, 280 x 280, 2008

The artwork is presented as a large dynamic X-Ray.The mind acts within an analysis of symbols connected with air and water, elements that are humanly incoherent, but also inseparable. Plunging into the sea does not mean finding human death in oblivion, it may also mean devoting to death all that cannot be forgotten, all that of being made of flesh and of earth, all the ashes of knowledge and awareness, the entire mass of results, the entire miserly harvest that is the human being.The inversion of the ordinary will then occur having the mark of the superhuman impressed upon it: from the greatest depths rising to the sky and vice-versa, a continuous cycle. Rx-Underwatherbreathing is none other than the cycle of water-air, darkness-light, apnoea-breathing.

Elena Baldelli is the youngest among the winners of the Terna Prize 01. She is finishing her studies and expects to graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts next year. Her first artworks were in the field of graphics. Later she experimented with different techniques, including painting and photography. She is presently expressing herself through luminous installations: «All my installations are based on the contrast between light and darkness». Liquids are her favourite elements in creating her artworks, particularly, water: «Water makes me think of immersion and of the contrast between breathing and apnoea. In my works I try to express and transmit this contrast as representative of human limitations».

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Kumbh-mela night Lightbox on Lambda duratrans cybachrome, 140 x 50, 2008

The artwork depicts an Indian field inundated with light... there is a sense of desolation in this immense valley that is nothing other than the bed of the Ganges River.The absence of people and the tree that overlooks the scene underline the link between nature and man, light and darkness.

GABRIELE GIUGNI Gigawatt Gabriele Giugni was born

Gabriele Giugni began his career as a photographer only three years ago. His background is not in the art field, but in the humanities. He graduated in Economics and later obtained a Masters degree in Human rights.After completing his studies, he worked with the Un. Photography has always been his passion and finally predominated: «I thought that it would be now or never. I gave myself a couple of years to fulfil my dream of becoming a professional photographer». He is specialized in travel reporting and has been to India, Bolivia, Kashmir and Burma. «Reporting allows me to combine my three passions: photography, travel and my interest in human rights». He is convinced that photographic reporting is one of the highest forms of art: «I believe that reporting, and I’m thinking of photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, is often more artistic than art photos. Life often gives us by chance signs of magic that even the best photographs cannot express».

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on November 11, 1980 in Rome where he lives and works Principal exhibits: 2008 Pino Casagrande Gallery, Rome 2007 International Art Encounters. La Paz and Cochabamba at the Martadero and Galeria Nota 2005 palazzo della Cancelleria, Naples

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RICCARDO ALBANESE Gigawatt Riccardo Albanese was born in 1977 in Battipaglia (Salerno) and lives in Naples Reference Gallery: Changing role Personal exhibits: 2008 Changing Role, Rome 2006 “Quello che non ti piace ti dà da mangiare”,Agence Pour l’Art Contemporaine Luxembourg 2005 “Stato d’animo” Changing Role, Naples 2004 “Doganella Zoo” Changing Role, Naples

Untitled Other on polystyrene (extruded polystyrene), 100 x 100, 2008

The artwork represents a Viking rune that symbolizes the sun’s orbit during 24 hours, the harmonic rhythm of life as a metaphor that represents energy that originates from it.

«There is nothing more paradoxical than everyday life», this is the underlying concept of Riccardo Albanese’s work.Through photography, sculpture, drawings and installations, he magnifies and distorts reality, transforming it totally into an artistic form. He searches for Biblical elements in reality and observes urban areas and social contexts transforming them into something else, each one of his works being monumental. He does so because he feels that one is afraid of that which is different, of diversity.Therefore, it becomes meaningful to have these concepts explode and transform them into art. His works always border between provocation and irony considering these two concepts as those that most stimulate ordinary people. The artwork that he submitted to participate in the Terna Prize 01 has the shape of a swastika, the universally recognized sign of tyranny which in this context however takes on the meaning of freedom; an oxymoron to state that «anything that makes you free becomes a form of slavery».

Albanese is inspired by the Viking culture where the symbol of the rune marks the rhythm of the day and symbolize daily energy.

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DAVIDE ERON SALVADEI Gigawatt Davide Eron Salvadei was born in Rimini in 1973, where he lives and works. Pseudonym: eron Gallery: Fabjbasaglia Rimini Personal Exhibits: 2008 “Scala Mercalli” Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome 2007 “Street Art, Sweet Art” Pac, Milan 2007 “Biennale del muro dipinto”, Rocca Sforzesca Dozza (Bologna)

Untitled Industrial paints on canvas, 120 x 100, 2008

The artwork intends to “transmit” the concept of energy by depicting its absence.

His first approach with art was the street. For about ten years, from 1988 to 1998, Eron “painted” the walls in Rimini (his hometown) and surrounding areas.He then decided to try experimenting with the canvas,while still maintaining his technique of street writer. His moment of glory, so to speak, came in 1991 when the police caught him as he and three friends were “frescoing” a condominium. Even now as he is making his way in the complex world of art, Eron strongly defends the motivations of the street writers. «This is not a culture that has been imported.

Ours too is an authentic and pure form of art, created by the need to express and affirm oneself creatively in a society that often alienates and discriminates against minorities».When speaking of the qualities of a writer, he replies that «in writing, particularly in the beginning, it was very important to be original in the stylistic search. But what counts most of all in contemporary art is the message.The technique becomes an additional element, but not univocal». His motto: «The vandal is someone who dirties without knowing what he is doing, the writer is a vandal that uses creativity, taste, aesthetics, a respect for art and is aware of what he is doing».

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GABRIELE BONATO Gigawatt Gabriele Bonato, pseudonym for Divie 33, was born in Palmanova on April 19 1980, and lives in Fiumincello (Udine) Reference Gallery: La Colomba Gallery, Trieste He has held two personal exhibits at La Colomba Gallery: 2006 “Materia” (Matter) 2007 The project “Utopie” In 2006 he was asked to paint live in FabioVolo’s program “Italospagnolo” on Mtv Since 2008, he has collaborated with the musician Tristan Honsinger, with whom he has staged performances and improvisations based on music

«Light cannot be manifested if not through darkness. The vital breath (eternal life) is created through the union of two opposites. All that is visible and invisible is part of this unity».

Energia: soffio vitale (Energy: vital breath) Oil on canvas, 100 x 150, 2008

The son of an artist, he defines himself as a quick, neurotic, anxious, perfectionist, a lover of the optical effect in an artwork, of the brushstrokes and the marks left on the canvas. Three fundamental concepts that are essential for an artwork to exist: the idea, the beauty (that includes technique) and the mystery. Bonato learned how to paint at home and discovered “the secrets of the trade” from his father, both a philosopher and painter who taught him the immutability of colors, how to maintain the color of resins that over time become crystallized and much more beautiful. Alchemy and spirituality are part of his life and of his work as an artist. He defines himself as old-fashioned in his soul, but young in his body. His works are conceptual and largely inspired by philosophy.An image for him means energy, light, vibrant movement and the work participating in the Terna Prize 01 expresses his concept of art at his best: a science that studies nature where the task of every artist is to understand its mysteries.The artist also works in the tv and music sector; he has recently collaborated with Tristan Honsinger, one of the leading cello players in improvisation and avant-guard jazz, participating in live theater and musical performances.

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Etna Traditional photography on lighbox, 180 x 90, 2007

LAURA CANTARELLA Megawatt The artwork is formed by a photographic image which was originally large in size (6 x12cm) with no digital processing. The subject is the crystallization of energy bursting out from a volcanic eruption. Lava is trapped in itself and incorporates without distinction all that is encountered along its flow; in this way, functional objects as the one depicted in the artwork – a house – become aesthetic objects that are functionally useless, perceptively surreal.

Laura Cantarella was born in Turin on July 31, 1972 She lives and works between Turin and Barcelona

The lighbox on the one hand emphasizes the chromatic relation among the various elements and their surreal nature.On the other, it detracts matter from the image that is depicted.The image is part of a wider project which is underway, developed together with architect Lucia Giuliano, having as its subject the topography of trauma.The project aims at analyzing the city and the territory, as well as their relation with disasters, with those implacable events that suddenly harm reality. Photographic representations investigate their potential to generate new spaces and new possibilities, to open up new worlds and imaginary scenarios.To create a ground 0 in the project, as well as in the view.

Personal exhibits: 2007 “Paisatges Invisibles Paratges Impossibles” Fundaciò Espais, Girona 2006 “Beyond Media”, Pratt Institute, NewYork 2005 “Beyond Media”, Script

She is a photographer for architecture, territory and reporting. Her photographic research is based on two themes: transforming the territory into a theme park and the topography of the trauma: «I study territories that have undergone traumas.Through my work I try to express the concept of the trauma as an opportunity». Through her work she tries to combine the cultural world with architecture.This has been one of her interests since her University days: she graduated from the Polytechnic in Turin with a thesis entitled “The role of photography in hyper-media communication of architecture and of the territory. Observing and Revealing”. In addition to being a photographer, she is also continuing her studies on the territory. She is studying for her doctorate at the University of Barcelona preparing a thesis on the topic of the relation existing between the territory and glance. She has been collaborating with Universities and Institutes as a professor of photography and architectural visual culture. She has recently been involved in the reporting for “Torino Atlante dell’Architettura”, published by Allemandi and organized by the Metropolitan Urban Center in Turin.

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Festival of architecture inVideo Florence 2005 “The Flood” II Architecture Biennal Rotterdam 2005 “Obc Ring” Galleria p74, Ljubljana 2004 “Paisajes para llevar” Cccb, Barcelona 2003 “Hipercatalunya Territoris de recerca”, Macba Barcelona

OTHERS MEGAWATT WINNERS

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ROCCO DUBBINI Megawatt Rocco Dubbini was born in Ancona on May 20, 1969. He lives and works in Rome Personal exhibits: 2007 “L’oggetto apparente aliena la prospettiva del tempo visivo manifestando la propria immagine in evoluzioni non identificate” Galleria Marconi, Cupra Marittima (Ascoli Piceno) 2007 “Experience”, Fat, Center for Contemporary Arts,Terni 2006 “A.b.o.”, Gallery of Modern Art, Bologna 2006 “Lo spazio mentale libero dal tempo diacronico rivendica la possibile paternità di aliene manifestazioni in somiglianza” Galleria il Ponte Contemporanea, Rome 2005 “L’errore sospeso in completa autonomia di pensiero dichiara di essere alieno alla realtà dei fatti contestati”, Galleria Estro, Padova 2004 “Objectually Speaking”, Futura Gallery, Prague 2003 Amici per la pelle”, Galleria il Ponte Contemporanea, Rome 2003 “Count Down”, Galleria Estro, Padova

This photographic artwork highlights a moment in the life of a heater made from the wax of the candles and turned on, that is burning out releasing light and energy.The heater combines the archetype and intercultural value of the candle with that of daily modernity. In this artwork, energy is generated from the crystallization of heat, light, nature, sacredness and shape.A turned on heater represents the stratification of energy epiphanies generating a perceptive short circuit that activates a complex thought, namely energy.

Termosifone acceso (Heater turned on) Traditional photography on Lambda print on lightbox, 90 x 120, 2008

For Rocco Dubbini, art is «habit and attitude». He attended an art school and later the Academy in Urbino, immediately demonstrating a strong interest for art and its expressive potential: «I reason with matter and then transform it into bi-dimensionality». He collaborated with the cartoonist Andrea Pazienza and worked in the theater as a stage designer.The favourite topic of his artistic activity is the perceptive short-circuit. Short-circuit as a source of life, the meeting-conflict of two distant realities creating new energy, a new form of life that is “inexpressible”. But also as something that is outside of normality, anti-conformist, continuous renewal, breaking of patterns and an ongoing discovery. He enthusiastically accepted the challenge of the Terna Prize 01 for contemporary art, fascinated by the theme of transmitting energy.A theme that is “close to art” since it is absolute and therefore also artistic.A very important contest also enhanced by its high level jury and by two important curators. He has high hopes in the young generations of Italian artists and looks with confidence to the future of contemporary art in Italy.

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DAVIDE BERTOCCHI Megawatt Davide Bertocchi was born in Modena on March 31, 1969 He lives and works between Paris and Milan Personal Exhibits: 2008 “Davide Bertocchi” La Blanchisserie Galerie, Paris 2007 “Easy Every Day” Art Brussels, stand Sint-Lukas 2006 “Davide Bertocchi” OneTwenty Gallery, Ghent 2006 “Contemporary Top 100”, Magazzino d’Arte Moderna, Rome 2006 “Memorials”,Astuni Gallery, Pietrasanta 2006 “One Shot by... Davide Bertocchi”, Nuke Gallery Paris 2006 “Modern Times” (with Kolkoz and Adrian Paci) Man Nuoro 2006 “Davide Bertocchi”

Endless

Sint-LukasGalerie, Bruxellles

Digital photography on Dibond 3mm, 60 x 60, 2007

2006 “La Cabane, Le Pavillion” Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2005 “Top 100” Palais de Tokyo, Paris

«Endless is a series of images depicting famous rockets – Lunaorbiter, Explorer, Arianne, Apollo-Saturn, etc. – whose structures were manipulated so as to become huge imaginative machines for energy dissipation.Through a useless rotating motion, these structures question us on matters linked to energy’s existential aspect and to its inevitable dispersion».

2004 “Base”, Dieselwall, Milan 2004 “Davide Bertocchi Top 100”, Quarantine Series Amsterdam 2004 “Limo,Abstraction

He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna with Alberto Garutti and attended the Dams for three years. Energy transmission, which was the theme of the Terna Prize 01 for contemporary art, is a well known subject to Davide Bertocchi.The world of energy, particularly the useless energy waste in its myriad forms, is one of the artist’s main concerns. He is also interested in the relationship between science and art, searching for possible common grounds joining the two disciplines while each one still followis separate paths and different procedures. Bertocchi also explores the potential of music and sound. He has been living between Paris and Milan.This leads him to underline the huge difference between the French and Italian reality. «In France, an artist’s daily life is much easier, even in the smallest things. Not only are taxes lower, but a system of services exists that allows you to solve even the smallest tasks that in Italy are a huge problem». For this reason he also hopes that the art world in Italy will become “simplified”, in search of the right balance between the public and private sectors capable of developing a creative synergy. In this sense, the Terna Prize 01 represents a meaningful initiative for promoting contemporary art in Italy, to reconnect art with society and to support the maximum creative expression, human inventiveness in its undeniable role of cultural “pedagogue”.

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Surface Air”, video programme Centre Pompidou, Paris

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RAFFAELA MARINIELLO Megawatt Raffaela Mariniello was born in Naples on October 15 1961, where she lives and works Personal exhibits: 2008 “Souvenir d’Italie” Studio Trisorio, Rome 2008 “Souvenir d’Italie” Contact Toronto Photography Festival,Toronto 2007 “Souvenir d’Italie” Paris Photo-Statement, Paris 2005 “Over and over” Studio Trisorio, Rome 2005 “Raffaela Mariniello a monograph Fotogallery” Turner House, Cardiff 2004 “Napoli veduta immaginaria”, Ronchini arte contemporanea,Terni 2002 “Immagini all’imbrunire”, Castello CarloV Napoli

Souvenir d’Italie

2002 “Napoli veduta

Traditional photography on C print on diasec, 170 x 200, 2007

immaginaria”, Galleria Lawrence Rubin, Milan

«My search has always been based on studying light and movement in an urban landscape.The connection with the contest’s theme is that in a metaphorical way, my images emanate energy, in the sense that they cause a reaction in the viewer: surprise, beauty and irony. I’m looking for the viewer’s reaction, this I believe is an element of vitality».

Background: she is self-taught and even though many years have gone by since she first started her career, she still believes that in Italy there is no academic training in contemporary art. In the future, which she believes «has already begun», she expects to work abroad, rather than in Italy.Why? She believes that «the Italian market is undergoing crisis» and as a photographer, she sees more interesting prospects in the United States or in Germany, «countries that are more prepared and mature in the field of contemporary art». «Germany is the best for photography, even in terms of market: it is enough to think of the School of Dusseldorf, the Germans are the best in the world, they succeeded in creating a system».This is an old Italian problem and according to Mariniello «it is not only a matter of art, but of an entire system within the country and consequently art also suffers the consequences». For over 20 years she has been interested in depicting urban landscapes: she began in the outskirts of cities, in particular of Naples, arriving to the present day in the center of the large metropolises.The approach she uses is based on identifying a key for reading each city. For this purpose the photograph she submitted to theTerna Prize is a large, colourful and brightly lit merry-go-round that was placed in the heart of Baroque Rome, which becomes «an emblematic image of a historical center devoured by consumerism, with streets invaded by lights and markets during the Christmas holidays». Raffaela Mariniello believes her Neapolitan origins are fundamental to her work: «a city like Naples is one of the strongest stimulus for creativity from the point of view of images».

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Un disperato tentativo del vizio di diventare virtù (A desperate attempt of vice to become virtue) Traditional photography on acrylic glass, 200 x 110, 2007

ANTONIO RIELLO Megawatt Antonio Riello was born in 1958 in CastelfrancoVeneto (Treviso) and lives in Marostica Reference gallery:

Creative energy transforms 6500 used cards coming from gambling houses and casinos in a model (not according to scale) of the Coliseum.The power of energy: reinvent and recuperating a new life of objects that would otherwise be condemned: rehabilitating energy.

Michela Rizzo,Venice Personal exhibits: 2008 “Be square!”, Baltic Gateshead

Riello works more abroad than in Italy since he has always thought that his type of work has a rather small audience and therefore, as one used to do in the past «I packed a bag and began travelling the world. I created an international network since I see myself as an outsider and I like to define myself as a breeder, as someone who tames an idea, nurturing it and taking it for a walk in the green fields of contemporary art».

Riello has always expressed himself non-commercially and his preferred type of artwork is for museum display. He sees the museums in an unusual way and is therefore devoted to the “invisible” side of the museum. «When a museum invites me, I conduct interviews and research on the identity of the place, on the people that work there and the relations with the territory. I design a series of fabrics for the museum uniforms». Identity is the key. Everything happens to find the aspects of the collective and individual identity: «When I work in a museum it becomes very important for me to establish relations with the territory, its hierarchy and individual positions».The work created for the Terna Prize 01 is the fruit of a deep passion for the obscure side of reality: the 6.500 game cards used, came all came from gambling houses and casinos: the idea was of utilizing “dirty” materials and rendering them noble by transforming them into something important. He adds: «The cards were taken from all over the world, and in very adventurous and daring ways».

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2007 “Be square!”, Kunsthalle Wien,Vienna 2007 Potnia Thiron,Athens 2007 “Camera con vista” Romberg, Rome 2006 Mogadishni Gallery Copenhagen 2005 Mart, Rovereto 2005 Galleria De Crescenzo &Viesti, Rome 2005 Kunsthalle Wien Vienna 2004 Museocasabianca, Malo 2003 Italian Cultural Institute, London

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GIOVANNI ALBANESE Megawatt Giovanni Albanese was born in Bari in 1955 and lives in Rome. Professor of Decoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he is also an artist and director Reference Gallery: Il Ponte Contemporanea Rome Personal exhibits: 2008 Il Ponte Contemporanea Rome 2007 Paolo Tonin Arte Contemporanea,Turin 2007 Pino Pascali Museum Polignano a Mare 2004 Galleria Ellequadro Documenti, Genova 2003 Castromediano Museum Lecce 2003 Galleria Altri lavori in corso, Rome 2002 Museo Pino Pascali Polignano a Mare 2001 Macro. Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome 2001 Oddi Baglioni Gallery Rome In 2003 his feature film “A.a.a.

Eclissi (Eclipse)

Achille” was released

Other on iron, 80 x 80, 2008

In 2002 he was awarded the Pino Pascali Award for Contemporary Art In 1996 he was invited to participate in at the 12th Quadriennale Nazionale

Eclissi pours energy from every watt.

d’Arte, in Rome In 1995 he won the Award

Giovanni Albanese, has been working for over thirty years with electrical materials and mechanical parts with the enthusiasm and passion of an apprentice witchdoctor. Both artist and film director, «films came after, when I began to feel the need to transmit my emotions through other means» he explains revealing that he is now working on a new film (top secret) that takes place in the world of contemporary art. He is always ready to enchant us with some new creation which in addition to having great artistic qualities, also includes provocative elements: «For 2009, I am planning a maxi installation within the Rebibbia correctional facility. I want to build a large machine for escaping that only the convicts can see.Anyone who wishes to admire it must first be arrested». In 2002 he was assigned the Pino Pascali Award for Contemporary Art. He directed “A.a.a. Achille”, a film written together with Vincenzo Cerami, that won the Grifone d’oro as the first work at the Giffoni Film Festival in 2003.

for Best Foreign Art Work at the “1st International Biennal of Kamnik”, Slovenia

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After the success of the first edition, the Talent Prize gathers again the most promising young artists

VISIONARY TALENTS

by GIORGIA BERNONI

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Rä di Martino Untitled (marylin), 2004

he first edition of the Talent Prize in 2008 was characterized by the participation of numberless young artists, almost nine-hundreds, who put themselves on the line and presented their works, and by the participation of members of the jury who have shown that the comparison with young generations is still a fundamental step to feed the communication among experts, critics, curators and artists themselves. If death, or at least the still-frame of its face characterized the work of the winner, Rä di Martino, it is life, and all its expressions, the thread that ties up the works of the nine finalists exhibited at the successful exhibition at Museo del Corso, Rome, from October 6th to 12th 2008. Particularly it was movement that prevailed over the overview of artworks that use the most widespread means of communication, like video and photography, to use them with an artistic language. Photography prevails, with six out of ten finalists, over sculpture, used in only two works in a strictly conceptual way.The presence of painting and only one video complete the overview.The intrinsic spirituality of the work of Silvia Camporesi, linked to her video Dance Dance Dance, and of the conceptual installation Il riposo del rabdomante, by Francesco Carone – who transforms the pencil, first creative element of the artist, into a sort of magic wand from which everything is generated – is opposed to the univocal expressive formality of photographs where the city is the main character. A wounded city in the images of Martina della Valle, feeling the effects of the lessons of Gabriele Basilico and his photos of Beirut, and without communication ways in Stefano Cento’s Buenos Aires, in the Tabula Rasa project, where all streets have been erased by digital means to stress the absence of socialization caused by the fears that seize us. While the places taken by Domenico Mangano are Senza Orizzonte – without horizon – since his study conceives another possible place for all the places surrounding us, familiar environments but full of mystery. A surreal atmosphere for the photographic community of Samantha Casolari, with Senza Titolo, Nevada 2007 that catches the community rites of the Burning Man Festival.

Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi with Mama, reflect upon the image of African art transfigured by colonialism and led a four-handed research activity that investigates different languages starting from sculpture. A great dimension is that of Dittico della Soglia #2, the highly elaborated work by Matteo Montani developed as a long painting performance that draws up the perceptive dimension as an unfolding ocular membrane. The work of Nadine Sajot, Ex Voto 2008+Cultura Fisica White Spirit is a hybrid work, on a knife-hedge between photography and sculpture that shows different kinds of characters at table. As Emmanuele Emanuele, President of Fondazione Roma and of the jury of the first edition of the Talent Prize said: «The ability to express the intellectual complexity of man and nature through art allows for culture to evolve and with it, the human community». Nicoletta Zanella, exhibition curator of the event and owner of the Navona 42 art gallery, evaluates the competing artworks and the jury’s choices: «We have jointly reviewed the works and we have reached the same result. Nothing surprising, the trend has been appearing on the horizon for a long time: art, as some nostalgics may imagine, does not exist any longer. Painting or sculpture, meaning the usage of plastics, is no longer used, it is no longer the effective expression for those artists who need to start using means pertaining other forms of art like video or photography. I believe it is a matter of the characteristic enlargement of our contemporary world where everything is used to express oneself.The ten finalists of last edition have shown a real quality arising from different categories: the video, a representative of painting, installations and photography that has prevailed over other arts on the international scene since long. In general it was a positive experience to monitor the present Italian situation where the trend of xenophilia and a sense of subjection in relation to other countries still persist».Anna Mattirolo, art critic: «I found confirmations

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2009 TALENT PRIZE The second edition The Talent Prize is a competition for artists born after 1970 who express themselves through different visual arts: painting, sculpture, photography, video, installations.Artworks must be sent by July 15th, for the second edition and will be selected by a jury made of managers and directors of the major Italian foundations and contemporary art museums:Alberto Fiz – Art Director of Marca;Anna Mattirolo – Director of Maxxi; Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele – President of Fondazione Roma; Gianluca Winkler – Director General of Hangar Bicocca; Guido Talarico – Director and Publisher of Inside Art; Luca Massimo Barbero –

rather than a great originality. Indeed, the impression is that most of artists follow already-established lines.The status of art is good, however; we have found interesting artists, for the future too. The rationale of my choice was, as usual, the one of quality and the whole jury agreed with me. It is true that the winner of the first edition was an already renowned artist, and that may have affected our opinion, but Rä di Martino is still a young artist with a long way to go yet».

Ludovico Pratesi, art critic, agrees with her: «To strengthen the first edition we agreed on giving the prize to an artist whom works were already renowned at the national and international level as well. And for finalists too we have awarded artists with experiences in Italy and abroad so as to give the prize the prestige it deserves. Many were the artworks with video and photography: the internationalization of Italian art that is more prone to foreign issues and that is slowly replacing more traditional techniques exclusively linked to a local environment». Enrico Crispolti, art critic and historian said: «The winning work had the merit of highlighting the memory factor, which today is rather neglected or brought to a secondary level.That is the most interesting aspect: the dimension of memory, to which centrality is given back, is not a novelty of language, it is rather a behavioral innovation. It is thought that it is easier to gain

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Director Macro; Ludovico Pratesi – Art Director Centro Arti Visive Pescheria di Pesaro; Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo – President of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation.The winner will be announced on September 15th, in Rome; he/she will receive a prize of 10thousand euros. Selected artists will be presented at the final exhibition that will be inaugurated at the Museum of Centrale Montemartini of Rome, on October 28th; the catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.

Info: www.talentprize.it.

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consensus and positive results with the most widespread means of today: video and photography, rather than with traditional means like painting. I believe this is a prejudice followed by a sort of self-censorship or mistrust by insiders. Painting is considered as an activity with which success is hardly achievable and therefore it is not the case to try». Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, president of the foundation having the same name, thinks about schools educational possibilities: «Rä di Martino is praiseworthy since she is carrying out an activity of an undoubted quality; her work is very interesting as her curriculum, full of experiences. I found that photography and video are two of the most used means that young artists use to express themselves and Rä di Martino is an artist who expresses her work through these means. I found much heterogeneity in the works of the first edition and more freshness of language in modern means rather than traditional ones.Among finalists, Martina Della Valle is praiseworthy, she is a young photographer who is growing fast. I believe that in the last few years in Italy the situation has improved; however I still notice the almost total absence of institutions, schools and structures that may follow the young not only during their training period but mainly when they come on the art market for the first time». Beyond the nine finalists and the winner, six under-35 young artists were awarded a special jury mention.

Matteo Montani Dittico della soglia #2, 2008 At the previous page: the press conference ofTalent Prize (to the left) GuidoTalarico Umberto Broccoli Umberto Croppi Emmanuele Emanuele and Nicoletta Zanella photo by Manuela Giusto

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MAKE WAY FOR THEYOUTH

by MARGHERITA STELLA

From Furla to Celeste the other contemporary art prizes in Italy

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esides Terna and Talent Prize, there are several contemporary art prizes in Italy that create synergies and encounters, hence providing tools and ways to allow young artists to emerge. Characterised by the intertwining of public and private sectors - with the involvement of internationally renowned critics, but also of curators and private companies - they represent a landscape with plenty of opportunities and nuances.

Giovanna Furlanetto, for instance, Chair of Furla, is also the deviser, together with Chiara Bertola, of the most important contemporary art prize in Italy: the Furla Prize.As Mrs. Furlanetto said: «The project was conceived to thank Italy, the place where we developed the credibility that allowed us to carry out the internationalisation of our brand.We realised how Italy was lacking in a project-making capacity allowing young good quality artists to be known nationally and internationally, as it happens with the English Turner». This prize represents the will by several protagonists of contemporary art to be coordinated in order to enhance the art: “The Furla Prize – explained the Chair – highlights how the union of skills and passion can lead to the achievement of something useful and concrete for the country. Starting from this year, high-level foreign curators were involved in the selection of the five finalists, in collaboration with an Italian curator.This favou

Pierluigi Febbraio Mania, 2008

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Margaret Salmon Still from Ninna Nanna, 2006 To the right: Francesco Gennari La degenerazione di Parsifal (Natività), 2005-2006

red the internationalisation and the visibility of the project. Furthermore, Furla is freeing its world platform to offer local support, as it was done at the Mot in Tokyo and, recently, at the New Museum of New York».Therefore, after awarding the prize to Alberto Tadiello on the occasion of Artefiera, during an edition whose patroness was the lively Marina Abramovic, on 6th of June the winning work of art was presented to the Querini Stampalia Foundation ofVenice, hence marking the final phase of the seventh edition of the Furla Prize. The winning artist received 45 thousand euros and a stay at Gasworks, in London, from January to March 2010, with the coordination of Viafarini Milano, a no-profit organisation dealing with the promotion of contemporary art.

Max Mara, a famous Italian fashion house, is the promoter of another important prize: Max Mara Prize for Women, supporting women artists living in the United Kingdom, giving them the opportunity of producing works of art. As Marina Dacci, the Director of the Maramotti Collection, explained: «The Max Mara Art Prize stems from the relationship between the company and the Whitechapel Gallery of London. The Maramotti Collection, after acquiring the winning works of art, performs a precise task of works enhancement within its premises.The prize is managed by Iwona Blazwick, the Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, and reflects the close relationship between Max Mara and the women on the one side and the world of arts on the other side. This biennial format is opened to whatever form of artistic expression».The jury, renewed at each edition of the prize, is made up of a manager/owner of an art gallery, a journalist or critic, an artist, and a collector, each of them proposing the names of five artists. A shortlist of five finalists is

Characterised by the intertwining of public and private sectorsthey art prizes represent a landscape with plenty of brilliant opportunities

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ACACIA Milan Info: 0039(0)236562136 www.acaciaweb.it

ARTE LAGUNA Venice Info: 0039(0)415937242 www.premioartelaguna.it

CAIRO Milan Info: 0039(0)26551445

CELESTE Milan Info: 0039(0)57939425

www.cairoeditore.it

www.premioceleste.it

CELEST PRIZE Berlin Info: 0039(0)577939425

FURLA Bologna Info: 0039(0)516202711

www.celestprize.com

INTERNAZIONALE D’ARTE A TEMA Rome Info: 0039(0)695769403 www.istituzionepalazzorospigliosi.it

www.furla.com

ISCHIA PROSPETTIVA Ischia Info: 0039(0)814971300 www.ischiaprospettivaarte.it

MAX MARA PRIZE FOR WOMEN Reggio Emilia

LIBERA UNIVERSITÀ MEDITERRANEA Bari

Info: 0039(0)522382484

Info: 0039(0)806978213

www.collezionemaramotti.org

www.lum.it

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then defined, and they present a work project to be implemented during a sixmonth residency in Italy. In 2009, the ninth edition of the Cairo prize was also held; this event is linked to the monthly magazine Arte by Urbano Cairo, which has been promoting for many years a prize that in this edition was awarded to the Milanese artist Alice Cattaneo.This year’s novelty was a committee made up of ten protagonists of the Italian world of culture, each of which indicated three young artists aged below forty. Among them, the editorial office selected the twenty finalists that participated in the exhibition that, according to the tradition, was held in Milan, at the Palazzo della Permanente. No money prizes are provided, but only the possibility of participating in the exhibition, besides the acquisition of the winning work by President Cairo.

Another important event that has come to its sixth edition is the Celeste Prize,

aimed at the promotion of Italian contemporary art through exhibitions, publications and on-line activities.Among the novelties of the 2009 Edition there is also aVideo & Animation Award, that adds up to the traditional prizes as painting, photography, installation & sculpture. 2009 is also the first year of the International Celeste Prize, with the same procedures as the Celeste Prize in Italy, although destined to foreign countries. Money prizes reach 20 thousand euros and are sided by an exhibition at the Borroni Factory in Bollate from the 20th to the 27th of November. Other events supporting contemporary art include the Laguna Art Prize and the Acacia Prize.

The Laguna Art Prize, proposed by the Cultural Association Moca and by Art Studio Laguna, aims at favouring the encounter between emerging and famous artists, stimulating in this way an international confrontation. The prize progressively launched fruitful collaborations with specialized media and high-level

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galleries that open their premises to exhibit worthy works in line with the business strategy. Furthermore, in order to increase the accessibility to a large public, free-of-charge collective exhibitions of finalist artists will be organised within 2010. Besides a 15 thousand euros award split between painting, photography and sculpture sections, there will be a collective exhibition of the London finalists on the occasion of the “Catch by the eye, save in the heart” in 2010, and another exhibition at the Institute of Italian culture in Vienna.

The Acacia Prize, on the other side, is promoted by the Associazione amici arte contemporanea italiana, established with the purpose of setting up a Museum of Contemporary Art in Milan, able to dialogue with institutions and to support the Italian arts.The prize also had many partnerships with other local authorities as Pac and Spazio Oberdan.The Acacia Prize is sided by the Emerging

Beate Minderjahn Bridge between life and death 2009 To the left: AlbertoTadiello Shift, 2008

Artists Prize and Acacia ti fa volare, besides several contributions for single artistic projects.The artists awarded are the protagonists of the Acacia Collection, which is still in progress, and that includes works by Mario Airò, Sabrina Mezzaqui, Marzia Migliora, Adrian Paci, Paola Pivi, Grazia Toderi, Luca Trevisani, Marcella Vanzo and Francesco Vezzosi.

The Prize consists in the granting of 15 thousand euros in order to support a specific project-making ability of the artist. Among the Italian prizes there are also the Lum Prize, organized by the Libera università mediterranea that, every two years, awards artists below 35, and the Ischia prospettiva Award, which is addressed not only to artists, but also to critics and scholars of contemporary art.

Finally, Palazzo Rospigliosi, in Rome, launches the second edition of the International Prize of theme art, in which the works relating to the subject of toys will be awarded in December 2009.

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The NewYork Prize, the seventh edition of the award organized by the Farnesina has just ended

A BRIDGE BETWEEN ITALY AND THE BIG APPLE

by CLAUDIA QUINTIERI

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Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.org It's always six o'clock, 2008

he seventh edition of the New York prize, exclusively dedicated to Italian artists born after December 31, 1969 has just ended.

Right now we don’t know the names of winners. The goal is that of creating a bridge between the American culture, mainly focused on New York environment, and the Italian one, giving the opportunity to award-winning artists to be introduced in the international circuit, bring their experience abroad and enrich the exchange between the Italian artistic context and the American one.This prize is at the cutting edge of the Farnesina’s activities to promote the Italian culture all over the world, a priority of the cultural policy of the Ministry for Foreign Affair that is held also thanks to the effort of the Institutes of Italian culture abroad and diplomatic and consular representations.

NewYork is renowned for the richness of cultural trends of a high artistic level, and therefore it is a prestigious place to hold activities linked to Italy.This year two plus four scholarships will be awarded to winners who will stay respectively for eight and four months in NewYork: an occasion for them to study and work in New York completely free of charge (the airline ticket, the accommodation and the course at the Iscp – International Studio and Curatorial Program are paid by the organizers) and receiving a 2,500 Usd monthly payment. The prize was established in 2001 by the Direction General for the Promotion and Cultural Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in agreement with the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies of the Columbia University of NewYork and is supported by the Fiac Foundation of New York. In the last few years artists coming from different sectors have participated in great numbers: painting, sculpture, photography, video art and digital art. Renowned Italian young artists have won the previous editions: from Matteo Basilé, Chiara Carocci, Marta Dell’Angelo and Sara Rossi during the first edition to Sarah Ciracì and Alessandra Tesi in 2003-2004, and to Rä Di Martino and Gabriele Picco in 20052006 and Daniela Olivieri (Sissi),Antonio Rovaldo, Ivana Spinelli and Marcella Vanzo during the fourth edition while in 2006-2007 the prize went to Rossella Biscotti, Paolo Chiasera,Alessandra Ghidoni and NicoVascellari and, finally, Ettore Favini, Linda Fregni Nagler, Andrea Mastrovito and Silvia Vendramel in 2007-2008. The artists going to New York will be following the cultural activities promoted by the Institute of Italian Culture and the Italian Academy and, if the teacher authorizes them, they could also follow the lessons of art, movie theory, visual arts and architecture at the Columbia University to have a complete and exhaustive cultural training.A jury made of the following nine members, changing every year, will award the prizes: Gregory Amenoff, Chair of Visual Arts Division, Columbia University of New York, Daniele Bodini, Presidente Fiac (Foundation for Italian Art & Culture) of New York, Giulia Draganovic, former director of the Pan, Palazzo dell’arte of Naples, David Freedberg, director of the Italian Academy at the Columbia University of New York, Mister Massimiliano Gioni, Director of Special Exhibitions at the New Museum of New York, Alanna Heiss, founder and director of the PS1 Contemporary Art Center of New York, Barbara Mc Adams, publisher of the Art News magazine of New York, Gianfranco Maraniello, director of the Mambo of Bologna, and Renato Miracco, director of the Institute of Italian culture of New York. At the end of the stay all the works of winners will be presented at an exhibition at the Iscp gallery – International Studio and Curatorial Program, or in some other public spaces in New York. Together with this initiative, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will spread the “Farnesina Collection” all over the world: it is a prestigious collection of artworks of Italian contemporary artists and of the 20th century. Info: Institute of Italian Culture in New York 001212879424; Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Direction General for the Promotion and Cultural Cooperation, Piazzale della Farnesina 1, Rome.

Info: 0039(0)636912735/0039(0)636914057; www.esteri.it.

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THE STREETS OF ITALIAN ART

by MARIA LUISA PRETE

This is the year of Futurism Caravaggio is also the protagonist together with Francis Bacon

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his is the year of Futurism. Illuminazioni.Avanguardie a confronto.

Italia, Germania, Russia at the Mart of Rovereto from January 17 to June 7 has opened the ball followed by Astrazioni at the Museum Correr of Venice from June 5 to October 4. Ending up with Simultaneità in Milan, Royal Palace, from October 15 to January 25, 2010.Talking about great exhibitions in 2009 one cannot but mention the anniversary of a movement that has marked Italian and international art history, even among the many contradictions and questionable principles. Suffice it to say that Marinetti and his acolytes exalted war as “hygiene of the world” and trusted machines blindly: they were modern in the most obscure sense of the term.They had the courage, - even if at that time a little courage was enough – to venerate progress and its horrible consequences. But ideology apart, they have marked these ideas on the canvas with technique, mastery and innovation.And naturally, art may concede more.Those who do not want to be swallowed up by the diabolic suggestions of futurism may find worthy alternatives all around Italy. From another important anniversary, the bicentenary of Brera art gallery: on August 15, 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte was celebrating his birthday, the art gallery was inaugurated.The celebration programme features exhibitions of renowned artists like Caravaggio and

Fortunato Depero Danza di diavoli, 1922

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Raphael and various reviews on the history of this Milanese institution. And Francis Bacon Caravaggio is also the protagonist, together with Francis Bacon, of a new exhi- Portrait of Michel Leris, 1976 bition. In September, Rome Galleria Borghese will feature a unique comparison of two “maudit” painters, resulting in the expression of the artistic ideal that had led both of them.The first similarity? The merciless quest on reality results in a not less cruel image of truth. Anguish and immanence, deep desperation while painting and living a life which is always at the borders. The truth for Michelangelo Merisi is the naturalism of his works, expressed through monochromatic backgrounds and figures whose plasticity is given by a violent light that hits like a lens and enlightens the world without any filters; for Francis Bacon it is distorted and deformed shapes of the coercive and torturing action of the environment that lead to the borders of mutation. Urbino has a tribute to Raphael. In spring, the ancient ducal city will remind the public that it has remarkably marked the training of the Renaissance master. By analyzing the context of Urbino at the end of the seventies and eighties of the 15th century, the artistic and cultural environment where the then young artist was trained is reconstructed; it is there that his father, Giovanni Santi, painter of dukes and man of letters used to work. By following the red line of great classical masters, we cannot but mention Giotto, eminent guest at theVittoriano. From great masters of the past to the great masters of the 20th century. In Venice, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection pays tribute to Robert Rauschenberg with a selection of 40 sculptures. In the 80s the Texan artist used to concentrate his interest on the visual properties of metal. He then started to assemble objects, move industrial waste and scrap to create bas-reliefs and sculptures: the “Gluts” series is then created. Another eminent American artist is the protagonist of an exhibition at the Royal Palace. It is Edward Hopper, the father of individualism who stated that “the aim of painting is to create the most exact transcription of the most intimate impression of nature”. Hopper’s works show all the loneliness of the American contemporary society with images charged with silence and immersed in almost metaphysical spaces. Another American, Cy Twombly, in late February will be the National Modern Art Gallery of Rome with the exhibition called “Cycles and seasons”. Twombly is one of the most important artists of the generation of young masters The Madre Museum including Andy Warhol and Jasper John, renowned for his abstract works and works on paper. There will also be of Naples pays tribute exhibitions on great Italian artists. Indeed, Perugia will devote an important exhibition to Alberto Burri, at the re- to Francesco Clemente novated National Gallery of Umbria. Burri has tried to find beauty and harmony in the matter, even the most im- and Alighiero Boetti probable too: sacks, tars, irons, plastics, moulds. He succeeded and conquered critics and the public; today he is one of the mythical figures of contemporary art.

The Madre Museum of Naples pays tribute to Francesco Clemente with an exhibition divided into eight sections covering the artist’s production from 1974 to 2004. A central procedure of his art will be in the foreground: that of shaping things and ideas and then abandon them so that they cannot undergo a metamorphosis and be turned into something different, then reconnected.Then, they also show the artist’s belief on the arbitrariness of our ordinary perception. The Madre Museum will also feature an exhibition path illustrating the creative method of Alighiero Boetti.The encounters with eastern art will continue at the Museo del Corso that will feature, from March to July, the exhibition on the master of nature, Hiroshige.And also, unprecedented exhibitions like the one devoted to traveling artists at the Art Museum of Ravenna and, obviously, recurring events like fairs, starting with Rome and Turin.A calendar full of events that will make things very hard for the return of Futurism.

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BIENNALE: THE FAIR OF SHREWD PLEBEIANS

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ogether with sultriness and water at flood level, the Biennale brings implacable disputes to Venice. One for all: Francesco Bonami, among the curators of the 2003 edition, shooting from the pages of Riformista: «the work of almost all the selected artists is not up to a pavilion that is supposed to show the best of Italian art».This opinion cannot apply to the exhibition directed by Daniel Birnbaum, but is limited to the choices of the palindromic curators: Luca Beatrice and Beatrice Buscaroli, accused by many of putting out an Italian strong team – a good twenty elements – far from the scanty edition of Ida Gianelli, but with an eye on the market rather than quality.

According to Philippe Daverio the problem is far more complicated. «Nobody cares about contemporary art any longer, ours is an atomized world that every now and then needs moments peculiar of the organization of conferences. But the real function of the Venice Biennale is not dissimilar to the one of the Basel fair, which is more serious because it is a real trading fair, what the Biennale pretends not to be. Nobody cares about contemporary art because for the first time visual arts are lagging behind other artistic languages and have entered those vicious circuits where contemporary music had entered in the seventies, when composers were happy of having empty halls, so that those very

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few were a guarantee of intellectual quality.Then, luckily, people like Michael Nyman, Philip Glass and Giovanni Sollima, have come out and brought music to the attention of the public.

In a nutshell, visual arts have become completely self-regarding, in a financial system that objectively needs many resources but very few in an indirect sense: ten clients more are enough for everybody to be happy, that is how the bridges with society have been blocked. But it is not that Italy is little creative with contemporary art, it is that it is much creative with the political class: this marks time with the same stupidity and anxiety as the Italian capitalism».

But Italian contemporary art is not dead, for the art critic disguised as politician (former councilor in Milan in the Lega-party council, who competes at the administrative elections with a block of the historical left wing party for the metropolitan town in the Lumbard regional town). «Italian creativity is far from being dead, but from

Daverio: «Nobody cares about contemporary art any longer, tv is enough Peasants’ things in Venice»

by MAURIZIO ZUCCARI

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Sunset inVenice

this viewpoint our country must enroll in the list of those defined as scoundrel by Bush, because it tends to be so self-conservative about its privileges that it excludes everybody from competition. Academies and universities have done their best to keep the young uninformed, by denying the right to the quality of education, by frustrating any kind of changing creativity.

Let’s talk about Luciano Fabro, for example: none can say that he was not a thinking artist, but he has been teaching the same thing at the Academy of Brera for thirty years, by turning an avant-garde object into an endless reiteration, every morning he used to re-make and teach Italy upside down.A huge effort.We have dozens of fantastic artists, but none of them is the breadwinner.

They survive thanks to public charity, confraternities, and lovers. The most interesting Italian artists are shamans who have retired into their world and survive in a fortuitous way, have two things that make them live or spend little money». Speaking of avant-garde, this Biennale recalls the renowned unique avant-garde of the Italian 20th century and the name of Marinetti.According to Daverio «the reference to Futurism is a mere formal one. Concerning the Italian Pavilion, don’t even talk about it. Beatrice Buscaroli is a good girl but she is a sort of fanatic of fascism, Luca Beatrice only knows about football. Sandro Chia has his glory, Bertozzi & Casoni are genial, and the others are those shrewd things peasants do, a misery. And women artists are part of an interpretation of feminism that has led the majority of Italian women to respect the Prime Minister’s choice and think that his wife misbehaved. That will never do».

The organizer of a sort of counter-biennale in Murano, two years ago, where fans remember an extemporary performance of Maurizia Paradiso who came out of a fountain, naked, the critic of Mulhouse, naturalized citizen of Milan, and “hired” by Vittorio Sgarbi as librarian in Salemi, has chosen the low profile.

«This year I do not do anything, and I don’t feel those things any longer. In a moment of deep world transition, like this one we are rediscovering an interest in our lan-

guages and mainly that globalization is neither the only thing nor the one facing glocalization.We will no longer be glocal or global, it will be a world of different colors, niches, with a few fixed facts: luckily, gin & tonic is the same everywhere at sunset. We speak Italian again, and I can even force someone not to use words like governance, authority, and those things, said by those who cannot speak English». Therefore let’s imagine another Biennale, another Venice, and another Italy. «Another Biennale could investigate the language differentiations that the world is creating. How a man from Gabon is really from Gabon and one from the Midwest is such? I also would like to see some art mechanics linked to the tensions and the anxiety of politics, something I’ve found in Documenta by Kassel.And I would be interested in a Biennale of a semantic redefinition: what’s the meaning of making art today? Are painting, sculpture, architecture, cinema, theater, and some other performances still there? Or someone is pretending to make a movie, the result is not good and that product is exhibited at the Biennale as a video? Another Venice could have more determination, not to let Punta della Dogana to Pinault, but it is a city for rent, now, rather there should be a character mutation.Whilst I sometimes think that Italy is a road of relentless decadence. Most of citizens are still plebeians and do not care,Tv is enough for them.We are lagging behind and the gap will be unbridgeable, before long.We will live a country of medium tourism, producing cooks and dressmakers.We will always be the best with spaghetti, it is important».

In a nutshell, there is no way out, and maybe it is also a precognitive problem: we don’t even feel the need to know, challenge, and criticize, any longer. «It is blatant that the appetite for knowledge is going down,here more than anywhere else.There is no reaction. Normally Italy works well after a civil war, as for the Unity of Italy or WorldWarTwo, when the elite succeeds in being authoritative and prevails over the rural and poor side of the country that is no longer rural nor poor but has got the same mentality as our grandfathers, when they were serfs.

By any chance we cannot long for a civil war, we rather not to die and let the country die. But today this is no longer the case, there is a huge unique grumbling area».

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Record attendance to an edition focused on making a creative act

PARALLEL WORLDS

by GIORGIA BERNONI

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Anju Dodiya The seasons triptych, 2007 To the left: Lygia Pape Ttéia 1, C, 2005

T

he imperative is making worlds. If, until the contrary is proved, the world is only one, possible worlds may (and must) be endless. Making worlds is the password, even if we hope that disorder will be the spring before action in these new worlds, the buoyancy of action. Because disorder is subversion and creativity. It is art, where to do is not to think, but it implies it.“Making world” (or, rather, Weltenmachen, Construire des mondes, Fazer mundos, translating the formula into different languages because every language means a different concept) is the title, of an Heideggerian memory, of the international art exhibition that will be held in Venice in the historic spaces of Giardini dell’Arsenale, with more than 90 artists representing 77 nations – an unprecedented number – with 38 side events all around Venice – that has always been the third exhibition pole – and with a budget reduced by two million Euros with regards to the previous edition.

The title of the 53rd edition, that will be shown at the entrance of Venice exhibition areas, encompasses the intentions of the Director, Daniel Birnbaum (born in 1963, the youngest ever director of the Biennale) to make room for the effectiveness of the creative act and its tangent raison d’être.The Swedish curator, who had assisted Francesco Bonami in 2003, stresses and amplifies the trend of a revival of the more classical visual arts like painting, or, better, the pictorial attitude, that will prevail over other arts in terms of attendance and maybe of quality.The complex composition of the vision in the work of Polish Andrè Cadere, the geometrical references to shapes and the light-shadow

dualism that marks the pictorial process of American Tony Condor stem from the need of seeing, which has ancient roots but which finds the power of its expression in contemporaneity.All artistic forms will be exhibited, anyhow: installations, videos and movies, sculpture, performances, painting, drawing and even a parade, in a symbiosis where the tough corridors of univocal languages are shattered and contaminations help all art production reach a unique hyper uranium made of sounds, colors, smells and pavilions, each one of them to be plastered over with a national flag that will act as wallpaper.

There will also be countries that have come recently to the world of art, with the proverbial virulence of the late arrivals: India and China, accompanied by heartening presences of the many historic pavilions of old Europe: from the image of France of Claude Leveque to the one of Spain of Miquel Barcelò. Many await the presence of Gilbert & George, Lygia Pape, Jan Håfström, Blinky Palermo.The age of participants is also heterogeneous, reaching the age of 90 of Swedish Yona Friedman, to create a profitable dialogue between young artists and masters.Two Golden Lions career awards: John Baldessari, who has always experimented the potentialities linked to video productions and Yoko Ono, the much-discussed icon of popular culture.Ten Italians: Massimo Bartolini, Rosa Barba, Simone Berti, Roberto Cuoghi (chosen at the eleventh hour), Gino De Dominicis, Lara Favaretto, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pietro Roccasalva, GraziaToderi and Alessandro Pessoli; half of the guests of the notorious Padiglione Italia. The luscious local derby has reached the starting whistle.

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The curators: “Whether you like it or not international art is a trading system”

TRAVEL TO ITALY THE ELECTIVE AFFINITIES OF BEATRICE & BEATRICE

by MASSIMO CANORRO

F

rom the festival of Contemporary Art of Faenza to the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation of Turin, passing from the Pecci Museum of Prato.These are the steps marking the road show of the curators of the Pavilion Italia at the Biennale, Beatrice Buscaroli and Luca Beatrice. The target: introducing Collaudi. A tribute to F.T. Marinetti, an exhibition devoted to the new generations of Italian artists at Tese delleVergini dell’Arsenale, inVenice, within the 53rd International Art Exhibition, Fare Mondi, that will be open until November 22. «A professional and human experience that allowed us to meet artists and experts, without any kind of intermediation» Buscaroli and Beatrice jointly explained.

How does the intuition of mounting the exhibition dedicated to Marinetti in the Pavilion Italia arise?

Beatrice Buscaroli: «I must say that the tribute to the

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founder of Futurism is rather a poetic one. Indeed “Collaudi” does not feature works linked to the Italian avant-garde».

Luca Beatrice: «Marinetti used to put this word in his forewords, often. In the mechanical language the word “collaudi” – Testing - means the tuning, the setting-up. Transposing it into the artistic field is a natural consequence».

The exhibiting artists are between 30 and 50 years of age, how have you selected them, which criteria did you follow?

B. B: «We have jointly chosen artists whom we already appreciated or up-and-coming young artists.

The red line was the expressed quality of the works, coupled with the artistic feeling and the evocative powers».

L. B: «We too, we belong to the analyzed bracket.We have shared a retrospective path of our cultural and human experiences, and thought it was not possible

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The curators Luca Beatrice and Beatrice Buscaroli

to mount two different exhibitions».

Is it possible to specify the main asset of the Pavilion Italy by defining its projection towards this setting also from the international point of view?

B.B: «First of all allow me to say that the Pavilion, the way it is today, shows vitality and a creative breadth that cannot be limited to the national field. I’d rather linger on the first pavilion of the Tese delle Vergini, that today features nine painters of innovative languages».

L.B: «The Italian and foreign public will be called to sanction the assets of the Pavilion Italia.The Biennale lets the work to express themselves, practically, without any proclamation or launching challenges on a level that is not the one of the artistic context».

Are you willing to answer to those critics who think that your parameters of selection are “merely commercial”?

B. B: «I believe that these are sterile and meaningless disputes.The word “commercial”, in the artistic domain, has not a negative meaning in itself.The market is the litmus test not only for experts but for artists too».

L. B: «Whether you like it or not, international art is a trading system.As curators we have to answer to those who have appointed us and to the public, whose judgment is still the prevailing one».

Did you have any dispute during your professional relationship?

B. B: «No way. We have started this journey some months ago and have shared any choice. Beatrice is very kind, cultivated and pleasant, it would have been impossible not to follow the same direction».

L. B: «It is and has always been a synergy supported by similar views. Allow me to say that in this connection we can talk about elective affinities».

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THE 20 “AZZURRI” AT THE BIENNALE

MATTEO BASILÉ Thisoriented # 3 2009 He lives and works in Rome, where he was born in 1974, Jakarta and Bali (Indonesia).

He established himself in the middle of the 90s as representative of digital painting.

Recently his research activity has been expressed in the photographic field.Visionary, decadent, since one year he

VALERIO BERRUTI La figlia di Isacco, 2009

has traveled a lot in Bali where he has spent much time and has then chosen a new subject for his poetics,

Alba (Cuneo), 1977. He works and lives in Verduno. Starting

the comparison between East

from the ancient fresco technique through the simplification

and West. He has had his solo

of drawing he has reached animation painting. He prefers pre-

exhibitions at the Mart of

sent subjects, drawn from the world of childhood. He has

Rovereto (2007) and at the

exhibited in the Modern Art Gallery of Modena (2008) and at

Man of Nuoro (2001). He is

the musée d’Art Moderne of St. Etienne (2006). He is repre-

represented by the Pack gal-

sented by the Marco Rossi, Gallery in Milan and the Ermanno

lery in Milan.

Tedeschi Gallery in Turin.

MANFREDI BENINATI Affresco, 2009 Born in Palermo, Italy, 1970. Lives and works in Palermo and Los Angeles.After working for important Italian movie directors he started devoting himself to drawing. He is a painter of a romantic taste, and portrays intimate environments and fragments of the past. He is a many-sided artist and passes frequently from paintings to installations. He was selected to represent his country at theVenice Biennale (2005) and Liverpool Biennial (2008). He is represented by Galleria Lorcan O'Neill.

NICOLA BOLLA Orpheus’s dream, 2009 He lives and works in Saluzzo (Cuneo), where he was born in 1963, and Turin. He investigates the subject of vanitas, where the caducity

BERTOZZI & CASONI Rebus, 2009

of things is opposed to the luxury and preciousness of matter. His works, completely

Giampaolo Bertozzi, Borgo Tossignano

made of Swarovski crystals suggest a romantic

(Bologna), 1957. Stefano Dal Monte Ca-

atmosphere. Damien Hirst is not as renowned,

soni, Lugo di Romagna (Ravenna), 1961.They work and live in

even if he was the first to create a skull made

Imola.They invented a new way of working with ceramic mate-

of crystals. He has exhibited at Corsovenezia-

rials using images and pop and media culture icons connected to

otto in Milan (2008), Sperone Westwater in

ancient techniques. By inventing photo-ceramics they work on

NewYork (2007). He is represented by the

the brink of kitsch; a grotesque world made of fairy tales with ob-

Marconi Gallery in Ascoli Piceno.

jects taken from the contemporary society.They are represented by the Cardi gallery in Milan.

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SANDRO CHIA Art dealer, 2009 Florence, 1946. He lives and works in New York, Rome and Montalcino (Siena). In the 80s he was one of the representatives of transavanguard and one of the promoters of the return to painting.

Figures are much important in his canvases. His latest works are particularly nice and are exhibited at the Charles Cowes gallery of New York (2008). He is at his fourth Biennale after the editions of 1980, 1986 and 1988. He is re-

MARCO CINGOLANI Immacolata Concezione, 2009

presented by the Contini gallery in Venice, the Emilio Mazzoli

Como, 1961. He lives and works in Milan. He belongs to the micro-generation of artists wor-

Gallery in Modena, the Poleschi

king in Milan during the late 80s. He is a modern storyteller inspired by the crime pages and

Gallery in Lucca and the Tega

the Bible. He has had his solo shows at the Man in Nuoro (2000), and at the Strozzi Palace of

gallery in Milan.

Florence (2002); he has exhibited in the XIV Rome Quadriennale (2005). He is represented by the Box Art gallery in Verona.

GIACOMO COSTA Private garden, 2009 He lives and works in Florence where he was born in 1970. His pictures immortalize and reinvent the city by creating apocalyptic architectures. From the urban dimension he reaches landscapes where he projects himself into the future. He creates bewildering present landscapes where nature seems to prevail over man. He has exhibited at the X Venice Biennale of architecture and at Paris Centre Pompidou. He is represented by the Guido & Schoen Artecontemporanea gallery in Genova.

ARON DEMETZ Untitled, 2009 Vitipeno (Bolzano), 1972. He lives and works

ROBERTO FLOREANI Aurora occidentale Teoria della distanza, 2009

in Selva di Val Gardena. He is among the few contemporary sculptors who express themsel-

Venice, 1956. He lives and works

ves with figuration avoiding any clichĂŠs. He pre-

inVicenza. He is an abstract

fers using traditional materials of Alto Adige like

painter and writer of essays, with

pinewood and fir wood, to which he applies diffe-

a strong link with reality even if

rent elements: aluminum leaves and resins. In 2008

he does not portrays it directly.

he exhibited at the Pac in Milan, at the Albe-

In 2005 he participated in the

marle gallery of London. He is repre-

XIV Rome Quadriennale. He is

sented by the Margini Arte

represented by the Folini Arte

Contemporanea gal-

Contemporanea gallery in

lery in Massa.

Chiasso; and the Open art gallery in Prato.

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MASBEDO Schegge d’incanto in fondo al dubbio, 2009 Jacopo Bedogni, Sarzana (Spain), 1970. Nicolò Masazza, Milan, 1973.

They live and work in Milan.They interpret a very spectacular concept of video art. Based on a sophisticated and novelistic structure, highly technological, their work is inspired by literary, cinematographic and real-life sources.They have collaborated with different personalities of the world of culture and entertainment, from Michel Houellebecq to Juliette Binoche, from Aldo Nove to Marlene Kuntz. Solo exhibitions at the Cccb of Bar-

DANIELE GALLIANO Chickens, 2009

celona (2006), and at the Macro in Rome (2004).They are represented by the Noire Contemporary Art gallery in Turin.

Pinerolo (Torino), 1961. He lives and works in Turin. Since the beginning, he has interpreted a metropolitan figuration, deeply rooted in his town,Turin, of which he prefers night settings.

He exhibited at the XII Rome Quadriennale (1996). He is represented by the Studio Raffaelli Gallery in Trento; In Arco gallery in Turin; the Esso gallery in New York.

MARCO LODOLA Hangar (Balletto plastico), 2009 Dorno (Pavia), 1955. He lives and works in Pavia. He started with new futurism and invented an unmistakable mark based on the usage of neon. He makes many shining sculptures and open-air installations.

He had his solo shows at the Art Factory of Biella (2008), at the Sforza Castle in Milan (2008), at the Polyforum Museum in Mexico City (2004). He is represented by the Giulio Tega gallery in Milan; the Torcular gallery in Milan..

GIAN MARCO MONTESANO Teatro di guerra, 2009 Turin, 1949. He lives and works in Trento, Paris and Bologna. His paintings reflect upon history and daily life.A supposedly simple chronicle, it is quite a complex one because of the subject it pretends to stir. He exhibited at theVenice Biennale in 1993. He exhibited at the Maci of Isernia (2008). He is represented by the Emilio Mazzoli gallery in Modena; the Poleschi gallery in Lucca; the Giordano Raffaelli gallery in Trento; the Umberto Di Marino gallery in Naples.

DAVIDE NIDO Città plastiche, 2009 He lives and works in Milan where he was born in 1966. He stood out for his stylistic mark based on the usage of different materials that he applies through precise color percolating. Invited at the XV Rome Quadriennale (2008) and at the Royal Palace in Milan (2007). He is represented by the Piccola Galleria Arte Contemporanea gallery in Asolo.

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Vendita di unit abitative nel Residence-hotel Citadines, al centro di Parigi (nel Marais).

Una proposta di investimento Pierre & Vacances, leader europeo nel settore turistico-immobiliare.

Esclusiva per l Italia Apco da 30 anni leader sul mercato.

Si acquista in piena propriet ; al rogito notarile annesso un contratto di locazione novennale che garantisce ogni anno il 4,20% di reddito locativo indicizzato.

Prezzi a partire da 250.000 €.

Possibilit mutuo del 75%.

Vantaggi fiscali, assistenza e totale trasparenza.

ito. seguito. qui di segu dati qui fax, ai dati via fax, anchee via e, anch calce, on in calc coupon te il coup invi ate trat a invia trata illus illus one ne tazi tazio men men docu docu la ere vere rice ricev Per Per 9Zh^YZgd g^XZkZgZ bV\\^dg^ ^c[dgbVo^dc^ hja G h^YZcXZ"]diZa 8^iVY^cZh#

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ELISA SIGHICELLI Untitled (The party is over), 2009 She lives and works in Turin where she was born in 1968. In England she specialized in sculpture and visual arts. Her first backlit light boxes highlights hidden and private corners while her last works show a better attention to the relationship between man and architecture. She had her solo shows at the Gam of Turin (2007) and at the Gagosian gallery of London (2006). She is represented by the Giò Marconi gallery in Milan and the Gagosian gallery in London.

LUCA PIGNATELLI La battaglia di Lepanto, 2009

NICOLA VERLATO Beauty of Failure, 2009

He lives and works in Milan where he was born in 1962. His work

Verona, 1965. He lives and works in NewYork.

is highly recognizable because of the usage of anomalous supports.

His visionary and hypertrophic style reminds us

Starting from the sacks of Burri and running through the hot ma-

of Italian mannerism and is melted with a trait

terials used also by Arte Povera artists, he reflects over a romantic

that feels the effects of graphics and computer

idea of painting, that quotes classical art and strongly poetical sub-

art. He exhibited at the Stux gallery (2006) and

jects. He has exhibited at the Mamac of Nice (2009) and at the

at the Mudimadue gallery in Berlin (2003). In

National Archeological Museum of Naples (2007). He is represen-

2008 he participated in the XV Rome Qua-

ted by the Poggiali e Forconi Gallery in Florence.

driennale. He is represented by the Bonelli Arte Contemporanea gallery in Mantova.

SILVIO WOLF I nomi del tempo, 2009 He lives and works in Milan, where he was born in 1952. Multimedia artist, he works with different languages, from very complex installations to retouched photography. He exhibited at the Robert Mann gallery of NewYork (2008). He is represented by the Fotografia Italiana Arte Contemporanea gallery in Milan and the Robert Mann gallery in NewYork.(2008) e al musée d’Art moderne di St. Etienne (2006).

SISSI La deriva il nodo della mia gola, 2009 Bologna 1977. She lives and works in Bologna. Her work is based on the interaction between installation and performance.

She uses raw materials like ropes, wool, plastics and iron that she knots and weaves so as to realize the trail of a moving body; often she is the one who takes part in her works. She won the Furla Prize in 2002, exhibited at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York (2006).

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Italy speaks up wanting to be re-cognized

PRAGUE BIENNIAL 4

by FLAVIA MONTECCHI

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Alessandro Roma Un vento trasparente fa frusciare gli alberi, 2008

I

t is a month now that on the artistic stage of the Karlin Hall, the Prague Biennale reaches its fourth edition thanks to the constant proactivity of Giancarlo Politi and Helena Kontova.

Being the director of Flash Art Italia since 1967 and with Kontova of the Flash Art International since 1978, Giancarlo Politi may boast not only the power of a low-cost exhibition «the budget for this edition will not be higher than 30 thousand Euros, with a catalogue that will overshadow Documenta and Venice Biennale.

Comparing is believing» but also the character of an cunningly international exhibition capable of highlighting «the quest for new creativity of Central Europe», said Politi who explained the curator’s choices before talking about the peculiarities of this edition: «the philosophy of my Biennales has always been focused on territoriality, on the investigation of a new creativity of Central Europe for Prague (and for Tirana, instead, for the Balkans); these are countries that are often marginalized but are rich of excitement and extraordinary energy. Unfortunately today the (too many) Biennales are rich but use a flat, boring, repetitive internationalism and neglect the great liveliness of the territory and the genius loci. Instead the Prague Biennale devotes more than half of the space to the territory where it was estblished, with incredible surprises».This year, beyond the novelty of the Prague Biennale Photo 1, the section Expanded Paining 3 is reasserted: it is centered on the most diverse expressions of central European painting together with the one of countries like Mexico, China, Korea, Malaysia and Philippines and pays tribute to all the declinations and connotations of painting. Indeed, it features two areas dedicated to Italian painting, first of all Individuals, curated by the same Politi and Kontova, and Italy – no more than a point of view, curated by Angelo Mosca.

And while Italy is confronted with the East, Prague Biennale brings important artistic differences to the international culture, starting from a comparison between two essentially different cultural blocks: the western and eastern block in which, this year, also Georgia participates. «It is a curious and stimulating comparison with the

Italian, Chinese, Korean Mexican, Philippine, Malaysian, Indonesian young painting» said Politi.The first macrosection,Art in General and Focus Italy are concentrated on painters who are focused on the Czech and Slovakian background first, and then on the Italian one. If 2007 was marked by Slovakian Actionism and Czech Minimalism, this edition will feature the artistic expressions of Eastern Europe, by magnifying the perspectives of knowledge of art “in general”, in the first sub-section. «Every edition of the Prague biennale tries and offer different things by avoiding repeating itself.This edition is aimed at analyzing some aspects of Italian art or research activities of Italian curators, whom I believed curious and worth being exported».And it is Politi himself to introduce the Focus Italy section: no galleries, only artists and curators offering three different exhibition paths, starting from “AL.CHI.MAS+X” curated by Getulio Alviani, with Ennio Chiggio, Manfredo Massironi and the same Alviani,to reach Rereading the Image curated by Luca Panaro, with Adriano Altamira, Olivo Barbieri,Silvia Camporesi,Cristian Chironi,Mario Cresci, FrancoVaccari and all the other protagonists of the same exhibition, presented at the fifth edition of Bergamo Arte Fiera, where “re-reading the photographic image”means to follow an artistic-generational path that goes from the seventies to today.The section is closed with Italian Newbrow curated by Ivan Quaroni with Vanni Cuoghi, Paolo De Biasi, Eloisa Gobbo, Massimo Gurnari,Fulvia Mendini,Elena Rapa,Michael Rotondi, Giuliano Sale and GiuseppeVeneziano; these are not renowned names for the mass Italian culture and less than ever,abroad.That is how Politi explains the choice of the halls:«The Italian art is not renowned abroad (apart from the usual names) because for our artists and curators there are no real possibilities of international comparison, much of the Italian art would have needed a comparison with the rest of the world».The director ends up by boasting his initiative and asserting that he «has presented the best ever international painting exhibition, relying on the fact that the managers of art galleries, critics and collectors coming from abroad make interesting discoveries here in Prague».

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Twenty-two Italian galleries will exhibit at the fortieth edition of the most renowned fair

BELPAESE IS AWAY IN BASEL

by MARILISA RIZZITELLI

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Masbedo, Theorem of incompleteness, 2008

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fter 40 editions, Art Basel keeps its record of the most authoritative exhibition of contemporary art. A leading position that it has established with time and that seems to be untouchable, despite the fact that the art market proves to be fragile in front of the financial crisis. The crisis is investing collectors all over the world, and, as we all know, a collector is worth more than one hundred onlookers. Annette Schonholzer and Marc Spielgler know it very well; the directors of last year’s edition of Art Basel who have traveled around the world in the last few months to visit exhibitions in Mexico, India, Arab Emirates, the US, Belgium Germany and have talked with numberless experts. «We had reasonably foreseen a strong interest and participation this year too – Annette Schonholzer said – since the level of attention regarding quality works is still high. In this historic moment collectors have much more time to reflect over a work and this is a great opportunity». «We had a record number of applications at Art Basel 40 and the Committee selected 60 projects for the Art Unlimited and 8 for the Public Art Projects in Messeplatz», Marc Spiegler explained.

«Despite the hard times – he added – the numbers and quality were similar to those of previous years and that shows our great commitment. Given the situation of present economy, we could not take the result we have achieved for granted.We have worked hard as usual, brought collectors and curators to the fair and have improved the services for exhibitors, the public and the press».

Held with success from June 10 to 14, Art Basel counted 300 exhibitors among the main world galleries (selected among more than 1100 galleries), exhibited the artworks of 2500 artists of the 20th and 21st century, attracted more than 60thousand experts and art lovers.Twenty-two Italian galleries, some of which were “veterans” like the Milan-based Zero, Neapolitan T293 or the Rome-based Magazzino d’Arte Moderna, that have shown to a wider public the best of the artists they represent. There are Italians and fo-

reign artists as well, representing a “sophisticated” art.

Participating in Art Basel with Italian artists, less renowned on the world market, means to have the opportunity of making oneself known. The policy is that of guaranteeing the presence of important galleries but also to stimulate the growth of a pool of young artists. «It is the most innovative art exhibition – Schonholzer said- it invests in new sectors showing the present trends of the art world. ArtBasel has always promoted the sustainability rather than the aggressive growth but remained small if compared to the figures of its applications.The combination of the best international galleries is unique. Of not less importance is the City of Basel, relevant for our exhibition. There is no other city of such greatness with so many creditable art museums – including the most ancient European museum, the Kunstmuseum».

A real love match is what has been celebrated between the city and contemporary art: for the collective imagination, they both associate in authority, reliability and seriousness.The public side events like the Art Basel Conversation,Art Film,Art Lobby and Art on Stage, also stress an overall engagement and the involvement of an audience linked to the financial and business world that turns ArtBasel into a celebration where to lay the grounds for a complex network of relations, contacts and acquaintances that set the direction taken by art.

Being in Basel is important. The costs incurred by galleries are paid back by the long-term credibility acquired with regards to curators, museums and collectors rather than business. It is for that reason that experts, managers of art galleries, and insiders believe that this appointment is an effective occasion to magnify their image and show a public of experts the latest commercial policies and choices that are often destined to affect international art trends.

«Art Basel – the event directors concluded – after almost half a century of work and commitment, has become what we really wanted, that is an important crossroads, a meeting place, a place to exchange experiences useful to enrich, year after year, the world of art».

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The attendance and the consensus over art fairs increase in the first semester of 2009

THE ART MARKET INVADES THE PENINSULA

by MARILISA RIZZITELLI

F

ollowing the international trend, in the last few years, Italy has been proliferating of contemporary art fairs that often risk creating confusion among the public, who is not capable of identifying the difference between a fair and an exhibition. Sales objectives have tarnished the main goal of advertising the Italian artistic production that is extraordinary but still not reputable because it is deprived of supports. Our appointments in Bologna, Milan andTurin, to be competitive and appealing, associate some cultural initiatives outside the borders of pavilions to exhibitions and try to involve the cities where they are held.

Reaching the widest public, not only experts and lovers, makes the interest increase and allows for the promotion of young artists drawing the attention on contemporary art research.

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As usual, the fair year is opened in January by Arte Fiera Art First, the third fair created in Europe after the one of Cologne and Basel, on the crest of a wave since 33 editions. Strengthened by the collaboration with the city of Bologna, it has reached the level of the Italian appointment par excellence with the constant growth of qualified presences and visitors.

In 2009 Arte Fiera was renewed and changed the exhibition halls to give more prominence to artworks and to start from quality rather than from the visual shock.

Reaching the stage only a few years ago, Rome too makes room for itself in April, a month that was reserved to the Milanese Miart, so far, with Arto’ – Art Fair in Open City and Roma – The road to contemporary art.Two contemporary art fairs in one city, during the same period of time, but being poles apart: the first one inside the Congress Palace of Eur, the “modern” di-

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Roma, the road to contemporary art photo by Manuela Giusto

strict of the city, bearing witness of the fascist era, while the displays of the Road spread in the historic buildings of PalazzoVenezia, Palazzo Barberini and Santo Spirito in Sassia. Those from April 2 to April 5 were special days for contemporary art lovers living in Rome or spending a few days in the capital city.A concentration of events that allowed experts to exploit time and energy at best, and allowed experts or simply curious people to choose among a really appealing number of cultural offers during a rather short vacation.The complete restyling of the Miart, in late April in Milan, has come as a surprise to collectors and curators, private people and institutions that, in the last editions, seemed not to consider contemporary art as an asset for which not only image but also the economy come into play.

Quality first, historic galleries and young exhibitors together, modern art accompanied by contemporary art

to highlight the continuity and re-launch an event that wants to be competitive at the international level.

Only a month of interruption and in May,Alto Adige will be in the spotlight again with the Kunstart, reaching its 10thousand visitors during the last edition in Bolzano. The opening, last year, of the new Museion, has enriched the fair event that has slowly transformed the region that has become closer than other regions to contemporary art and has reached the opportunity of being renowned beyond the borders. Suffice it to say that Manifesta, the most important biennale of European art, for its debut, choseTrento and Bolzano for the edition of 2008.

In short, it seems that Italy has come to understand that it is in no way inferior to other countries. For collectors, ours is an already very interesting market and there are promising signals for the future.

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BEYOND FUTURISM

by SILVIA BONAVENTURA

From classic to contemporary art Italian exhibitions abroad in 2009

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n the year of Futurism Italian artists belonging to the movement of Marinetti could not but be present abroad massively.Then, the Pompidou Centre in 2009 has started 2009 with Futurism in Paris, the exhibition that ended in late January and the Tate Modern gallery of London has organized a rich collection called Futurism that will be held from June to September. The Estorick collection in London has featured a series of drawings and sculptures by Umberto Boccioni, accompanied by the contemporary artist, Luca Buvoli, until mid-April, and Architettura e Fotografia in Italy until June 21 and a great exhibition on the genius of Galileo that will end in late August. Deeply appreciated the Italian classic art too.There are many appointments with the great masters of the past all over the world: from Raphael to Carracci and a focus point on Paolo Veronese at the National gallery of Ottawa, in Canada, until September 6. An exhibition that started from Flemish van Eyck to reach Titian at the National gallery of London, in January and also Titian,Tintoretto andVeronese at the Museum of fine arts in Boston until August 16. At the Blaffery gallery of Houston one can admire the drawings by Leonard until August 1, while at the Paul Getty museum in Los Angeles the Baroque painting of Bologna will be held until May 3. In New York an exhibition from Raphael to Renoir at the Metropolitan

Enzo Cucchi Secco, 2004

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BlaffMuseum ended in April.At the Stadel museum in Frankfurt, Caravaggio in the Netherlands will be opened until July 26. And also Budapest featured classic Italian art with an exhibition from Botticelli to Titian at the Szepwoveszei museum closed on St.Valentine’s day.The exhibition year of Italian classics will end with Paolo Veronese at the Blanton museum of Austin until December 31.

In the eclectic Berlin, an exhibition at the Daymler-Chrysler gallery from Giotto to Rothko will be opened until Francesco Vezzoli, June 28, while the Bundes will feature Modigliani’s works until August 30.The unmistakable metaphysics of De Chi- born in 1971, seems rico has enriched the halls of the Modern Art Museum of de la Ville in Paris until the end of May while the peculiar the lord and master still life works of Morandi, recently re-discovered in Italy and abroad, were a success at the Philippe Collection of Washington in winter.

Among contemporary Italian artists great visibility is given to the abstract painting of Afro Basaldella at the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg until September 20 and to the surrealism of Alberto Giacometti, exhibited in Russia and Basel too with an exhibition of the Beyeler Foundation devoted to the artist and his family. The starting point is Alberto’s notion of space and time: Alberto Giacometti is at the crossroads of a mesh of artistic and family relations that are

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to play

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Amedeo Modigliani Portrait of Lunia Czechovska 1919 To the left: FrancescoVezzoli Man in revolt (homage to Francesco Scavullo's men), 2003

remarkably important for his work. Until October 11. Luciano Fontana, accompanied by other great names of the avant-garde will be at theVan Gogh Museum of Amsterdam until August 23.While Wharol’s successor, Mario Schifano, was presented at the Modern Art Museum of Saint-Etiénne that ended on April 26 with a rich retrospective exhibition curated by Bonito Oliva, an exceptional tribute for the tenth anniversary of his death: from great mono-chromatic canvases showing a clear and shining early painting to the use of different materials and methods like industrial enamel, Plexiglas, Polaroid, video. Enzo Cucchi’s Transavantgarde has reached Finland with an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of Espoo that ended in mid May. And in Madrid, the exhibition halls of the Reina Sofia museum will feature the works of Francesco Lo Savio until September 21. However young FrancescoVezzoli, born in 1971, seems to play the lord and master; he will exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art of Tel Aviv within “Sounds and visions: artists’ films and video from Europe - The last decade, curated by Angelo Gioè and Maria Rosa Sossai, an exhibition organized by the European Community and supported by 21 countries to celebrate the centenary of Tel Aviv, together with the International Festival of Electronic Music. The young artist will then go to the Jeu de panne in Lyons from October 20 till January 3, 2010, and at the Kunst of Wien from November 11 to December 6.

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ITALIANS IN NEW YORK di MAURIZIO ZUCCARI

Luisa Rabbia, Rä Di Martino and Antonio Pio Saracino: three young artists in the Big Apple

Ra di Martino Sing a long, 2007 To the right: Luisa Rabbia Prima della tempesta, 2006

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L

uisa Rabbia, Rä Di Martino and Antonio Pio Saracino. What do these members of the artistic triangle have in common, apart from being Italian and the age? They have chosen NewYork to put themselves at stake, to seize the opportunity of being known outside the national borders.A place where to live and pit one’s skill against the greatest art bazaar in the world, with its melting pot of moods and cultures. Here, the three young artists, then presented on the pages of the Italian edition of Inside Art (Rä was also the winner of the Talent Prize as you may have read on the pages about our prize that this year is going to celebrate its second edition), will tell how and why they have decided to act as bugs and enter the Big Apple, to nibble this town that represents a mix of opportunities and a unique case even inside the United States.

Luisa Rabbia, the former assistant of Gilberto Zorio says: «I fell in love with New York the very first time I came here, in 1992, because of its many facets, event the most controversial ones, but mainly because it is a beautiful town and very creative where many different cultures melt. In 2000 I was offered a study at the Iscp so I moved here and set to remain here. It was hard but thrilling at the same time, since the possibility to choose where to live had come true. Now, says the artist born in Turin in 1970 – nine years have passed and I feel at home, even if I’m still infatuated with a city that allowed me to live really the way I like».A place, she insists where «there is far more loneliness than Italy, but that is part of living in great cities and personally I like alternating being out with being silent, concentrated.

What has it given to me, in relation to Italy? The best thing is that I feel free to create and to be... Maybe even because in a different culture you end up knowing yourself through choices that tell us who we are».

A different one is the case of Rä Di Martino. The Roman artist, born in 1975, every year starts from NewYork to cross the US to take pictures of Marilyn’s tomb and says: «I moved abroad eleven years ago, I went to London, where I lived eight

RÄ DI MARTINO Video suggestions Rä di Martino was born in Rome on January 15, 1975.

She spent eight years in London, from 1997 to 2005, then moved to NewYork where she still lives, and where she has won the art prize bearing the same name last year. In 2003 she had her first solo at the Monitor gallery of Rome. In her videos she uses the movie language to unveil the suggestions of movie narration. In many works she processes images taken from renowned movies to highlight the influence of cinema on the collective imagination. In some cases we witness to a semantic inversion: then in Not 360 it is actors who trot behind a camera, while in Untitled (Rambo), it is the hero who faces the impossibility of stopping the conflict.

Info: www.radimartino.com.

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LUISA RABBIA From Zorio to Merz Luisa Rabbia was born on July 12, 1970 in Turin, where she ended up the arts high school in 1988.The year after she started working in the firm of Gilberto Zorio, as an assistant. In 1992 she attended a master course at the Albertina Academy of Belle Arti, still in Turin, and then moved to NewYork. Painter and sculptress, she had numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad, among which the Rome Quadriennale (2008) and at the Merz Foundation, this year. Info: www.luisarabbia.com.

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Antonio Pio Saracino Blind birth, 2007

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full-time years. I attended English art academies to obtain the university degree and the master degree; I did not like the city in itself, but its schools were excellent, it was a sheet anchor to leave Rome at that time.When I left I was 23, I had already attended La Sapienza University, faculty of Modern Arts, for three years, but I was frustrated, despite the interest of the University.There where theoretical course and not practical ones.Then- she concludes – thanks to a scholarship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the New York prize, I have had the possibility to move to this town in late 2004, that I never left, now I live here. I still work in Italy, I come very often, but I find it healthy to alternate my time abroad so as to have a different viewpoint, I cannot imagine living in Italy all year long, right now, at least».Antonio Pio Saracino (San Marco in Lamis, in the province of Foggia, 1976), shares with Luisa and Rä the participation in this year’s edition of the NewYork prize, in addition to the love for the Big Apple. Coming back from Amsterdam and Rome, where he has organized a series of future exhibitions, he explains: «I’ve chosen to live abroad to put myself on the line, to have a confrontation, to feel like an Italian citizen of the world. I left a safe work in a Roman architecture firm to work for a short period of time with an internship program of design and architecture in New York.Then, thanks to the great success, I decided to remain here. After five years I can say that foreign countries have chosen me. Meeting art in this town becomes almost necessary» says the young artist from Puglia naturalized American, «my research activity as an artist has found a very fertile land in NewYork, here the meeting of cultures, completely different identities and sense of freedom that made this town renowned, cause a very interesting aesthetic, emotional and ethic tension».

ANTONIO PIO SARACINO Architect and photographer Antonio Pio Saracino was born in San Marco in Lamis (Foggia) on May 19, 1976, he lives and works in Rome and New York.After the university degree in architecture he worked in different firms in the US and in Italy, including the one of Massimiliano Fuksas. After discovering photography, he has won many international art, architecture and design international prizes. In 2009 he has presented “Myths and rhythms for the new millennium” in Rome, Brussels and Moscow simultaneously. Info: www.antoniopiosaracino.com.

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D 1 DE ER N B TE EM EX PT SE

TO

Utagawa Hiroshige, SŌSHŪ. LA SPIAGGIA DI SHICHIRINOHAMA A KAMAKURA, particolare, 1855, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Gift of James A. Michener, 1991

MASTER OF NATURE

HIROSHIGE FONDAZIONE ROMA MUSEO

Fondazione Roma Museo Via del Corso, 320 Roma T +39 06 678 62 09 www.fondazioneroma.it

Tuesday- Sunday 10 am - 8 pm Last entry 7 pm Closed on Mondays www.hiroshige.it

17 MARCH 7 JUNE 2009

Information and advance bookings T 899 666 805 (fee charged for the service) T 06 622 888 77

With the patronage of the

AMBASCIATA DEL GIAPPONE IN ITALIA

In collaboration with

THE HONOLULU ACADEMY OF ARTS

Sponsor

Produced and organized with

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A TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITY

by SILVIA MORETTI

An interview with Massimiliano Gioni curator of the New Museum of NewYork

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’ve never controlled the passport of artists: instead, it could seem out of fashion and idealist but I believe that art is a transnational community and that this is one of its most fascinating aspects».Very few are those who deserve to belong to this community more than Massimiliano Gioni (Busto Arsizio, 1973): the art director of the Trussardi Foundation of Milan – a «gipsy museum» as he defines it «established to challenge the city authorities that could not create a contemporary art museum» – curator of special projects at the New Museum of New York, founder of the Wrong Gallery, a traveling and virtual micro-gallery, answers to our questions from Gwangju, South Korea (under the threat of nuclear tests from its neighbors) where he is preparing the eight Biennale that he will direct in 2010.

Up there: Massimiliano Gioni

Gioni, which Italian artists are you bringing to the New Museum and why?

«Every time I invite an Italian artist it seems a duty, when there are no Italian artists in my exhibitions everybody is asking why. Right now I’m not planning any exhibition with Italian artists. Last year I introduced quite a good pool of them at the After Nature exhibition with works by Cattelan, Cuoghi,Assael and Perrone».

Critic, curator, art director: which is the function you care for most?

«Actually I don’t think to them as separate functions, they are rather different ways of making the same thing: to give way to artworks and artists».

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You are young but experienced.You have shot to the top.Are you an exception for Italy?

«I don’t know. I believe it is not an organic path, and it is full of mistakes.At every exhibition I try to make what I didn’t do before or what I haven’t seen before.I don’t think of mine as a career, it is rather a matter of starting from scratch, every time».

But outside Italy the average age of experts is lower. Is Italy “a country for old men”?

«It is true,abroad,and mainly in the US,curators,artists and critics are often very young,there is a vertiginous generational turnover. But in NewYork there is a disease that is diametrically opposed to Italian gerontocracy: the cult of novelty at all costs, and sometime you end up confining 50-year old artists and curators to a blind area because they no longer are cool.

Yes, Bruce Mau used to say that we must learn to grow new generations. Maybe that is the biggest problem of Italy.To the other side, the US has a forty-year old President and Italy has got a seventy-year old Prime Minister».

You said that contemporary art is a language.Which neologisms have invented the Italian contemporary art in the last dozen years?

«Very interesting question. I would say the anti-authoritarian reflection of Mauro Cattelan, the degraded luxury and luxurious degradation of Rudolf Stingel, the monsters of Roberto Cuoghi, the absurd gestures and transgenic Dadaism of Paolo Pivi, the parodies of FrancescoVezzoli, the mechanical ballets of Micol Assael, the toys for never-grown-up children of Patrick Tuttofuoco, the regressive nature of Diego Perrone».

What do you think about Italian contemporary art critics and journalists?

«Apart from a few important exceptions like the Sunday supplement of Sole 24 Ore and popular criticism in the highest sense of AngelaVettese or Anna Detheridge, for many years Italian criticism, on newspapers, has been bordering amateurishness and provincialism.Today I believe that criticism training centers are those of free press newspapers, like Mousse or Ka-

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The NewYork New Museum photo by Dean Kaufman

leidoscope, which have created a section and given the voice to new writers».

How is Italian art reputation abroad?

«I say it again: I don’t like to quote this alleged italianity of art. I think it is time to stop thinking about art in national terms. Italian art has a strong presence abroad, but it is a very selective presence. Fontana, Manzoni, Boetti, Merz, and also Clemente, Cattelan, Beecroft, Stingel,Vezzoli,Assael. Maybe it is due to the almost absolute absence of institutions».

You said that American artists,born in cities full of garbage,learn to live with it and put it into their works.

Is it possible to look at the clouds from the dump and portray it, is it art between poetry and realism?

«Absolutely, and it is not only American art.Think about Gomorra, the book and the movie, a clear example of art inspired by the worst of Italy but that turns the worst into a new language».

Which is the difference between our art and exhibition system and the foreign ones?

«Abroad, there is a higher risk exposure. In Italy it is unthinkable to leave a three-million Euros budget exhibition in the hands of a thirty year old artist. In Berlin it is normal. It is not a question of age; it is a question of vision.The Biennale of Gwangju was established in 1995 to celebrate the massacre of students of 1980: Gwangju has a million and a half inhabitants and has an internationally renowned event as if Bologna, Naples or Genova had a world level event, with a respectable but not colossal budget, an event capable of attracting more than ten thousand spectators every day».

What do you think about the selection of the Pavilion Italia this year?

«I haven’t seen the exhibition and I can’t say, but it is a tribute to the work of Pietro Cascella, a real suggestion by Sandro Biondi, the minister of Culture, it is really sad since it shows a strong interference of politics into art affairs».

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Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo: «Nowadays we have very interesting artists that should be followed with a great deal of attention»

AN EXPERIMENTAL FOUNDATION IN TURIN

by JAN PELLISSIER

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n Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s office, no paintings are hung on the walls.This is something that she seems to have imposed on herself, since the passion of the owner of the foundation that was set up in 1995 and that subsequently became a museum in 2002 is evident, and in her eyes you see hundreds of works as well as feelings of a normal existence that turned into extraordinary. «I have a degree in economics, and after I had a child I completely changed by life and started to visit museums and ateliers of contemporary artists all over the world.There the manager came out, and here we are!». She could not accept that abroad Pistoletto, Merz and were dedicated large halls, whereas in Italy only a few experts accepted and supported them. In our country, however, is also lacking in modern museums, in the culture for arts. «On one Sunday morning at the Tate Gallery I saw families having breakfast, whereas here in Italy it is like entering a sanctuary ».

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This is a feeling that you don’t have at the Foundation, as the Museum in via Modane in Turin is generally referred to. It is located in an area which is neither centre nor suburbs. It is an area undergoing deep transformations: normal buildings, and in the midst of them the white parallelepiped designed by Claudio Silvestrin and James Hardwick. Glass doors, large spaces that invite you to go in. Recently, however, the approach of the Italian public seems to have changed. «Today contemporary art is à la mode, is trendy, any many people participate in opening ceremonies. This is mostly shown by the interest by some companies in the art: they understood that it is possible to communicate and not only to sponsor: more partnership and less sponsorship.This is how relations, involvement and communication can be created». Is this interest going to develop a stronger school of Italian artists? «Certainly.Also because after the Arte Povera and the Transavantgarde, there was a moment of

THE PLACE A reference point The center for contemporary art of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation is a new cultural pole set in Turin in 1995 chaired by Patrizia Sandretto, and whose art director is Francesco Bonami.The venue aims at becoming a reference point for lovers and experts, and for those who are still to become closer to contemporary arts. Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, via Modane, 16,Turin- Italy.

Info: 0039(0)1119831600; www.fondsrr.org.

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Exposition “AmbietTour” Christian Frosi, 2007 To the left: an external view of the foundation

limited liveliness.Today however we have very interesting artists that deserve our attention. And above all, thirty-year-old people are no longer afraid of going abroad. I’m thinking of Patrick Tuttofuoco, whose exhibition “Revolving landscape” was just opened, and it is the effect of a trip paid by our foundation.

I’m also thinking of Giuseppe Gabellone, Luisa Landri, Diego Perrone and Francesco Vezzòli».These are all artists that achieved international fame and success also because someone helped them, as Mrs. Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. «Knowing and helping artists is the beautiful side of contemporary art; if you become interested in 19th century painting it is more difficult.

You have to believe in it and get committed: it is the only way to remain a culturally important country also in the future». Contemporary art has to be explained to adults and youngsters. How do you do it?

«If I consider my foundation, the staff is always available to explain the works of art. We collaborate with

schools and universities. But I am interested in all types of relations. Also with skeptics, those who are wrong-footed by “untitled” works. Contemporary art cannot be simplified. It is necessary to talk, go round, look, be humble, and try to understand. Today with new media things are easier.Then, taste is subjective, without forgetting that quality is not always available».

What do you like? «The timeliness of a work vis-à-vis its time.That is the art that will last in time». How’s art here in Turin? «I would say that we represent excellence, since we are able to act as a system. It is enough looking at the past Triennial that involved us, the Museum of Modern Art, the Rivoli Castle and the Merz Foundation». Any request? «For the time being, I would like to ask reducing VAT on the purchase of works of art; I would also like to ask public authorities to grant spaces, and to newspapers to talk to us, and to artists to talk to the public. At that point, the public will be the protagonist of a better circuit».

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HANGAR BICOCCA SPECTACULAR SPACE

by SILVIA MORETTI

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long Viale Chiese, at the half of Viale Sarca, there has been for three years a 15thousand meter space dedicated to contemporary art.Yet, people living in Milan have not learned how to easily move, due to an inborn «provincialism that leads the same public spending entire days on the London tube or on the New York subway to have problems in reaching the Northern part of their city», says Gianluca Winkler, General Manager of the Hangar Bicocca.

What does differentiate the Hangar from the other exhibition areas in Milan?

«I would say first of all the spaces available, which allow us to host exhibitions that, due to their magnificence and size, cannot be organized in other areas.Then, interdisciplinarity: in our space, the different languages of contemporary art, visual arts, but also dance, cinema, music and side activities coexist, providing the exhibition with different possible interpretational points of view. Finally, curator’s flexibility: curators are selected each time, in order to have the best one for that specific exhibition and in order to allow young talents to work».

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How do you select artists and works?

«Since it is a peripheral place, we had to begin with internationally-renown artists (Anselm Kiefer, Marina Abramovic) and with spectacular exhibitions; afterwards we widened our range and also started to look for new names.Through the setting up of the Foundation, we will establish a veritable scientific committee made up of both an artistic and an intellectual soul debating on contents and thence avoiding a oligarchy made up of usual names that exchange exhibitions in different institutions. Hangar intends to product and not to buy exhibitions; it might eventually export them».

Is Milan a cultural capital?

«Let’s consider London for instance. The economic aspect, the presence of international collectors, the willingness by the public administration to foster some initiatives, the mental and cultural attitude of people: all these elements represent favorable factors. Milan does not accept its horizontal development, a centre that includes suburbs that, among other things, are even more lively and transversal. For some aspects it is a provincial city, but finally something is starting to change: the Hangar but also the Triennale at Bovisa, the area of via

The cultural identity of Milan exists it is a contemporary identity GianlucaWinkler, general manager of the Hangar Bicocca Up there: a view of Hangar Bicocca

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Anselm Kiefer The Seven Heavenly Palaces 2005

Ventura in Lambrate».

“Milan is a sort of Babel without authoritativeness and without cultural identity. There are no authoritative figures for a serious direction”. Signed Philippe Daverio.

«Babel, however, is also the symbol of a variety of languages. The municipal administration is developing a project concerning a biennale starting from 2009, which derives from the identification with Babel its wish to show how in Milan there are several languages, all of which are valid. In this sense, the Hangar is ready to play a primary role, also as a breeding ground for the most recent artistic representation of the biblical symbol, that is to say the permanent installation of Kiefer.

The cultural identity of Milan exists; it is a contemporary identity, although it is presently lost. This is the place where political parties, the publishing industry, terrorism, advertising and television were born. The choice of Expo 2015 as a driving wheel for the city represents a huge momentum for the development of the city, and each inhabitant of Milan should be proud of this choice».

The competition among foundations and between foundations and public institutions allows the surfacing of quality, or does it end up in a self-disruptive race towards the work, or towards the main artist although often unsatisfactory?

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«The misunderstanding derives from the intention of presenting each of these spaces as “the” exhibition space.

The important thing is that the offer is not repetitive but rather complementary, and that each one has the possibility of expressing oneself. If each foundation is independent and asks for no money to the public is fine, having considered that a general direction coordinating the different cannibalizing offers is important. However, in consideration of the legislation presently in force in Italy, it is not easy to convince a company to participate in a cultural initiative, also because said company is give no financial support and facilitation whatsoever».

THE PLACE Artistic independence What remains of ex Ansaldo 16, destined to become the Museum of Alfa Romeo, is only the dark blue of the walls as wished by architect Benedetto Camerana.Today the Hangar Bicocca is located there: it is an exhibition, production and promotion center for contemporary art

Are foundations advertising channels or do they play an active role in the evolution of taste?

«Today there is the trend of confusing art and advertising, or better a type of art that advertises art itself. Furthermore, it seems that nowadays we cannot imagine a city real estate development without considering that it will be the premises of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Milan.This is not the case of the Hangar – and here I anticipate a possible comment: Bicocca is completed and delivered; it is a unique cultural district in Italy, included in an international research with Sidney andVancouver. So it is something else. Our objective is to bring to the public an artistic offer that was not provided until now».

linked to Pirelli Re. Erected on the basis of the study of other exhibition areas deriving from industrial areas, as Ps1 in New York, inaugurated in 2004 with “The Seven Heavenly Palaces” by Anselm Kiefer, the largest indoor installation in the world. Hangar Bicocca, viale Sarca 336 (entrance in via Chiese), Milan. Info: 0039(0)285353176; www.hangarbicocca.it.

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Emmanuele Emanuele tells the successes of his “creature”: Fondazione Roma

THE STRENGTH OF LONELY RUNNERS

by GUIDO TALARICO

E

mmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele runs fast: «I run alone as a wolf in the scrubs». A whole life spent in running after passions, dreams, projects, without feeling the burden of responsibilities, difficulties and successes.As a young man, he did it for himself, to satisfy his ego and his ambitions. After turning sixty, he began to do it for the others, «since there is a time in life when you have to give back at least part of the fortune received». Lawyer, university professor, economist, sportsman, patron of arts, hundreds of aristocratic and academic titles: forty-five pages of curriculum are a lot, but they say very little about this cosmopolitan man from Palermo.When you know him better, you find out that behind eclecticism and versatility there are two simple although granitic characteristics: an independent soul and an immense “joie de vivre”.

Emanuele is not loved by the world of politics, by strong powers, by most of the establishment because he does not bend his head, he doesn’t say yes for convenience, he doesn’t settle for whatever. He does what his reason suggests to him.You can either like him or not, but that’s how he is. This absolute search for independence, this intellectual austerity that sometimes costs him several enemies in a country of peones, crawlers and smart fellows represented his distinguishing trait and ultimately his strength. His joie de vivre, on the contrary, derives from his Mediterranean roots and culture. «My mother, Teresa Messeri Bouget, spoke four languages, including Russian. She used to read to me Tolstoj in the original language». This is how he grew up, in his beloved Sicily, among hunting and painting, fencing and literature, between the sea and sculpture. Sublime training for his body and his soul. «I am a hugely lucky man. I had everything from life, wealth and knowledge. I had the opportunity of studying, traveling, doing the job I liked, expressing my skills.

I had a wonderful family, from my parents to my wife and my sons. When I turned sixty, I decided I

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would devote myself to the others».

The tool used for the “restitution” is Fondazione Roma, a roman institution established in 1539, therefore very ancient and for this reason showing some signs of decay, which however the Professor was able to turn into an extraordinary tool of social promotion. Many things link me to Emmanuele: common friendships, the love for our Circolo Canottieri Aniene and, obviously, our passion for contemporary art. The interview begins here, with Fondazione Roma and the art. «With our foundation – and with his hands makes a mild gesture as for indicating the wonderful palace we are in – we carried out several projects. When I became President, the activity was mainly characterized by scattered actions, without any overall vision. We immediately understood that it was necessary to widen our scope and launch structural initiatives in the field of healthcare, research, education, volunteering and culture. After a few years, I can say that today the Fondazione Roma has become a point of reference in the social and cultural landscape of Rome and of the entire country».

Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele

THE PLACE Philanthropy and culture The Fondazione Roma – a continuation of the Savings Bank of Rome, established in 1836 – is a private institution, set up to achieve works supporting social progress and in favor of the collectivity.The vocation of the foundation is philanthro-

What are the actions that you are most proud of?

«There are many of them. Exhibitions dedicated to a great artist as Sebastiano del Piombo, the one on the Flemish of the 17th century from Rembrandt to Vermeer, but also the World Social Summit.The most important result, however, is the overall one, that is to say the fact of giving to our Foundation a prestige and importance that it did not have in the past. This is the fruit of an innovative policy in terms of cultural vision and also careful in terms of management».

pic and is carried out through a specific sensitivity and a strong commitment, especially in sectors as public health, art and culture, education and training, scientific research and volunteering. Info: www.fondazioneroma.it. Opened in 1999, the Museo del Corso – today Fondazione Roma Museo – immediately and fully entered in the main international circuit of

Is your banker’s soul speaking?

«All experiences have their own weight. In this case, however, it is not the banker who is speaking, but rather the business economics professor. I believe in fact that it was very important to give the Founda-

exhibitions and retrospective exhibitions. Museo del Corso, via del Corso 320, Rome.

Info: 0039(0)66786209; www.museodelcorso.it.

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tion a sound managerial footprint both in the enhancement of our economic resources and of our assets. I am proud to say, just to make an example, that in difficult years as 2006 and 2007, our total assets had a return of 10.6 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively.And I am obviously talking about net values. It was a virtuous path that is also helping us in this difficult period for the economy and, in particular, for banks».

And besides the operating result?

«The opening of the Museo del Corso, now finally renamed Museo di Roma, was a particularly significant moment, because on the one hand it was a way for enhancing our artistic heritage and, on the other side, it opened our doors to other investments in the world of art. But also the establishment of the Symphonic Orchestra of Rome in 2002, and its international success, represent a positive element, characterizing our recent history. Similarly, appreciation was also expressed for the “Ritratti di poesia”, a new formula to bring attention back to this genre, and the recent establishment of the Foundation for the economic, cultural and social development in the Mediterranean».

strong supporter of dialogue as a tool for growth and knowledge. Dialectical confrontation is a multiplier of intellectual energy. In this historical moment, in order to overcome its crises, the West has to deal with extraordinary and culturally wealthy countries as China and Japan, countries to which the Foundation devotes much attention».

Going back to our country and city, how is the relationship with Rome?

«This is a wonderful city but at the same time tired, asphyctic, inhabited by Martians, as Flaiano said.

This landscape is difficult to change, and sometimes we are not on the same wavelength. Fortunately, the role of the Foundation has increased.We represent a milestone of the cultural landscape of Rome. In our situation, we can show our independence.Those who want to follow us, who want to work with us, are welcome.We do not deal too much with the others».

In your hundreds of commitments, you also found the way for including you personal Art Gallery.What does the Galleria dell’orologio mean to you?

«I live in classic environments.The style and furniture of our offices and homes have this strong connotation. My great passion however remains contemporary art. I have been collecting for nearly forty years, I know many Italian and foreign artists, and I can say I have a certain competence in this field.The Galleria dell’orologio is my future.When this experience at the Foundation is over, I will devote much of my time to it».

Is the Mediterranean one of your precise cultural objectives?

«Yes, of course, the Mediterranean represents an important point of reference for me.This is not just because it is a fundamental part of my cultural heritage.

I’ve always believed in the lands in between, in the crossing of knowledge, in the value of the crossroads of culture, religion, and ethics as places of debate and Let’s conclude with Aniene and with sport. growth. In this sense, the Mediterranean has an ex- «Another great passion. In our club, as you know, I traordinary value, and this is the reason why we pay have rediscovered the pleasure of rowing. I take the a great deal of attention to it. However, it is also im- boat at least once a week, and here we go fast as well: portant to be able to look at least when we are in front beyond, first of all to the The Fondazione Roma is of the buoy! The fact of East, to lands that we can sponsoring the participation learn a lot from». of our team in the Paralyma point of reference in the pics of Beijing and winning What is it that attracts you social and cultural landscape a gold medal shows that our most of the East?

Foundation is always able to «As I was saying, I am a of Rome and of the country make the best decisions».

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At left: a view of the Fondazione Roma

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Massimo De Carlo, the art gallery owner known all over the world opened a new gallery in the capital of England

FROM MILAN TO LONDON

by GIORGIA BERNONI

V

anessa, Francesco and Maurizio. In the world of art (and not only) you count if during a conversation among experts you are referred to with your name only.This is an enlightening metonymy to summarize the path of a rising art. In this way, sitting on the white sofas of the hall of the Guastalla foundation of Rome, Massimo and Ludovico spend their time telling the latest stories on the Milan-Rome axis. Ludovico is Ludovico Pratesi, an enlightened and analytical critic, in this occasion acting as a lively moderator of a meeting dealing with the topic of collecting. Massimo is Massimo De Carlo, presently representing the pivot of the ideal building of art that from night pharmacist twenty years ago approached the sophisticated landscape of Milan art galleries after dissipating the win of a lottery in a few valueless works of art and after working as assistant of Piero Cavellini. «The passion and curiosity for seeing what was going on in the field of creativity has always been there, I was not however a predestined», he hesitantly answers the

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non-original although necessary question on the way in which he entered the world of art. During a few years, he has become one of the most representative figures of the Italian art, an influential and powerful producer that in his team has superstars as Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Amy Adler, Roberto Cuoghi, Armin Linke. The reserved De Carlo - which however accepted to become himself a work of art by accepting to be hanged on the wall with sellotape by the controversial Cattelan – opened at the end of April, together with Ludovica Barbieri, a new gallery in London with Rob Pruitt exhibition “Look What I’ve Done. Works 1989 – 2009”.The Carlson Gallery (this is the name of his London Gallery) is temporary located in Heddon Street in Piccadilly, near the mythical Gagosian. In order to eliminate any misunderstanding, De Carlo immediately and resolutely clarifies: «I am not a collector, and I have a strong aversion against my colleagues that consider themselves as such. I do not collect works of art and I believe that the most valid works shall not be part of private collections of art

THE PLACE Best artists in Italy The artists of the De Carlo gallery, among which Maurizio Cattelan, Rudolf Stingel, Piotr Uklanski, Carsten Höller, Diego Perrone, Paola Pivi and Roberto Cuoghi, have been granted important awards and acquired a relevant place in different public and private collections.

Galleria Massimo De Carlo, via Giovanni Ventura 5, Milan-Italy.

Info: 0039(0)2700003987.

London seat: Carlson, 4-8 Heddon Street-2nd Floor South W1B 4BT (London), www.massimodecarlo.it.

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LawrenceWeiner With a line of graphite, 2008 Installation view courtesy Galleria Massimo De Carlo To the left: Massimo De Carlo

gallery owners, but rather belong to the best collectors. A valid collection is perceived as such when it is strongly wanted by the person that owns it». The present economic downturn will have the consequence for De Carlo of «resetting the values in the world of art, although art is still considered by many as a need. Collectors understood that today time in on their side: they can buy with deliberation and after a careful evaluation. This undoubtedly determines a slowing down inside of the market where money flows less and more slowly. This mechanism activates a replacing of artists and of their works».Although Italian artists are acknowledged and appreciated by international collectors – something which does not always happen to French of German artists – they continue to be too self-referential. «In Italy artists chose to be such in order to escape the reality, excluding the possibility of creating a debate around their art; conversely, artists abroad communicate with the others by launching a debate on common reality.

Personally, I have always been committed with Italian artists because I believe that it is important to ope-

rate throughout the territory in order to succeed in creating the vicious circle that guarantees the quality of the works proposed as well as they acceptance by collectors. On the contrary, abroad more attention is paid to the aspect of communication around the world of art. Galleries are more aware of their work and their importance. In Italy contemporary art is still perceived as a snobbish fact, unrelated to the context of the entire society. It seems to me that outside of our country there is a higher conviction as regards the role that gallery owners can play. The phenomenon of flourishing of galleries in the last few years is linked to the availability and desire of being protagonists. Many elements contribute to the fact that art is a point of arrival for many people.

After all, for years galleries have come and gone».The meeting begins, the first rows of the audience are full: all ladies of a certain age, regular collectors, debating on which stylist, between Jimmy (Choo) and Stella (Mc Cartney), is more valid.The meeting begins, the buzz does not decrease, and Massimo reproaches them. By calling them by their names, obviously!

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Continua, an exhibition area devoted to the encounter of cultures

CONTEMPORARY MARCO POLO

by MARIA LUISA PRETE

T

he Continua gallery is a place devoted to art at the heart of Tuscany, although with offices in China and France.It was established upon the initiative of three friends: Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Maurizio Rigillo.The latter tells us on the phone how this adventure began.

Rigillo, when and why was the gallery set up?

«It was established in 1990 in San Gimignano.There are three of us, partners and friends, with different educational backgrounds: I have an Information Technology degree, Lorenzo Fiaschi in scene design and Mario Cristiani in political science.We were driven by our passion for the art and by the wish to promote the activity of some of our artist friends.At the beginning it was a hobby, then since ‘95 it became a full-time activity.We chose San Gimignano, a wonderful and unique place, full of history and somehow out of time. It is the ideal place to intertwine new dialogue opportunities as well as symbiosis between unexpected geographies,namely rural,industrial,local and global ones, and between the art of yesterday and the art

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of today, between famous artists and emerging ones».

It is difficult to make decisions in three, but after all you carried out many initiatives and you are also known abroad.

«We have different tastes, but this leads us to make deeper analyses.With our soul open to discovery and sharing, we developed many projects,many of which were unexpected as the decision in 2004 of opening an office in Beijing, but also the decision of venturing to the French countryside, where in 2007 we opened a space devoted to special events and to the presentation of large-size works. Our bridge to China was represented by Chen Zhen and Xu Min.The intense professional and human exchange we had with them has changed our look on the world.The right occasion to approach China was the first art fair made in Beijing, where we were the only Western gallery, a “phenomenon” for Chinese massmedia as well that named us “the Marco Polo of contemporary art”. In 2007, the opening of the space in Boissy-le-Chatel in the Parisian area occurred according to unexpected pathways.We were fascinated by Le Moulin de Boissy, a place with a strong character and rich in

THE PLACES From Italy to China Italy, via del Castello 11, San Gimignano (Siena). Info: 0039(0)0577943134; www.galleriacontinua.com. China, Dashanzi 798 #8503, 2 Jiuxianqiao road, Chaoyang Dst., Beijing.

Info: 00861059789505; beijing@galleriacontinua.com.cn.

France, Le Moulin, 46 rue de la Ferté Gaucher, Boissy-le-Châtel. Info: 0033(0)164203950; lemoulin@galleriacontinua.com.

On the upper side: the three gallery owners Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Maurizio Rigillo Next page: the premises of the Continua gallery in Beijing, San Gimignano and Boissy-le-Châtel

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history.The possibility of reopening it, of reactivating a cultural activity was a strong call for us».

What is the secret of success of a space dedicated to contemporary art and immersed in a medieval and peripheral area?

«We try to keep the level high. It is important for us that works are conceived for this place.They have to be new and original.This is a prerogative we are proud of.We have presented artists with different generations,places of origin and languages, from Daniel Buren to Anish Kapoor, from Loris Cecchini to Kendell Geers,from Pascale Marthine Tayou to Michelangelo Pistoletto and Carlos Garaicoa».

What is your opinion on the art market?

«Italy is bridging the gap that separated it from other countries.There are a good number of collectors.The only disadvantage is the issue of Vat.20% compared to 7% or 8% of countries as Great Britain and the Us is a relevant difference. For many years the association of art gallery owners has been fighting against this penalizing element».

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The Il Ponte gallery owners propose emerging artists as well as famous names

A STRANGE COUPLE OF TALENT SCOUTS

by MARILISA RIZZITELLI

A

perfect and balanced couple. One is tall and the other less, one speaks a lot and the other is taciturn. Giuliano Matricardi and Bruno Puiatti, contemporary art gallery owners, are adventure friends in Rome, a city too rich in ancient art to accept the young one.Yet, step by step, Il Ponte over the years proposed quality, worked with new trends, presented artists as David Byrne or Erwin Olaf, today accredited at the international level. «This is not because we are good – Bruno minimizes – but because Giuliano has intuitions, and an outstanding sensitivity. We were the first ones who brought unknown artists to Rome».And from non-trendy artists as Ford Beckman, through the photography of Pierre et Gilles and video-installations, it is possible to go back to the roots. «Things are changing in Italy and especially in Rome, which is important for the art far more than in the ’90s», says Giuliano, «Roma has grown as collectors did. And we resumed our working activity with famous artists, even expensive ones.We also started a new pathway: relying upon the youth, and upon new trends.Today, after several years, we are working back with well-established people and activities. We have the opportunity of dividing the space into three parts: a famous artist, a young artist, and an unknown one ». Furthermore, Il Ponte organized the Riparte event, with galleries in the rooms of the Ripa Hotel in Rome. «With the help of Simona Rossi from 2RC art editions and Achille Bonito Oliva, we translated a New York idea – Bruno explains – to offer spaces close to man, with the purpose of attracting collectors that generally do not participate in normal fairs».

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THE PLACE Artistic stables Giuliano Matricardi, from Pescara, and Bruno Puiatti, from Rome, inaugurated the gallery in 1993, in a small space in via della Lungara, Rome.The large rooms of Palazzo Corsetti, in the past used as stables and coach garaging, starting from 2005 host Il ponte contemporanea, in via di Monserrato 23, Rome.

Info: 0039(0)668801351; www.ilpontecontemporanea.com.

The interior of the Il ponte contemporanea gallery To the left: the gallery owners Giuliano Matricardi and Bruno Puiatti (below)

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Abbondio: «Until the age of thirty I was not interested in the art. It was a love at first sight»

PACK GALLERY: EVERYTHING STARTED IN A BAR

by SILVIA BONAVENTURA

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THE PLACE An outstanding place The Pack gallery of Giampaolo Abbondio is in Milan, in Foro Buonaparte 60. It is made up of four large halls, totally amounting to four hundred square meters. Every year the gallery participates in several exhibitions including Miart in Milan,Artissima in Torino, Arco in Madrid,Art Miami,

A

t the heart of Milan, close to Castello Sforzesco, there is the Pack Gallery, one of the most outstanding ones in Italy as far as contemporary art is concerned. Founded in 2001 by Giampaolo Abbondio, its present director, its activity initially focused on the representation of the body in its different expressions and on sensor installations able to involve the audience. Afterwards it opened its doors to the new media and to video-installations. The genres that are more frequently exhibited at the gallery include photography, performance and the digital technology, often with courageous proposals.

Berliner Liste and Art Moscow.

Info: 0039(0)286996395; www.galleriapack.com.

An external and an internal view of the gallery

Abbondio, how was the Pack gallery established? When did you decide to become part of the world of the art?

«I have come to know art relatively late; until the age of 30 I was not interested in this sector, until one evening I met Luigi De Ambrogi that I subsequently found out was a famous gallery owner.We were in a bar, and when taking a napkin he started to talk about the work of Alighiero Boetti. I was immediately struck.This is when I started to follow the world of art, I was at my first biennale in ’97, and in 4 years De Ambrogi and I decided to open a gallery together.After 3 we decided to separate amicably, since in the meantime I had developed my artistic personality that differed from his, therefore we decided to go different ways».

What are the artists that you prefer and why?

«I chose them because I believe they do a work that presents universal issues and questions. I do not like those works that demand a great deal of explanations.

In my opinion, works should be immediately available; they shall not be too cryptic. Obviously, using one’s brain is important, but things should not be too intellectual.Works shall not necessarily have a great impact; the art has to go beyond the reality, whereas when it is a reduced form of it, then something is not properly working.The artists I work with meet these needs of mine, so I work with a rather constant group. Robert Gligorov, first and foremost, because he is the one with which I opened the gallery; Matteo Basilé that portrays people and this year is in the Italian pavilion of the Biennale; Marina Paris that photographs spaces and she exhibited in my gallery three times already;Alberto Di Fabio produces extraordinary works, nearly abstract with magnification at the microscope; Franko B. Recently I also started a collaboration with two Russian artists, Andrei Molodkin, who is also present at the Biennale in the Russian pavilion, and Peter Belyi who performs very charming works on architecture and memory».

Any projects for the future? Any premises abroad?

«I had thought about an office abroad, in Berlin: from Milan it takes 1.5 hours to get there, the costs of real estates are good and the entire world of art passes there at least once a year. It could be a valid alternative, but this year, with the critical situation we have, I had to put this idea aside to cut costs. But I like this idea.

Among future projects, besides the exhibitions with Basilé and Di Fabio, I am trying to organize one of them with Peter Greenaway for Christmas. It is an important project, and the artist is a valuable one. I’m happy to do this job. Most of all, a honest job».

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