Flash Art, Arte Fiera’s content partner for the second year, has curated a series of 13 talks entitled “Artists, medium and markets: new trajectories in Italy”: essential for stimulating thought on current topics in the contemporary art system.
The series commenced with Michelangelo Pistoletto (Friday 24 January), talking about art as social innovation and “curing.” This has been followed by a reflection with experts on the value of artworks in relation to the market. “Painting as Italian history,” a conversation with Laura Cherubini, Andrea Viliani, and Nicola De Maria, has traced the history of Italian painting from 1959 to 1979.
The second day (Saturday 25 January) has been devoted to the medium, starting with one of the foremost members of the Fluxus movement in Italy, Gianni Emilio Simonetti, in conversation with Luigi Bonotto and Patrizio Peterlini, followed by thoughts on the latest developments in media studies, while Paolo Icaro has talk about the concepts of “resistance” and “limit” with Cecilia Canziani. The day concluded with a round table on the subject of commissions in photography, promoted by the IBC - Istituto dei Beni Culturali [Institute of Cultural Heritage] dell’Emilia-Romagna.
The third and final day (Sunday 26 January) began with the painting of Franco Angeli, the subject of renewed worldwide interest. Speakers were Maria Angeli and Raffaella Perna (the latter will also moderated the round table “Art and Feminism” with artists Paola Mattioli and Silvia Giambrone). Patrick Tuttofuoco has talked about artistic production and new aspects of collecting with Gea Politi and Cristiano Seganfreddo, publishers of Flash Art. The series of conversations and round tables concluded on the subjects of conservation and maintenance of artworks and their circulation.
Between talks, special guest Alessandro Bosetti inserted his sound performances, surreal re-elaborations of voices recorded at the Fair.
(as 2020 guide)
12 – 1 PM
Round table: “The Art of Curing”
Moderator: Lorenzo Fazio
Speakers: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Paolo Naldini, Flavio Ronzi
Last year, the Italian Red Cross and the Pistoletto Foundation signed an agreement devoted to the Art of Curing. Art as social innovation and picklock for change, art as medicine to cure wounds, to alleviate pain and discomfort. They began an initiative in which volunteers and artists, together, devote their efforts to curing territories and communities. Moderated by Lorenzo Fazio, publisher of Chiarelettere and Il Fatto Quotidiano, the talk presents the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto together with Paolo Naldini, director of the Pistoletto Foundation, and Flavio Ronzi, general secretary of the Italian Red Cross.
1 PM
* Sound performance: L’Ombra [The Shadow]
Artist: Alessandro Bosetti
During the three days of Arte Fiera, the artist Alessandro Bosetti, microphone in hand, will record a body of vocal fragments from people at the fair (visitors, exhibitors, technicians, artists, etc.) and will then return them in a series of performative returns placed in the interstices and intervals of the Talks programme. L’Ombra is a project of Oplà. Performing Activities, Arte Fiera’s live arts programme.
1:15 – 2 PM
Presentation of book: Una Storia d’arte
Moderator: Andrea Viliani
Speakers: Michele Bonuomo, Laura Trisorio, Lucia Trisorio
The history of the 45 years of the Studio Trisorio art gallery, presented by Andrea Viliani, director of the CRRI - Castello di Rivoli Research Institute, and told by Lucia and Laura Trisorio with Michele Bonuomo, publisher of Cairo. A passionate journey in the world of contemporary art, tracing the gallery’s opening in the early ‘70s in Naples by means of the avant-garde shows devoted to performance, photography, and video art; the albums of memories of Villa Orlandi in Anacapri, where artists such as Cy Twombly, Joseph Beuys, and Jannis Kounellis loved to stay; the years of the Roman space; the creation and success of the Artecinema Festival, up to the opening of the new space in the Palazzo Ulloa stables, where the story continues.
2:30 – 3:15 PM
Round table: “The value of the work. The accepted estimate, how to protect your collection, market guarantees”
Moderator: Enrico Callegaro
Speakers: (I) Luca Morazzoni (Wide Group Spa), (II) Annapaola Negri Clementi (Studio Negri Clementi, Milan), (III) Paolo Frassetto (Liberty Specialty Markets)
Wide Group Spa, Studio Negri Clementi, and Liberty Special Markets, coordinated by Enrico Callegaro, insurance manager of Wide Group Spa, will discuss the topic of the value of the work of art and, specifically: (I) the art market: numbers, policies, solutions, and companies; (II) art acquisition practices; (III) the analysis and assessment of private collections, the accepted estimate, and applicable solutions.
3:45 PM
* Sound performance: L’Ombra
Artist: Alessandro Bosetti
4 – 5 PM
Arte Fiera Awards Ceremony
5 – 6:30 PM
Talk: “Painting as Italian history. Before the return of painting: 1959-1979”
Speakers: Laura Cherubini, Andrea Viliani, Nicola De Maria
Starting with a quotation from Gino De Dominicis, “Painting is an Italian story,” Laura Cherubini, art critic and professor of the History of Contemporary Art at the Brera Academy in Milan, and Andrea Viliani, director of the CRRI - Castello di Rivoli Research Institute, talk about a possible new story of Italian painting in a voyage-manifesto that follows its history from 1959 to 1979. Flash Art published this pictorial and passionate “feuilleton,” a discovery of unknown and unexplored territories, in three chapters. The authors, along with Nicola De Maria, the artist appearing in the third and final chapter of the story, will discuss some of its passages.
6.30 PM
* Sound performance: L’Ombra
Artist: Alessandro Bosetti
12 – 1:30 PM
Talk: “Intermediality and Fluxus”
Moderator: Cristiano Seganfreddo
Speakers: Luigi Bonotto, Patrizio Peterlini, Gianni Emilio Simonetti
In 1966, Dick Higgins introduced the concept of “intermedia” in an attempt to describe the new forms of art that appeared from the late ’50s to the early ’60s. After more than 50 years, is this concept still valid? Does it still fill a need or is it merely academicism? Luigi Bonotto and Patrizio Peterlini, founder and artistic director of the Bonotto Foundation, respectively, will talk with Gianni Emilio Simonetti, one of the foremost representatives of the Fluxus movement in Italy. The meeting will be moderated by Cristiano Seganfreddo, publisher of Flash Art.
1:30 PM
* Sound performance: L’Ombra
Artist: Alessandro Bosetti
2 – 3:30 PM
Round table: “A new mediality”
Moderator: Eleonora Milani
Speakers: Vincenzo Estremo, Ilaria Gianni, Stefano Mudu, Riccardo Venturi, Riccardo Benassi
The ’90s helped proliferate theories of expansion of the medium by highlighting its polysemous nature, going beyond its specificity linked to various artistic forms. Today we almost always think of the medium in relation to its immersive nature, and artistic experiences are viewed as environments or articulated systems that envelope the spectator. The talk, moderated by Eleonora Milani, editor-in-chief of Flash Art, will consider the relational nature of the medium by means of the contributions of art researchers and critics Vincenzo Estremo, Stefano Mudu, Riccardo Venturi, curator Ilaria Gianni and artist Riccardo Benassi.
3:30 PM
* Sound performance: L’Ombra
Artist: Alessandro Bosetti
3:45 – 4:30 PM
Talk: “Resistance and limit in the work of Paolo Icaro”
Speakers: Cecilia Canziani, Paolo Icaro
Paolo Icaro’s work embraces a time span of 50 years. From the very beginning, his research was characterised by his attention to process: undoing as a counterpart to doing; gravity as a constituent element of form, and lightness as its necessary dialectic end; the limit (of matter, body, language) as a condition to be tested and transgressed; space as sculpture and sculpture as a drawing in space; the non-finite, or infinite, as potentials of the work. The conversation between Paolo Icaro and Cecilia Canziani, art historian and independent curator, is based on these concepts. In the background: a series of works spanning the artist’s career.
5 – 5:45 PM
Round table: “Voices and forms of photographic purchasing”
Moderators: Laura Moro, Matteo Balduzzi
Speakers: Paola De Pietri, Mario Peliti, Jacopo Valentini, Francesco Zanot
Several players on the contemporary photographic scene – artists Paola De Pietri and Jacopo Valentini, publisher and gallery owner Marco Peliti, and curator Francesco Zanot – discuss current methods of the growth of photographic purchasing and new production scenarios: public and private dimension, individual and group production create new dynamics among purchasers, artists, and the public. The Talk is moderated by Laura Moro, director of IBC – Istituto Beni Culturali dell’Emilia Romagna, and Matteo Balduzzi, curator of MUFOCO – Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, Cinisello Balsamo.
6 PM
* Sound performance: L’Ombra
Artist: Alessandro Bosetti
ore 11.30 – 12.15
Talk: “Franco Angeli: ‘Novissima’ painting
Speakers: Raffaella Perna, Maria Angeli
Franco Angeli’s “Novissima” painting, now receiving renewed and growing international interest, was known for its ability to merge new aesthetic values, developed by means of research performed with purely pictorial means, and radical political demands. The topicality of his work will be discussed by Maria Angeli, director of the Franco Angeli Archive, and Raffaella Perna, art historian and curator, in a conversation on Angeli’s works from the ’60s as well as on his later phases and works.
12:15 PM
* Sound performance: L’Ombra / Shadow
Artist: Alessandro Bosetti
12:30 – 1:45 PM
Round table: “Art and Feminism”
Moderator: Raffaella Perna
Speakers: Silvia Giambrone, Francesca Guerisoli, Paola Mattioli, Paola Ugolini
With what strategies and to what extent has feminism redefined the parameters of curating? Can an alternative narration be proposed today? Curators Francesca Guerisoli and Paola Ugolini and artists Silvia Giambrone and Paola Mattioli will discuss on “Art and feminism” in a talk moderated by Raffaella Perna – curator of Flash Art’s column of the same name, online at www.flash---art.it – investigating current developments in the relationship between curatorial practice and feminist thought in light of the recent Italian and international debate.
1:50 PM
* Sound performance: L’Ombra
Artist: Alessandro Bosetti
2:30 – 3:15 PM
Talk: “Limited is not a limit”
Speakers: Gea Politi, Cristiano Seganfreddo, Patrick Tuttofuoco
Gea Politi and Cristiano Seganfreddo, the publishers of Flash Art, talk with artist Patrick Tuttofuoco about mechanisms for the production of contents and works in a global digital context that is undergoing radical change and offers new prospects for contemporary art and collecting.
3:30 PM
* Sound performance: L’Ombra
Artist: Alessandro Bosetti
3:45 – 5.15 PM
Round table: “The circulation of contemporary artworks on the market”
Moderators: Roberto Farneti, Francesco Montanari
Speakers: Stefano Bruno, Silvia Giorgi, Lavinia Savini, Massimo Sterpi
This round table will discuss the many complex issues – civil, tax, and criminal – linked to the circulation of artworks on the Italian and international market. The talk, moderated by Roberto Farneti and Francesco Montanari, university professors of different cultural origin, will feature Stefano Bruno, Silvia Giorgi, Lavinia Savini, and Massimo Sterpi, expert jurists in the field.
5:30 – 6:50 PM
Round table: “Management, conservation and maintenance of contemporary artworks”
Moderators: Roberto Farneti, Francesco Montanari
Speakers: Andrea Pizzi, Alessandro Pomelli, Rosalia Di Muro, Isabella Villafranca Soissons
This round table, moderated from an interdisciplinary viewpoint by Roberto Farneti and Francesco Montanari, will focus on a number of technical and legal aspects of the conservation and maintenance of contemporary artworks. This second session will involve individuals from various fields: Andrea Pizzi, Alessandro Pomelli, Rosalia di Muro, attorneys and certified public accountants, who have been involved in art and law for years, and Isabella Villafranca Soissons, director of the Restoration Laboratories of Open Care, Milan.