The 17th edition of Contemporary Art Day will be held on 11 December, promoted by AMACI – Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums which, together with museums, foundations, public and private institutions, galleries, artists’ studios and spaces, aims to promote and disseminate the contemporary art network both nationally and internationally. This year’s initiative will have as its leitmotif the theme of performative art, referring not only to the experience of the performer’s physicality on stage, but above all to the urgent need to rethink new dynamics of interaction with the public through sharing space.
As in previous editions, for Embassies, Consulates and Italian Cultural Institutes, the Giornata del Contemporaneo – Italian Contemporary Art will last longer, from Monday 6 to Saturday 11 December 2021.
In addition to the support of the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, the event also benefits from the collaboration of the Directorate General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
After the last edition held mainly online due to the health emergency, this year the event returns in a hybrid format, with both in-person and online events.
Among the initiatives organized by the Directorate General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation, we would like to highlight in particular:
- ‘Cantica21’. Some of the winning works of the project, a joint initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Culture, will be inaugurated on this occasion. Among the first stages of the large-scale exhibition, following the important opening in November in Shanghai, are the openings at the Italian Cultural Institutes of Budapest, New York, Prague, Santiago, and Tunis.
- ‘Eyes on Tomorrow. Giovane Fotografia Italiana nel Mondo’ (Young Italian Photography Around the World). An exhibition project created to highlight the most recent expressions of photography in our country beyond national borders. The project involves 39 young artists and brings to the international scene the experience of ‘Giovane Fotografia Italiana’ (Young Italian Photography), a free open call promoted by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, now in its 9th edition. The participating artists are selected from the pool of past editions of ‘Giovane Fotografia Italiana’ and combine high artistic quality with the diverse research underway in Italian photography. The curatorial proposal is divided into fourteen exhibitions, each of which revolves around a theme and brings together the work of three artists. Exhibitions at the Italian Cultural Institutes of Montevideo, New Delhi and Mexico City will open in December.
- ‘Dritto negli occhi’ (Straight in the eye). A video project to promote contemporary Italian photography abroad, promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and conceived and produced by Alessandra Mauro, editorial director of Contrasto Books. Six short conversations with leading figures in contemporary Italian photography: Piergiorgio Branzi, Massimo Siragusa, Gea Casolaro, Simona Ghizzoni, Michele Palazzi, and Anna Di Prospero. Through their gaze, these artists tell the story of our country, of its aesthetic and social transformations, of its open questions. They provide a direct insight into the artistic experience and style choices of as many creators of photography and visual research in general. The conversations will be available here, on the italiana portal.
- Release of the game ‘Artlink! Farnesina ‘, winner of the ‘Gioco inedito 2021 – Best Game Proposal’ competition, for emerging game designers, created by Lucca Comics & Games with dV Giochi in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The game will be released to the foreign network, starting with a video tutorial and a game-show recorded during the last edition of the Lucca Comics & Games Festival.
The programme also includes a number of events organized by the Farnesina Collection on Saturday 11 December:
- Special tour of the Collection and the main rooms of the Palazzo della Farnesina, as part of the ‘Aperti per voi’ (Open for you) initiative from the Italian Touring Club.
- Presentation of the third issue of the series ‘I Quaderni della Collezione Farnesina’ (Catalogues of the Farnesina Collection), entitled ‘Mosaici contemporanei nella Collezione Farnesina’ (Contemporary mosaics in the Farnesina Collection), edited by Fabio De Chirico. Beginning with the mosaics in the Palazzo, the catalogue retraces the most important stages in the use of the mosaic technique in the twentieth century, up to the most recent and original developments. The author, Dr. Anna Mattirolo and the artists Diego Miguel Mirabella and Ascanio Renda will attend the meeting, which will be held in the ‘Aldo Moro’ room of the Farnesina. The presentation will be followed by a special tour of the first and mezzanine floors of the Palazzo della Farnesina, where the most important works of the contemporary art collection are kept, with a focus on the mosaics in the Collection.
- During the guided tours of the Collection, there will be a performance that the artist Valentina Furian has created especially for the institutional architecture and the spaces on the main floor of the Ministry. The event is curated by Vasco Forconi and organized in collaboration with the VOLUME! Foundation in Rome.
