Festival of Contemporary art

Festival of Contemporary art
21 – 23 May

www.festivalartecontemporanea.it

From 21 to 23 May 2010, the third edition of the festival of Contemporary art will take place in Faenza. It is the top international event dedicated to reflection and debate regarding contemporary art. The project is run by goodwill, and was created and founded by Alberto Masacci and Pier Luigi Sacco, with the scientific direction of Carlos Basualdo, Pier Luigi Sacco and Angela Vettese.

With OPERE/works, the festival is continuing into journey into “looking” at art in depth, thanks to the thoughts and words of some of the most important figures from the world of contemporary art. Having taken note of the great number of exhibitions, trade shows and biennials which can currently be found all over the world, the creation of the festival stems from the need for an event which can offer an authentic, deep experience of works of art, by focusing on them in particular and listening to what they have to tell us.

After the success of the first two editions, which saw the involvement of 250 key figures from the world of international contemporary art, as well as 25,000 visitors, the festival has decided to dedicate the next edition to exciting encounters with works of art, and their ability to interpret our society and its changes.

Important artists will provide an overview of contemporary art, as part of an extraordinary journey into their creative processes, by means of interviews with key figures of contemporary thought and international curators. They will talk about the practice of creating art, from its conception right up to the moment when a work becomes “a work of art”. Tobias Rehberger, who won the Golden Lion prize at the 53rd Venice Biennale, curated by Daniel Birnbaum, and the French conceptual artist Daniel Buren, are just two of the important figures who will join the debate.

Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, the artistic team who won an honourable mention at the 53rd Venice Biennale, will be at the centre of a debate regarding architecture and identity. Nanni Balestrini will meet Hans Ulrich Obrist to talk about the various sides of his work, ranging from figurative art to literary production.

The theme of works will be dealt with by involving many different points of view, in order to discover the possible interpretations of works, thanks to contributions from international curators and art historians, such as Achille Bonito Oliva, Bruce Altshuler, Germano Celant, Lynne Cooke and Miwon Kwon. Carlos Basualdo, Seth Siegelaub and Alexander Alberro will discuss the rules for conceptual works of art, and the transformations involved in our way of understanding and looking at art. Hal Foster, one of the most important art historians alive today, will be interviewed about the transition and changes of direction for works of art, between modernism and contemporary art. Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, from the Whitney Museum of American Art, will talk in depth about the theme of preservation today and over the centuries.

Once again, the festival will confirm its interest in the relationships between different forms of contemporary culture, such as the search between art and music by the artist John Duncan. Moving on from music to cinema, Monique Veaute, the Vice President of the Fondazione Romaeuropa, will guide us through a journey into artists’ films, offering a review of “works in movement” by the Gelitin group and Martial Raysse. In addition, Chiara Clemente will present Our city dreams, a documentary comparing the personalities of five artists (Ghada Amer, Nancy Spero, Kiki Smith, Swoon and Marina Abramovic), who are united not only by their professional choices but also by their links with New York, not the city of their birth, but one which they have chosen as their home, even finding the inspiration for their work there.

Info
tel. + 39 051 220080
info@festivalartecontemporanea.it

www.festivalartecontemporanea.it

Press Office
goodwillcom tel. +39 051 220080
santa nastro mobile: +39 329 5794324 sn@good-will.it