Is dead Marco Altavilla, independent curator and gallery owner together with Paola Guadagnino – his partner also in life – of the T293 gallery in Rome. Ill for some time, Altavilla disappeared on August 19, 2023. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”, is the phrase with which the curator introduces himself on his Instagram profile. The funeral will be held privately.
Marco Altavilla and the T293 gallery
The artistic history of Marco Altavilla is strongly linked to the years of training in Bologna, to the commitment as a critic and curator and then to that of the gallery he has curated for twenty years together with the founder Paola Guadagnino: it was 2002 when in a historic building in the center of Naples, in Via Tribunali 293, a space dedicated to the research and promotion of emerging artists was born. In 2006, T293 will become a commercial gallery, not abandoning its strongly curatorial DNA and also establishing itself internationally, participating in the most important trade fairs in the sector. This growth will culminate in the decision to move the headquarters to Rome, the city where Paola and Marco moved to live: in 2010, the new space near Piazza Navona, in Via Leutari, was inaugurated with the exhibition Five o’clock shadows of Silver Plume. A couple of years later the gallery moved to the Colosseum area, to then arrive in 2016 in its current headquarters in Trastevere, a fascinating former industrial laboratory of 400 square meters in Via Ripense. Alexis Ralaivao, Amina Toure-K, Caroline Mesquita, Caroline Zurmely, Chase Palmer, Claire Fontaine, Dan Rees, David Maljković, Demetrius Wilson, Dylan Rose Rheingold, Erica Mahinay, Hangama Amiri, Hao Ni, Henrik Olai Kaarstein, Isabella Ducrot, James Beckett, Jana Schröder, Lito Kattou, Lorenzo Vitturi, Martin Soto Climent, Patrizio Di Massimo, Si On, Simon Denny, Sonia Kacem, Trey Abdella, Tris Vonna-Michell, Yongqi Tang and Yoora Lee are the artists he has worked with and works with the gallery, authors with different research and aesthetics who with their work represent the attitude of T293: mixture of styles, international vision, dialogue and confrontation between artists even of different generations.
The article continues below
Marco Altavilla and music
The gallery was not the only tool for expressing Altavilla’s personality: in addition to art, he was also active in the field of music, with the same disposition for research and experimentation. In addition to writing as a critic for Exibart, Altavilla was also music curator: among all we remember the project interstices, conceived by Altavilla in the context of ArtSound, a section of the Music Festival ‘900 held in Trento in 2003 and dedicated to the relationship between visual and sound art. It’s still, Private Archives for Raum in Bologna, space of the non-profit cultural institution Xing, listening evenings in which Altavilla selected pieces of electronic music.
Desiree Maida
