“We are faced with a significant synthesis of contemporary trends in art, trends that demonstrate vitality and interpretation of the tools of our time”. With these words, the President of the Piacenza Friends of Art Association and member of the selecting jury, Stefano Antonio Marchesi, introduces the final act of the seventh edition of the GIOVANARTE national award, reserved for artists under 35.
Silvia Bonomini, art historian, curator and also a member of the Jury, underlined an important novelty of this edition, that of having expanded the organizational and selective collaboration to important external personalities. He then illustrated that 19 artists reached the final, chosen by a significantly qualified Jury and that there are also creatives dedicated to NFT Art. He finally pointed out the richness of language and technique that characterizes the participants in the Prize, capable of embracing a vast range of expressive media.
Chiara Canali, art critic, independent curator and organizer, together with Camilla Mineo, of the Parma 360 Festival of Contemporary Creativity, underlined that this Award valorises artists belonging to the millennial generation but above all “includes the ultra-contemporary generation”.
Canali then conducted the event by briefly presenting all the finalist artists and then focused on the winners. Among the novelties of this edition, there is also an online evaluation survey, which was followed by 1216 voting users, decreeing a clear preference for the twenty-nine year old Stefano Mancuso, originally from Casale Monferrato, and his ‘traditional’ acrylic on canvas from title “Memory n. 26. Epiphany”. The use of the adjective in quotation marks ‘traditional’, used by the writer, intends to enhance the fact that, even in the face of the digital vastness of the contemporary, painting is not dead and in Mancuso’s case it crosses geometries and figurative absences in a happy union both chromatic and spatial.
In third place on the podium is the thirty-year-old Milanese Greta Di Lorenzo, now from Piacenza by adoption, who exhibits a photographic diptych of strong impact. Titled “Gretchen’s Rooms, Succuba” and “Gretchen’s Rooms, Lamia”, the work refers to the research that the artist does on the female body and through her own body, triggering mechanisms of reflection on the role of women in the contemporary world .
Second place goes to thirty-three-year-old Martina Cioffi from Como who, with a sculpture/installation in ceramic and iron entitled “Talea”, introduces us to the resilient and continually transforming world of plant organisms. The work peremptorily approaches the observer’s gaze in search of due empathy mixed with magical and pleasantly disturbing feelings.
The winner of the 2024 edition of GIOVANARTE is the twenty-seven year old from Ravenna SVCCY, nom de plume of Matteo Succi, with a work entitled “Entwined Existence” composed of two souls. A digital wall print, impressive for its balanced richness of colors and elements present, also disturbing and particularly disturbing, in a metropolitan labyrinth that recalls scenarios of apocalyptic urban solitude. The print is associated with a looping animation on the screen.
Outside the podium, the writer was favorably impressed by the digital creation of the Serbian artist Ruby Rhizome who, in “GENESIS. Body Generated”, refers to the challenge between intimate and public, standard and digital, re-elaborating real personal medical reports such as X-rays of one’s own organs and engaging in a powerful melee with medical cards, transforming alphanumeric data into artistic lines and signs.
Overall, the level of the Award is undoubtedly significant of the artistic trends that characterize contemporary youth art: the organizers have repeatedly reiterated the multifaceted expressiveness of the artistic world that beats the heart of the most recent artistic generation. For completeness of information, the other finalist artists must be listed: Marco Abrate (Rebor), Luca Ballestra, Edoardo Cialfi, Damiano Conti Borbone, Alessandro Grimoldieu, Alessandra La Marca, Edoardo Messere Milani, Andrea Mirabelli, Lidia Perotti, Dario Picariello, Dario Pruonto , Stefano Riboli, Emma Scarafiotti, Davide Volpi. Again for completeness of information, the list of jurors should be completed with Sofia Baldi Pighi (Artistic Director of the Malta Biennale and Emilian manager of the Boccata d’Arte Project), Chiara Cardini (art historian and coordinator of the San Fedele Gallery in Milan ) and the Piacenza Franco Spaggiari (patron and art collector).
Last but not least, the support of the Piacenza and Vigevano Foundation and the Piacenza Bank should be highlighted, as well as the patronage of the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Province of Piacenza and the Municipality of Piacenza.
