Until September 10, 2024, Palazzo Ducale Orsini-Colonna in Tagliacozzo (AQ) hosts Contemporanea 24, an art exhibition that masterfully combines modernity with historical heritage. The annual event, curated by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi, represents an unmissable showcase for discovering the latest trends in international contemporary art and emerging talents from Abruzzo. The exhibition is divided into three exhibitions: Painting in the Global Present: an Overview, which presents twenty-six works by artists from eleven countries, Abruzzo Contemporaneo. Focus sull’Arte Emergente, dedicated to artists from Abruzzo under forty, and Costruire Nuovi Mondi, a selection of the finalists and winners of Contemporanea Prize 2024. This last theme explores the ability of art to reflect and build new visions of the world. To delve deeper into the scientific-organizational vision of this edition, we interviewed the curator Cesare Biasini Selvaggi.
“Painting in the Global Present”, installation view at Palazzo ducale Orsini-Colonna, Tagliacozzo, 2024, ph. Giulia Pontoriero
Antonella Buttazzo: What were the personal or professional inspirations that guided the choice of themes and artists for this edition of Contemporanea?
Cesare Biasini Selvaggi: My research interest and my personal passion for contemporary painting are the basis of the choice of a focus such as Painting in the Global Present: an Overview, which presents twenty-six works created by as many artists from eleven countries, a panorama of some of the new trends in contemporary painting in the European, American and Asian areas. It always strikes me how the oldest artistic language continues to reveal itself as the most “technologically” advanced and capable of grasping the unprecedented complexities of the global present, in the new context of a visionary “post-Anthropocene” that is humanistic before environmental. The exhibition Abruzzo contemporaneo. Focus sull’arte emergente, with its decidedly generational and cross-media approach, is instead one of the first investigations into recent developments in art in Abruzzo under 40. I have been dedicated to scouting emerging Italian art for some time thanks to the biennial study I curate on this theme “222. Artisti emergenti su cui investire” published by exibart. The “Abruzzo” investigation allowed me to deepen my knowledge of authors who cultivate their research in Italy and around the world in the wake of an original “strong and gentle” identity tradition. Finally, the theme that I chose for the 2024 edition of Contemporanea Price, “Building new worlds”, arises from the consideration of how the pandemic, wars, the dowsing potential of Artificial Intelligence, the technique that poses problems that far exceed the skills of each person, make the “construction of new worlds” even more evident and urgent. It is not a slogan, but it wants to mean the adoption of new behaviors and governance models, of new inclusive and generative ways of living, capable of re-starting processes of social invention in relationships with others, in our work, in our freedoms of expression, in our fundamental rights, in our relationships with non-human intelligences (nature), in the fight against inequalities.
“Painting in the Global Present”, installation view at Palazzo ducale Orsini-Colonna, Tagliacozzo, 2024, ph. Giulia Pontoriero
How did the historical setting of Palazzo Ducale Orsini-Colonna influence the curation and installation of the exhibition?
Palazzo Ducale Orsini-Colonna in Tagliacozzo, unfortunately, has become a half-empty container in recent decades. With the Contemporanea exhibition, now in its eleventh edition, directed by Emanuele Moretti and strongly supported by the mayor Vincenzo Giovagnorio, an interesting operation of refunctionalization has begun thanks to the presence of contemporary art works. In particular, with the exhibition dedicated to emerging artists from Abruzzo I tried to create a minimal intervention, capable of not clashing with the rooms (under construction) and the fragments of the surviving fifteenth-century frescoes. The curatorial idea was to establish a profound comparison with the surrounding environment starting from the level of meaning: the works, in this case, question the value and meaning of time, its reflections on the identity of the human being, in the past as nowadays.
“Abruzzo Contemporaneo”, installation view at Palazzo ducale Orsini-Colonna, Tagliacozzo, 2024, ph. Giulia Pontoriero
What changes in the global art scene have you noticed recently? How are these trends reflected in the exhibited works?
I think it may be premature to talk about significant changes in the current art scene, but the preparatory conditions are being formed. Today the changes are in those sentinels in permanent scouting that are words. Therefore, more in poetry and philosophy. These are not necessarily neologisms, but new meanings in new contexts, without precedent in history. If there is a pioneering word to address change, which is also one of the main themes that runs through the exhibited works, I would say that it is “relationship” as a condition for constituting our individual identity in the new conditions represented by the immaterial technologies of information and its intelligences. Another word is “action”, the only plausible and meaningful way of salvation. Everyone is called to do their part, according to their possibilities, because salvation against any catastrophe is only in the “we”, in collaboration in action. I conclude with the word “visionarity”, in the sense of alternative thinking to that which is only capable of calculating, the great challenge of our time, both for philosophy and for the arts.
“Abruzzo Contemporaneo”, installation view at Palazzo ducale Orsini-Colonna, Tagliacozzo, 2024, ph. Giulia Pontoriero
What is your vision of the future of contemporary art exhibitions in historical contexts? How does Contemporanea 24 contribute to this evolution?
I hope that art exhibitions in the historical contexts of polycentric Italy can be carried out more and more widely, without falling into the error of reducing them to the role of scenarios, of backdrops for juxtaposed “dialogues”. The intent with which we created Contemporanea 24 was this, in addition to the attempt to support a process of “civil” social regeneration, where words like “common good” can also be rediscovered in an economic key, leaving room for an ethical and not purely individualistic perspective, for example through the involvement of community cooperatives in these projects. To allow young people (and not only) to be protagonists of the responsible process of taking charge of cultural goods and projects, as established by the Faro Convention.
“Costruire Nuovi Mondi”, installation view at Palazzo ducale Orsini-Colonna, Tagliacozzo, 2024, ph. Giulia Pontoriero
Contemporanea 24 confirms itself as an unmissable event for art enthusiasts and professionals, offering a platform for the comparison between tradition and innovation in the heart of Abruzzo.
Info:
CONTEMPORANEA 24: aspetti dell’Arte Presente
curated by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi
3/08 – 10/09/2024
Palazzo ducale Orsini-Colonna, Tagliacozzo (AQ)
www.contemporanea-art.it
After obtaining the high school languages diploma, she continued her studies graduating in Art History at the University of Salento, with a bilingual thesis on the Pre-Raphaelites. Since then, she has been actively contributing as a columnist and collaborator with national blogs and with local magazines and TV programs.
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