The illy Present Future Prize, now in its 21st edition, is assigned by illycaffè to the artist deemed most interesting in the Present Future section, which has been a launching pad for new talents for many years. In 2021 an international jury will convene to examine the contents of the section, and to assign the illy Present Future Prize to the most outstanding project. In 2020 the Prize was assigned to the Puerto Rican artist Radamés “Juni” Figueroa, represented by the gallery Proyectos Ultravioleta of Guatemala City.
Thanks to the progressive outlook of illycaffè, the illy Present Future Prize makes an important contribution to the success of emerging artists, reflecting the active role played by Artissima to support emerging international talent.
Diana Policarpo, presented by LEHMANN+SILVA in Porto, wins the 21st edition of the illy Present Future Prize.
The prize has been awarded by an international jury composed of Aaron Cezar, Director, Delfina Foundation, London, Hou Hanru, Artistic Director, MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo, Roma, Kathryn Weir, Director, MADRE Museo d’Arte Donnaregina, Napoli with this motivation:
A strong present sense of systemic crisis has moved many artists of the post-1980 generation towards research-based approaches that denaturalise this system in historical perspective and look to develop alternatives. In her practice, Diana Policarpo interweaves apparently opposing perspectives and conceptual frameworks, intelligently mobilizing various strategies and media, from text to video, through sound and spatial arrangement. She creates environments in which audiences are invited to explore the hallucinatory worlds she conjures. In her work, the jury members recognise one of the key currents in contemporary practice.
FPT Industrial, leader in the industrial engine sector, promotes the second edition of the FPT for Sustainable Art Award, a meeting point of sustainability, innovation and art. In 2020, Renato Leotta, presented by the Madragoa gallery, won the award with a work from the “Mare” series, which was then purchased by the company. The work embodies ideas shared by FPT Industrial, which designs and produces motors for the industrial sector (vehicles, machinery, generators) and for the nautical world. In this project, the company consolidates its constant focus on environmental sustainability and the protection of the seas. This has led to the desire to direct the second edition of the award towards selection of an artist whose work is not only the result of research on sustainable processes for the production of art, but also has an intrinsic symbolic value that more or less directly addresses the complexity, fragility, force and beauty of the marine ecosystem. A creation based on a process that involves people, materials, lives, and has to come to terms with organization, logistical and economic mechanisms. Sustainability as a motor of transformation of materials in creative and industrial processes.
Lennart Lahuis, presented by the gallery Dürst Britt & Mayhew from The Hague, is the winner of the second edition of the FPT for Sustainable Art Award.
The prize has been awarded by an international jury composed of Diana Campbell Betancourt, Artistic Director, Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka, Krist Gruijthuijsen, Director, KW Berlin Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Antje-Britt Mählmann, Director, Kunsthalle St. Annen, Lübeck with this motivation:
Lennart Lahuis’ installation at Dürst Britt & Mayhew is a poignant example of how context and materiality is manifested in a multi-layered process of what is considered ‘sustainable’. Lahuis is placed in dialogue with Dutch modernist painter and poet Willem Hussem, influential within the Netherlands but largely unknown internationally. The abstract colorful paintings by Hussem are juxtaposed by crates, bluntly placed right in front of them and used to transport Lahuis’ work with. A display of industrial products reveal a system in which words evaporate through water. When is it that we feel change in the air? could have been adapted from one of Hussem’s poems tracing the ephemeral and poetic complexities of (art) history within our everyday changing environment.
Tosetti Value – Il Family office continues its support of Artissima, and for the second year in a row organizes an award for photography based on the desire to investigate the relationship between art and economics, and to widen the perspective on the real world.
The Tosetti Value Award for photography establishes a dialogue with “Perspectives. The economy of images”, a project on contemporary photography that began in 2014, curated by Tosetti Value per l’Arte with the objective of fostering debate and reflection on our globalized world through exhibitions and talks, in synergy with the economic research conducted by Family office. A jury of experts will select the artist whose photographic work is seen as particularly interesting for an understanding of the historical-social and economic situation of our globalized world. The winning artist, besides receiving a financial award, will have the chance to establish a dialogue with “Perspectives. The economy of images” during 2022.
The first edition of the Tosetti Value Award for photography, supported by Tosetti Value – Il Family office, was assigned to Raed Yassin, presented by the gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai. Tosetti Value – Il Family office acquired a work of the winning artist for its corporate collection.
Fatma Bucak, presented by the gallery Peola Simondi of Torino, is the winner of the second edition of the Tosetti Value Award for photography.
The prize has been awarded by an international jury composed of Walter Guadagnini, Director, CAMERA Centro italiano per la fotografia, Torino, Daphne Vitali, Curator, EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Raed Yassin, Artist and Giulia Tosetti with this motivation:
The prize goes to Fatma Bucak an artist whose photographic, performative and video work deals with current sociopolitical issues and specifically she addresses conflicts in Turkey and border issues. Her strong and emblematic photographic images capture the ever present tensions and she reconsiders issues of history making, memory, testimony and identity.
The Carol Rama Award, promoted by Fondazione Sardi per l’Arte and now at its second edition, will be assigned to the artist who embodies, through research and work, the ideal of unconventional female creativity and artistic freedom Carol enacted and transmitted with her works and personality.
The award takes its cue from the always vivid interest of Pinuccia Sardi in the work of Carol Rama, which in recent years has led to support for the creation of the catalogue raisonné of the artist’s works, to be published in 2021, and the acquisition of the contents of the artist’s home. The apartment at Via Napione 15, where Carol Rama lived and worked from the 1940s until her death in 2015, welcoming many personalities and artists, was listed in 2016 as an important national cultural asset, protected as an artist’s studio. In 2019 Fondazione Sardi per l’Arte acquired the complete contents of the residence from the artist’s heirs, and then ceded it on loan to Archivio Carol Rama, the current handler, to allow the home-studio to become a living, vital location for knowledge and study of the painter’s work, open to the public and researchers, to discover the creative independence of this artist who always eluded classification and the stereotypes of the world of women.
In 2020 the Carol Rama Award was assigned to Zehra Doğan, presented by the Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani, Milano, Lucca.
Ivana Spinelli, presented by GALLERIAPIÙ in Bologna, wins the second edition of the Carol Rama Award promoted by Fondazione Sardi per l’Arte.
The prize has been assigned by an international jury composed of Vittorio Calabrese, Director, Magazzino Italian Art, New York, Jean-Marc Prevost, Director, Carré d’Art-Musée d’Art Contemporain, Nimes, Letizia Ragaglia, Director, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, with this motivation:
The task of the jury of the Carol Rama Award was to identify a woman artist whose work stands out for its communicative force and narrative impact.
The jury has assigned the prize organized by Fondazione Sardi per l’Arte, now at its second iteration, to Ivana Spinelli, because across twenty years of practice she has analysed the relationship between the body and language. In particular, through rewriting and redrawing she reclaims an archaic language that gravitates around the figure of a divinity. The language of a proto-historical society, egalitarian and matriarchal, is taken into the present through sculptures, drawings, canvases and performative actions, all the way to forms of digital communication.
VANNI occhiali, the Torino-based brand of creative eyewear operating in over 40 countries around the world, confirms its support for Artissima which began in 2019 with the capsule collection by Cristian Chironi. By sponsoring the VANNI #artistroom Prize, the company continues its exploration of the possible contaminations between contemporary art and eyewear design. The international jury selects an artist under 35 whose research offers an original perspective on reality, opening an unexpected, surprising viewpoint, as through the action of a lens. Besides a financial award, the winner will have the opportunity to work on a capsule collection of artist’s eyewear, which will be produced in a limited edition and launched in 2022 at the MIDO Eyewear Show in Milano, and in Torino in collaboration with Artissima.
The jury will be chaired by the fashion designer Arthur Arbesser, who during Artissima will present an original installation at the project-space of the VANNI occhiali showroom on Piazza Carlina in Torino, based on the dialogue between his idea of fashion and that of the Torino-based firm.
Catalin Pislaru, presented by the gallery Nir Altman from Munich, wins the first edition of the VANNI #artistroom Prize.
The prize has been assigned by an international jury composed of Arthur Arbesser, Designer, Marco Sammicheli, Director, Museo Design Italiano Triennale, Milano, Marinella Senatore, Artist with the following motivation:
The jury assigns the VANNI #artistroom Prize to Catalin Pislaru, whose imaginary fosters fertile ties with European 20th-century visual culture, especially that of Russia. In his work, the plastic element of painting appears to be poised for a leap into three dimensions. It is possible to sense the potential of constructive applications, in which the compositional architecture of the image displays remarkable concrete versatility. The material culture, ability to work with wood and aluminium and courageous colour sense of the Moldovan artist based in Germany have convinced the jury to select him for this prize.
The new Xiaomi HyperCharge Award promoted by Xiaomi, the world leader in technology, is an acknowledgement for the artist under 35, selected among those present in Artissima, whose research best communicates the charge that innovation and culture can bring to contemporary society and how art can be the first step for restarting a process of transformation.
The idea for this award began with Xiaomi HyperCharge RestART, a project developed by the company with the aim of rapidly recharging mind and spirit through a natural energizer: culture. On the occasion of the launch of the new smartphone in Italy, a crew of seven students and alumni from the Department of Visual Arts at NABA, Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti, selected by Ilaria Bonacossa, the project’s exceptional mentor, were asked to recharge their batteries through Masterclasses held by leading Italian figures in the industries of cinema, design and fashion, and then to produce creative videographic content that will come to life in an exhibition dedicated to digital art at Artissima. The speed of smart charging was not only the common thread, but also the dimension with which to create interesting virtuous connections between different forms of contemporary art, making technology the real enabler.
Gillian Brett, presented by the gallery C+N Canepaneri of Milano and Genova, is the winner of the first edition of the Xiaomi HyperCharge Award.
The prize has been assigned by an international jury composed of Antonio Carloni, Direzione Arte, Cultura e Beni Storici, Intesa Sanpaolo, Stefano Collicelli Cagol, Independent Curator, Davide Lunardelli, Head of Marketing, Xiaomi Italia, Elisa Sighicelli, Artist with the following motivation:
The jury of the Xiaomi HyperCharge Award has decided to unanimously select the research of Gillian Brett for its ability to reimagine the use of discarded technological materials, granting them a new critical and aesthetic dimension.
Reassembling parts of broken and damaged screens, hence no longer suitable for their initial purpose, the artist recycles the materials through an abstract language, charging them with new meanings.
With wit and intelligence, Gillian Brett creates works that suggest the rethinking of everyday life from a perspective of ecology and science fiction.
The OGR Award, now in its fourth edition, is the prize of Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT that has been updated in its form and timing. Organized for the acquisition of a work presented by the galleries participating in Artissima, which narrates the complex and sophisticated relationship between art, technology and innovation, with an accent on digital developments, for this edition the OGR Award will conclude in the month of February 2022, in dialogue to accompany Surfing NFT, a special project launched in the fair and then further developed.
Surfing NFT is the first step of the new project Beyond Production, a conceptual platform launched by Artissima and Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT in 2021 that will be implemented on a yearly basis to stimulate and foster reflections on the most innovative trends of contemporary art.
Surfing NFT invites the contemporary artists presented by the galleries of Artissima to experiment the production of a work using NFTs (“Non Fungible Token”) and the blockchain technology. Thanks to the support of Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT and in collaboration with professionals of the digital and legal sector, Artshell and LCA Studio Legale, Artissima will offer 5 artists (selected by an international curatorial board through a call) the possibility of producing a digital work registered with NFT, uploading it to the blockchain and visualizing it on a dedicated project platform specifically created by Artshell, but without the obligation to sell it with the traditional process of trade in crypto-currencies. The chosen artists will receive a budget of 8000 euros each, made available by Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT.
The works will be presented on the dedicated platform in February 2022, on the occasion of an event held at OGR Torino, one of the most dynamic centres of cultural experimentation and production on a European level. Among the 5 works, one will be selected as the winner of the OGR Award and will be acquired by Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT for its collection.
The selection committee, composed of Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Director, Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli-Torino, Daniel Birnbaum, Artistic Director, Acute Art, London, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Gallery, London, identified at the fair the five artists selected for the project #SurfingNFT among which next February will be awarded the winner of OGR Award 2022.
The selected artists are: Darren Bader (Galleria Franco Noero), Claudia Comte (König Galerie), Matteo Nasini (Clima), Sarah Ortmeyer (Dvir Gallery), Damon Zucconi (Veda).
The Ettore and Ines Fico Prize, organized with MEF Museo Ettore Fico of Torino and now at its 11th iteration, has been updated with a continuing focus on the promotion and support of the work of young artists, through an acquisition. Andrea Busto (President and Director of the MEF Museo Ettore Fico, Torino) and the artistic board of museum will select the winner among the artists showing work at Artissima, thanks to his/her international research and poetics.
In the past editions the prize has been assigned to Alessandro Scarabello (The Gallery Apart, Roma, in 2020), Gugliemo Castelli (Francesca Antonini, Roma and Rolando Anselmi, Berlin/Roma, in 2019), Georgia Sagri (Anthony Reynolds, London, in 2018), David Douard (Chantal Crousel, Paris, in 2017), Gian Maria Tosatti (Lia Rumma, Milano/Napoli, in 2016), Anne Imhof (Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin, in 2015), Lili Reynaud-Dewar (Emanuel Layr, Vienna/Roma, in 2014), Petrit Halilaj (Chert, Berlin, in 2013), Luca Trevisani (Pink Summer, Genova, in 2012), Rä Di Martino (Monitor, Roma, in 2011) and Rossella Biscotti (Ida Pisani, Milano, in 2010).
Mimosa Echard, presented by Martina Simeti gallery, Milano, and Namsal Siedlecki, presented by Magazzino, Roma are the winners of the 12th edition of the Ettore and Ines Fico Prize.
The new “ad occhi chiusi…” Prize, based on collaboration between Artissima and Fondazione Merz, is inserted in the research activities of the foundation on young art of the Mediterranean, and offers an international artist selected from the participants at the fair in 2021 the possibility of a residency in Sicily. The research conducted during the residency period will be presented in the programming of ZACentrale at Cantieri Culturali della Zisa in Palermo.
The title of the prize takes its cue from a phrase by Marisa Merz, “When the eyes are closed they are extraordinarily open”, which prompts us to rethink how the artists – in the opacity of the general media riot, packed with images that are too fast and too superficial to be able to describe reality – offer a truly personal vantage point. Palermo and Sicily represent multifaceted territories containing multiple points of observation and perception, in which contradictions and resolutions coexist, starting from cultural, linguistic and narrative stratification. Territories in which sensory as well as physical boundaries are repositioned and altered by the actions of men and women in incessant transit. Due to this characteristic, these are places in which to look at things while remembering that “when the eyes are closed they are extraordinarily open”.
Each year the award will focus on a theme indicated by an international jury of experts, who will select the winner during the days of Artissima.
Heba Y. Amin, presented by Zilberman gallery, Istanbul and Berlin and Dominique White, presented by Veda gallery, Firenze are the winners of the first edition of the “ad occhi chiusi…” Prize.
The prize has been assigned by an international jury composed of Gioia Dal Molin, Head Curator, Istituto Svizzero, Roma, Agata Polizzi, Curatorial Coordinator, ZACentrale, Palermo with this motivation:
Heba Y. Amin (1980, Egypt, lives and works in Berlin). Striking elegance and poetic narration, dense with references and memories, but extremely precise at the same time, in an incisive focus on the complexity of the present. The intelligent irony with which the artist investigates sensitive issues of great political and social relevance is very special.
Dominique White (1993, Great Britain, lives and works in London and Marseille) works repeatedly with found materials, worn-out sails, ropes or buoys eroded by the sea, wood, palm fronds or seashells. The artist uses these items to develop installations that combine nautical myths of the African diaspora, ideas of Afro-futurism or the trauma of escape and migration.
The jury of the prize of Fondazione Merz “ad occhi chiusi…” is convinced that Heba Y. Amin and Dominique White, with their artistic practices and range of themes, can make an important contribution to the cultural and political reality of Palermo, enriching the vision of the Mediterranean region.
For the 28th edition of the fair, Artissima and Marval Collection initiate a dialogue on the promotion of young galleries.
The project “Marval Collection New Entries Support” calls for the activation of an acquisition fund set aside for galleries taking part in the New Entries section, open for least five years and showing work at the fair for the first time, along with those that have participated in the section in 2020 and 2019, and are now on hand for Artissima 2021.
Marval Collection announced at the fair the acquisition of the first edition of the Marval Collection New Entries Support:
Mimosa Echard (1986, Paris)
Untitled, 2021
Mixed media
175 x 90 cm
Martina Simeti gallery, Milano
Eliška Konečná (1992)
Monolog, 2021
Dyed velvet, embroidery, oak wood
130 x 95 cm
Eastcontemporary gallery, Milano
Nelson Pernisco (1993, Paris)
Fondere l’Universo Urano
95 x 95 x 17 cm
Casted aluminum, aluminum tubes
White Noise gallery, Roma
