MAXXI and Bvlgari support young art talents

MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE Exhibition opens with the artists shortlisted for the 2018 edition Talia Chetrit, Invernomuto and Diego Marcon

1 June – 28 October 2018 www.maxxi.art | www.bulgari.com | #MAXXIBulgariPrize

Rome, 30 May 2018. The 2018 MAXXI BVLGARI Prize, the museum’s project supporting and promoting young art, is gathering pace. This year, thanks to its important partnership with Bvlgari, it has been revised and enriched as it opens to the international artistic scene.

From 1 June to 28 October 2018, the works from this edition’s shortlisted artists - Talia Chetrit (1982), Invernomuto (Simone Bertuzzi, 1983 and Simone Trabucchi, 1982) and Diego Marcon (1985), will be shown in an exhibition at MAXXI curated by Giulia Ferracci.

Chosen by an international jury composed of David Elliott Independent Curator, Yuko Hasegawa, Artistic Director at MOT in Tokyo, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director at the Serpentine Galleries in London, Hou Hanru, Artistic Director at MAXXI and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Director of MAXXI Arte, the shortlisted artists were selected for their “awareness of the historical moment in which we are living and their capacity for expanding the confines of the artistic idiom”. Their works will now be featured in an exhibition from which the jury will choose a winner, and whose work will be acquired by the museum.

The press will be offered a preview of the exhibition, which will be inaugurated on Wednesday, 30 May by Giovanna Melandri, President of the Fondazione MAXXI, Jean Christophe Babin, CEO of the Gruppo Bvlgari, the judges Yuko Hasegawa, Hou Hanru and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, in the presence of the three artists. The exhibition will be open to the public from 1 June 2018. To help promote the prize around the world, it will have an Honour Committee that includes Giovanna Melandri and Jean Christophe Babin, along with the Oscar winning director Giuseppe Tornatore.

MAXXI, the first Italian national museum dedicated to contemporary creativity, and Bvlgari, an emblem of creativity and excellence for over 130 years, worked together for the first time in 2014, on the occasion of the exhibition Bellissima. The Italy of High Fashion 1945-1968, for which the maison was the main partner. With the MAXXI BVLGARI Prize, this partnership – based on shared values such as excellence, innovation, passion, creativity and experimentation and on an awareness of the importance of support for culture and the strategic role of the public-private alliance – is being consolidated. As Giovanna Melandri and Jean Cristophe Babin agree, “supporting young talents means investing in the creativity of our time and our future”.

Giovanna Melandri says, “I am particularly happy about this exhibition for various reasons. The Prize represents the founding nucleus of MAXXI’s permanent public collection, the ‘beating heart’ of the museum. Thanks to the prize, works by Vanessa Beecroft, Lara Favaretto, Nico Vascellari, Francesco Vezzoli and many others have been added to the collection. Today, thanks to the prestigious partnership with Bvlgari, the prize is even bigger and more important for us. Together with Bvlgari, an emblem of Italian creativity and quality, we have launched a six-year collaboration: a strategic alliance between public and private subjects in the name of culture and young art. I have frequently defined MAXXI as a ‘laboratory of the future’ and this exhibition reflects this idea in full. I would like to congratulate the three young finalists, who each reread, interpret and help us understand through their artistic research what are very complex times.”

Jean Christophe Babin, comments, “We have finally reached the exhibition of the first edition of the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE: the highly original and individual creativity of all the artists stimulates a profound reflection on the reality in which we live. The same drive for experimentation has always permeated the Bvlgari DNA. We are proud that the Maison is supporting the development of contemporary art while at the same time enriching the permanent collection of the MAXXI Museum, a point of reference at international level and for

the cultural life of the Eternal City. This prize represents an important commitment as supporting young artists means investing in a future of ideas, talent and passion.”

THE EXHIBITION Housed in the museum’s Gallery 4, the exhibition is mounted so that it is fluid and immersive, leading to the discovery of the finalists' unpublished or recently produced works and presenting the multiple sources of their inspiration.

The exhibition opens with Invernomuto (Simone Bertuzzi, Piacenza, 1983 and Simone Trabucchi, Piacenza, 1982, living in Milan) selected for their “research into global, social and political issues filtered through an imagery influenced by both pop and sub-cultures which makes their work personal and sincere”. The duo is presenting a new work at MAXXI, a complex installation composed of a film, a sound installation, a sculpture and a perfume, in that blend of diverse idioms that characterises their artistic research. An environment shrouded in half-light has as its focal point a large shaped screen on which is projected a short film, Calendola: SUROS, in a continuous loop. Images with an antique flavour, such as an elephant that appears to evoke the legend of Hannibal, alternate on the screen with other images taken on the beach at Sabaudia, where a group of three zombie-like figures are walking. These surreal images act as a backdrop to an audio track with high and low frequency sounds and a fragrance of an eastern flavour diffused in the air. The installation is completed with the sculpture ZOa, realised by applying plastic material to an original 1990 work by Mimmo Rotella entitled, Replicante. The installation, juxtaposing historical and contemporary elements, evokes a reflection on the diverse speeds of history and the colonial heritage of the western world.

The exhibition continues with Diego Marcon (Busto Arsizio, 1985, lives in Milan) chosen “for having taken an original and poetic approach to audio-visual experimentation and the use of cinematic genres and for his critical rereading of historical sites”. Diego Marcon is presenting a new work, Ludwig, a video projected on the entire wall that employs the CGI (computer-generated imagery) technology used in computer graphics for the rendering of digital special effects in film, television, advertising, video game simulations and all graphics applications. Ludwig presents us with the image of a child lighting a match in a suspended space that we then discover to be that of a ship at the mercy of a storm. As the match burns, the child sings a song with verses written by the artist that touch on themes related to the desperation and fatigue of existence. The match goes out, the music stops and then everything starts again in a loop. The music was composed by Federico Chiari and the work was performer by the Coro di Voci Bianche, Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan. This work, like others in his oeuvre, explores experimentation into the image and the evocative power of that which is not immediately visible.

The exhibition closes with Talia Chetrit (Washington D.C. 1982, lives in New York), chosen for “her ability to reinvent the use of photography, mixing past and present languages in her interpretation of relationships between the body, the gaze and identity”. Talia Chetrit is presenting the project Amateur, a body of over 20 photographs from her recent artistic output, together with images from her personal archive and a video. Exploring themes such as the spontaneity of the subject in front of the camera and the confine between the public and private spheres, Chetrit is frequently the protagonist in her own photos, as are her partner, her friends and her relations in a story that explores the mysteries of the confines of the body, intimacy, adolescence and sexuality. An image of her parents on the beach alternates with very intimate portraits and self-portraits, at times extremely explicit and erotic, shots in which she uses her own body to undermine the conventions of the self-portrait and its mechanisms of control. Chetrit make use of complex theatricality to describe the relationship between the subject and the viewer, as well as to explore the boundaries of vulnerability and exposure.

The MAXXI BVLGARI Prize is an important project that supports and promotes young artists. It represents the continuation and the evolution of the Premio MAXXI which has provided the founding nucleus of the museum’s collection and has served as a launchpad for many young artists, such as Yuri Ancarani, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Vanessa Beecroft, Lara Favaretto, Nico Vascellari, Francesco Vezzoli, among many others. Thanks to the extraordinary partnership with Bvlgari, the prize is today being renewed; it is growing and expanding its horizons with the objective of promoting, not only Italian artists, but also those of different nationalities who have over the last two years produced a new project in Italy within the public or private spheres.

The press kit and images of the exhibition can be downloaded from the Reserved Area of the Fondazione MAXXI’s website at http://www.maxxi.art/en/area-stampa/ by typing in the password areariservatamaxxi

MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts www.maxxi.art - info: 06.320.19.54; [email protected] opening hours: 11.00 AM – 7.00 PM (Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri, Sun) | 11.00 AM - 10.00 PM (Saturday) | closed Mondays. Admittance free for students of art and architecture from Tuesday to Friday

MAXXI PRESS OFFICE +39 06 324861, [email protected]

MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE: TALIA CHETRIT

The jury chose Talia Chetrit “for her ability to reinvent the use of photography mixing past and present languages in her interpretation of relation of the body, the gaze and identity”.

“What struck me about her perspective was the capability to cultivate a personal signature combining conceptual and formal qualities together in a unique way. Chetrit’s visual style alludes both to art history and commercial photography with references to the history of still lifes and the objectified representation of women within the first avant-garde movements.Talia Chetrit uses photography as a tool to manipulate the power structures embedded in the medium and to challenge the processes of image-making As Chetrit once said, she is interested in how reality can be translated and how that reality can become disorienting through the medium of photography”. (Luca Lo Pinto, a curator at the Kunsthalle Wien and founder of the magazine and publishing company Nero)

TALIA CHETRIT FOR MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE Talia Chetrit is an American photographer. Her work questions the relationship between reality and representation, by exploring the spontaneity of the subject before the camera and the boundary between public and private spheres. Chetrit herself is often the protagonist of her representations, just as her partner, friends, and family members frequently become the subjects of her images. The group of over twenty photographs within Amateur, presented on the occasion of the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE, consists of a selection from Chetrit’s most recent artistic output, images and a video from her archive, as well as new works. In the series of self-portraits taken between 2016 and 2018, Chetrit is depicted naked, partially or in full, photographed via a mirror or a cable release within her studio in New York. From the most explicit portrait included in the exhibition, Untitled (Body), 2018; to those in which the artist is more moderately exposed, like in Plastic Nude, 2016 or Self-portrait (All Fours), 2017; in the intense simplicity of two bodies lying on a beach, Beach Bags, 2018; to the faces of adolescent girls, like in Face #1, 1994/2017 and Ever (Wet), 2018; or in the image reflecting the artist and her partner having sex Studio Sex, 2016, Chetrit expresses an aesthetic that wavers between intimate suggestions and voyeuristic climax. The represented subject simultaneously escapes and exposes reality, becoming a type of pretext for a truth that is also artificial. For example, in the Murder Pictures, 1997/2017, a series of photographs taken by the artist as a teenager in the mid-1990’s, which portray made-up murder scenes, wherein veritable mise-en-scènes were carefully researched and recreated. Through both the provocation and the intimacy that her photographic plots arouse, Chetrit makes use of complex theatricality to describe the relationship between the subject and the viewer, as well as to explore the boundaries of vulnerability and exposure.

Talia Chetrit was born in 1982 in Washington D.C. She lives and works in New York. Her most recent exhibitions include: Showcaller, Kolnischer Kunstverein (Cologne 2018); kaufmann repetto (Milan/ New York 2016); Human lnterest: Portraits from the Whitney's Collection, Whitney Museum (New York 2016); Time Lapse, Tallinn Art Hall (Tallinn 2015); The Black Moon, Palais de Tokyo (Paris 2013). In 2016 Chetrit was shortlisted far the prestigious Aimia | AGO Photography Prize (Toronto).

MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE: INVERNOMUTO

The jury chose Invernomuto “for its ongoing interrogations of global social and political issues filtered through a local imagery influenced by both pop and sub cultures which makes their work personal and sincere”.

“Most of the projects by Invernomuto challenge the format of a canonical work. Since the very beginning, they have developed an approach which avoids the use of a single language or medium. Their practice suggests an expanded notion of art which can embrace sculptures, artifacts, music, performances, films where the boundaries are constantly renegotiated. (…) I admire and respect Invernomuto’s ongoing interrogations of global social and political issues filtered through a local imagery influenced by both pop and subculture which makes their work personal and sincere. The truly trans-disciplinary artistic practice of Invernomuto represents in this sense a standalone position in the actual scenario of contemporary art in Italy”. (Luca Lo Pinto, a curator at the Kunsthalle Wien and founder of the magazine and publishing company Nero)

INVERNOMUTO FOR MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE Invernomuto — the Italian translation of the name Wintermute, an AI entity in the novel Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984), which is, in turn, a mainstay of cyberpunk culture — includes Simone Bertuzzi and Simone Trabucchi, both of whom are artists and musicians. Their work is prismatic, an open device, a meeting place between different languages like music, video, sculpture, performance, and writing. The focus of their research is the boundary between fiction and reality, popular rituals, beliefs, urban culture, and the central role of lesser stories in the interpretation of the major events of our day and age. On the occasion of the prize, the duo presented a complex work consisting of a film, a sound installation, a sculpture, and a fragrance. Continuing from the research that began in 2016 with Calendoola—a series of works that exploits the structure of a TV series—Calendoola: SURUS it is a film based on the interweaving of two main stories that unfold on parallel spatial and temporal planes: on the one hand, the Sabaudia seafront, an example of a sea town founded during the Fascist period, where eerie figures, rather like zombies, wander close to the shore and Villa Volpi, the elegant and prestigious historical residence from the late 1950s; on the other hand, an elephant seen walking slowly in a deserted setting that is actually the scenery for a Roman circus. Evoking the legend of the commander Hannibal who crossed the Alps in 218 BC along with thirty-seven elephants and breathing new life into the body-relics of a not too distant past, the work is a knowledgeable reading of political extremes viewed through the lens of history. The time of the film is divided by a constant flow that is propagated in the high (series of directional speakers) and low (a subwoofer sound sculpture) frequencies present in space, and by a fragrance that bestows rhythm on the perception of the film sequences. In addition to these elements, the work Z0α is made up of Replicante, an original 1990 work by the artist Mimmo Rotella, which the artists were able to obtain by applying interventions of prosthetic make-up, the same kind that characterizes the protagonists of the film. The marked use of the artifice and the juxtaposing of historical and contemporary elements offer a sharp analysis conducted by Invernomuto of the mechanisms of power that characterize the interweaving of official history between violence and domination.

Simone Bertuzzi (1983) and Simone Trabucchi (1982) have collaborated under the pseudonym lnvernomuto since 2003. They live and work in Milano. Their work has been shown in both national and international museums, including The MAC (Belfast 2017), Museion (Bolzano 2017), Bozar (Brussels 2017), Centre d'Art Contemporain (Geneva 2017), Artspeak (Vancouver 2015), Hangar Bicocca (Milan 2011), as well as at events like Nuit Bianche 2017 (Paris) and Unsound Festival (Krakow 2017). lnvernomuto is currently working on a project for Manifesta12 (Palermo 2018).

MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE: DIEGO MARCON

The jury chose Diego Marcon “for taking an original, poetic approach to experimentation with audiovisual technology and cinematic genres and critical review of historical sites”.

The work of Diego Marcon is centered on the moving image. (…) His practice has often been described as an investigation of how we can contemplate reality in a conscious way, exploring the evocative potential of what is not immediately visible, of ambivalence. Themes that recur within this creative framework include sleep, boredom, and time conceived as circular, stretching toward infinity. (His current production) embodies these themes and formal qualities while developing on them in an even more original and sophisticated way (…) a new depth and maturity in the artist’s oeuvre, taking an original, poetic approach to experimentation with audiovisual technology and cinematic genres. It marks an important step within a rigorous analysis— sometimes wry, sometimes dark—of how images are multiplied and become redundant in today’s world, at the level of both production and consumption”. (Edoardo Bonaspetti, director and founder of the magazine, publishing house and agency Mousse)

DIEGO MARCON FOR MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE Poised between cinema and the visual arts, Diego Marcon’s works feature the use of both video and 35mm, 16mm, and Super8 film. The artist uses different techniques to explore the potential of the various media: intervening directly on the film with painting and etching, by way of traditional animation and, more recently, via the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI)—an array of computer applications used to realize special effects and animation for cinema, video games, and advertising. The artist’s work deals with the recurring themes of the human condition, such as pain, disease, ennui, and sleep, combining an analytical cinematographic approach—typical of structuralist cinema—with the more sentimental one of films made for entertainment or of a specific genre. The archetypes of such films—isolated from any attempt at creating a narrative—are explored in their disturbing dimension, often making use of the loop, which results in circular and suspended time. At MAXXI, Marcon presents Ludwig, his first video entirely made in CGI. Below the deck of a ship at the mercy of a storm, a child wearing a blue sweater and a yellow polo is illuminated by a lighted match which he holds in his hands as he sings, his voice interrupted as soon as the flame starts to burn his fingers and is snuffed out. The work is characterized by a musical composition inspired by the genre known as Lied, which was developed in nineteenthcentury in Germany, merging opera and popular songs. The major themes of Lieders are those typical of German Romanticism: personal and individual feelings that with great intensity run into powerful outside forces like nature, history, society, and existence. The text of the composition was written by the artist, the score for the piano and voice was composed by Federico Chiari, and the work was performed by the Coro di Voci Bianche of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan. In the implacable reproduction of the scene, which is repeated with slight variations due to the alternating of the flashes of lightning, each development and achievement in the narrative is denied, and time is suspended, generating a claustrophobic and obsessive atmosphere.

Diego Marcon was born in 1985 in Busto Arsizio, ltaly. His works have been show in international spaces and institutions like Whitechapel Gallery (London 2013), Fondation d'entreprise Ricard (Paris 2011), Centre international d'art et du paysage (Vassivière 2015), NAi- National Architecture lnstitute (Rotterdam 2009), Artspace (Auckland 2013), Matadero (Madrid 2016), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin 2010),Museo Villa Croce (Genoa 2015),PAC Padiglione Arte Contemporanea (Milan 2015, 2018) and Museion (Bozen 2017, 2018).

MAXXI BULGARI PRIZE | The Prize’s history

Between 2000 and 2016, 39 artists participated in the PREMIO MAXXI which over the years has seen new generations of artists grow and establish themselves on the Italian national and the international stage and has represented an important launching pad for many of them (Vanessa Beecroft, Lara Favaretto, Nico Vascellari, Francesco Vezzoli and many others). In 2017, two of the three artists selected by Cecilia Alemani for the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale that was a great critical and public success, are Giorgio Andreotta Calò, winner of the Premio MAXXI 2012, and Adelita Husni-Bey, one of the four finalists for the Premio MAXXI 2016..

Created as the Prize for Young Art, in 2001 it was staged in the spaces of the former Caserme Montello barracks in Rome (on the current MAXXI site) and then at the Venice Biennale for the next three editions (2003, 2005, 2007) before returning to MAXXI from 2010, the year the museum designed by Zaha Hadid Architects opened.

The Prize is responsible for the founding nucleus of the museum collection: through to the IV edition, all the works by the participants were added to the collection, while since 2010 the museum has acquired the winner’s work.

With the 2017/2018 edition, the prize has become MAXXI Bulgari Prize and has been transformed with the objective of promoting and valorising not just Italian artists but also those foreign artists who over the last two years have produced a new project in Italy within the ambit of public institutions and private situations. This will therefore be a period of significant growth for the project that is renewing itself and expanding its horizons as it plays an increasingly central role in the international debate over the visual arts.

In the 2000/2001 edition, 14 participants were asked to tackle the theme of migration: Mario Airò, Stefano Arienti, Massimo Bartolini, Vanessa Beecroft, Bruna Esposito, Stefania Galegati, Miltos Manetas, Margherita Manzelli, Eva Marisaldi, Liliana Moro, Paola Pivi, Alessandra Tesi, Vedovamazzei and Francesco Vezzoli. In 2003 the four short-listed artists were invited to create a work for what was then the National Centre for the Contemporary Arts, today MAXXI: Charles Avery, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Sara Rossi and Carola Spadoni. There were four in the 2005 edition too: Carolina Raquel Antich, Manfredi Beninati, Loris Cecchini and Lara Favaretto. The work Revenge by Nico Vascellari represents the 2007 edition of the Prize, the fourth. From 2010, following the opening of MAXXI to the public, the prize came home. From this edition MAXXI acquired only the work of the winner. The finalists were Rosa Barba, Rossella Biscotti, Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio and Piero Golia Rossella Biscotti was declared the winner with the installation Il Processo (currently on show at MAXXI in the new hang of the collection, The Place to Be) with a special mention for the De Serio brothers, whose video installation Stanze was subsequently donated to MAXXI. Giorgio Andreotta Calò won the 2012 edition with the installation Prima che sia notte: a remarkable space, both physical and mental, in which the image of the city outside, with its ochre buildings entered the museum, overturned and reflected on water thanks to the use of the technique of stenopeic photography. Patrizio Di Massimo, Adrian Paci and Luca Trevisani were the other finalists. Marinella Senatore won in 2014 with the work/performance The School Of Narrative Dance, a free touring school in which anyone can teach or study and in which the public becomes a protagonist in the process of constructing the work. The “classroom” was constructed in the piazza by the English architectural collective ASSEMBLE, winner of the Turner Prize in 2015. The other fianlsist were Yuri Ancarani (with the video work San Siro, subsequently donated to the museum by the Friends of MAXXI), Micol Assael and Linda Fregni Nagler. The winner in 2016 was ZAPRUDER filmakersgroup (David Zamagni, Nadia Ranocchi, Monaldo Moretti), with the work Zeus Machine: a gilded and elevated parallelepiped that stood as a mysterious object in the museum spaces and within which was screened a video inspired by the 12 Labours of Hercules. The other finalists were Riccardo Arena, Ludovica Carbotta (recipient of the special mention of the jury) and Adelita Husni-Bey.

MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE: INTERNATIONAL JURY

David Elliott is a British curator and writer who has directed museums in Oxford, Stockholm, Tokyo and Istanbul. He is currently Chairman of the Advisory Board of MOMENTUM in Berlin and Vice Director for International Initiatives, Senior Curator at the Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art and Arts District in Guangzhou. He is a specialist in Soviet and Russian avant-garde, as well as in modern and contemporary Asian Art. In 2008-10 he was Artistic Director of the 17th Biennale of Sydney, in 2011-12 directed the first edition of the International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Kyiv, 2012 to 2014, Artistic Director of A Time for Dreams, the IV International Moscow Biennale of Young Art, and2014-16, Artistic Director of The Pleasure of Love, the 56th October Salon in Belgrade. During 2015-16 his exhibitions included BALAGAN!!! Contemporary Art from the Former Soviet Union and Other Mythical Places, Shen Shaomin THERE IS NO PROBLEM and Social Fabric: new work by Kwan Sheung Chi and Marianna Hahn. His new book Art and Trousers: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Asian Art will be published by AAP, Hong Kong/New York in 2018.

Hou Hanru is a critic and curator based in Rome, Paris and San Francisco. He is currently the Artistic Director of MAXXI (National Museum of 21st Century Arts), Rome, Italy. Hou Hanru has curated and co-curated over 100 exhibitions for last two decades across the world including: The 2nd Johannesburg Biennial (1997), Shanghai Biennale (2000), Gwangju Biennale (2002), Venice Biennale (French Pavilion, 1999, Z.O.U. -- Zone Of Urgency, 2003, Chinese Pavilion, 2007), the 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (2005), The exhibition and public program of San Francisco Art Institute (2006-2012), The 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007), Trans(cient)City (Luxembourg 2007), The 10th Biennale de Lyon (2009), The 5th Auckland Triennial (2013). At MAXXI, Open Museum Open City (2014), Transformers (2015), Istanbul, Passion, Joy, Fury (2015), Please Come Back, the world as prison? (2017), “Piero Gilardi” (2017). He is currently co-curating “Growing in Difference, the 7th Shenzhen Hong Kong Bi-City Biennial of Urbanism and Architecture” (UABB 2017-2018)”, He is also a consulting curator of Chinese art for the Guggenheim Museum, New York, co-curating “Tales of Our Time” (2016), “Art and China after 1989, Theater of the World” (2017). He is an advisor for numerous cultural institutions, and he frequently contributes to various journals on contemporary art and culture and lectures and teaches in numerous international institutions.

Yuko Hasegawa is Artistic Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2016 - present) and Professor of Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts (2016-present). She was a Chief Curator and Founding Artistic Director (1999 - 2006) of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa and Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2006-2016). She is Artistic Director of Inujima Art House Project (2011-present). She named as Curator of 11th Sharjah Biennial (2013), Co-Curator of 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010), and Artistic Director of the 7th International Istanbul Biennial (2001). Her recent projects include the 7th International Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art: Clouds ⇄ Forests (September 2017).Japanorama: NEW VISION ON ART SINCE 1970 at Centre Pompidou-Metz (October 2017), KishioSuga: Situations at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2016), New Sensorium Exiting from Failures of Modernization at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (2016). She has also served on the jury for the Hugo Boss Prize, Guggenheim Museum (2002); Hermes Award, South Korea (2003); and the 48 Esposizione La Biennale di Venezia (1999), among others. Also she is a jury member of Hugo Boss Asia Art Award (2017, 2015, 2013).

Hans Ulrich Obrist is Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries, London. Prior to this, he was the Curator of the Muséed’ArtModerne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show “World Soup” (The Kitchen Show) in 1991 he has curated more than 300 shows. In 2017, Obrist has co-curated at the Serpentine Galleries solo shows for Lucy Raven, ZahaHadid, John Latham, Arthur Jafa, Grayson Perry as well as a group show with Tania Bruguera, Douglas Gordon, Laure Prouvost and Cally Spooner. In 2014 he curated the Swiss Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, where he presented Lucius Burckhardt and Cedric Price—A stroll through a fun palace; the building was designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, and the program was developed with artists Liam Gillick, Philippe Parreno, Tino Sehgal and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Obrist'sArt of Handwriting

project is taking place on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/hansulrichobrist/) and is a protest against the disappearance of handwriting in the digital age. In 2013, Obrist co-founded with Simon Castets the 89plus, a long-term, international, multi-platform research project, conceived as a mapping of the digitally native generation born in or after 1989. In 2011 Obrist received the CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence, in 2009 he was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and in 2015 he received the International Folkwang Prize for his commitment to the arts. Obrist has lectured internationally at academic and art institutions, and is contributing editor to several magazines and journals. Obrist’s recent publications include Conversations in Mexico, Conversations in Colombia, Ways of Curating, The Age of Earthquakes with Douglas Coupland and ShumonBasar, and Lives of The Artists, Lives of The Architects.

Bartolomeo Pietromarchi is an art critic and curator and, since May 2016, he has been Director of MAXXI Art, National Museum of the 21st century Arts. From 2011 to 2013 he was Director of MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome. From 1998 to 2003 he was responsible for the contemporary art program of Adriano Olivetti Foundation, of which he was appointed Director from 2003 to 2007. In 2007 and 2008 he worked as curator at the Hangar Bicocca Foundation of Milan. He wrote many essays and publications on art, the latest of which is Italia in opera, La nostra identità attraverso le arti visive edito da Bollati Boringhieri (2011). He curated the Italian Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition of Venice Biennale (2013)

MAXXI BULGARI PRIZE: SELECTORS

The three short-listed artists for the 2018 edition will be chosen by an international jury from a selection of names put forward by some of the most attentive and well-known young Italian curators and critics:

Edoardo Bonaspetti, director and founder of the magazine, publishing house and agency Mousse; Ludovica Carbotta, artist, one of the finalists from the 2016 edition of the prize, currently living and working in Holland; Luca Lo Pinto, curator at the Kunsthalle Wien and founder of the magazine and publishing company Nero; Matteo Lucchetti, curator of the department of Exhibitions and Public Programs of the BAK Centre for Contemporary Art in Utrecht - The Netherlands; Roberta Tenconi, curator at the Hangar Bicocca Pirelli in Milan; Chiara Vecchiarelli, independent curator.

BVLGARI’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ART

Bvlgari's close relationship with art starts with Rome, the city where the Maison was founded in 1884: that was the year in which Sotirio Bulgari opened his first shop in Via Sistina, at the top of the Spanish Steps. It was followed by another shop in 1894 in Via Condotti – the street facing the bottom of the Steps – at number 28, and then the historic shop at no. 10 Via Condotti in which all sales were concentrated from the Twenties onwards. So for many years the Spanish Steps linked the three Bvlgari points of sales, located in one of the areas that Romans and tourists love most for their passeggiata, their leisurely stroll through central Rome. In 2014, to celebrate the 130th anniversary of its foundation, Bvlgari decided to adopt the monument as a symbolic tribute to the city which has contributed so decisively to the success of the Maison. The restoration, completed in 2016, was financed with a contribution of 1.5 million euros and focussed on cleaning, reinforcing and protecting all surfaces, and improving public safety with the restoration of individual steps.

The Eternal City isn't just an exceptional backdrop for Bvlgari, but it is also an inexhaustible source of inspiration. In a continuing creative dialogue brimming with direct quotes and allusions, many elements of Rome's artistic and architectural heritage exquisitely find their way into the design of Bvlgari jewels. As a celebration of this precious affinity, in 2015 and 2016 the Maison financed the restoration of the polychrome floor mosaics of the western entrance palestra in the Baths of Caracalla; their fan motif with its pure and perfect lines inspired the Divas' Dream collection. Lastly, in 2016, to mark the opening of the SerpentiForm exhibition at the Museum of Rome – Palazzo Braschi, the Maison invested in the renovation of the lighting installation of the museum's grand staircase, to better illuminate the splendid stuccowork that decorates the ceiling of this architectural jewel in the heart of Piazza Navona.

Bvlgari's passion for art naturally extends its vision to the rest of Italy: also in 2015 two paintings by Paolo Veronese – Saint Jerome in the Desert and Saint Agatha Visited in Prison by Saint Peter - from the church of San Pietro Martire in Murano were restored by Venetian Heritage with Bvlgari's support. The canvases were the main attractions in an exhibition inaugurated last April in the Accademia Museum in Venice and from October 24th they will be exhibited at the Frick Collection in New York. Moving through time to the world of contemporary art, artists of the calibre of Zaha Hadid and Anish Kapoor have revisited one of the most popular icons of the Maison with their unmistakable style, the B.zero1 ring. Zaha Hadid is also behind an authoritative interpretation of Bvlgari's celebrated Serpenti motif with an evocative artistic installation which made its debut in 2011 in the Bvlgari pavillion at the Abu Dhabi Art Fair.

The most recent project on contemporary art is the SerpentiForm exhibition, which after having made its debut in 2016 in Rome at Palazzo Braschi, was opened on an even larger scale last year in Singapore, at the ArtScience Museum and in Tokyo at the Tokyo City View. The exhibition illustrates how the snake motif has inspired Bvlgari and many contemporary artists from all over the world such as Keith Haring, Niki de Saint Phalle, Motohiko Odani, Heri Dono, Wu Jian'an and many others. The MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE is thus an important project to further broaden the horizons of the Maison in the world of contemporary art investing in the creativity of the young who will be the stars of the future.

MAXXI, THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF 21st CENTURY

I see the MAXXI as an immersive urban environment for the exchange of ideas, feeding the cultural vitality of the city. It's no longer just a museum, but an urban cultural center where a dense texture of interior and exterior spaces have been intertwined and superimposed over one another. It's an intriguing mixture of galleries, irrigating a large urban field with linear display surfaces. Zaha Hadid

More than just a museum MAXXI is the first national museum dedicated to contemporary creativity. It opened in May 2010 and is run by a Private Foundation instituted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism. Conceived as a large campus for culture, MAXXI, designed by ZahaHadid Architects, winner of an international tender, is a great architectural work featuring innovative and spectacular forms. The collections of art, architecture and photography are on show, with free admission for all from Tuesday to Friday and every first every first Sunday of the month in Gallery 1 on the ground floor. The ground floor also hosts a permanent video gallery, while the square hosts large-scale installations, thus creating an open link between indoors and outdoors. MAXXI produces and hosts art, architecture, design and photography shows, as well as fashion, cinema and music projects, theater and dance performances, lectures and meetings with artists, architects, and some of the leading contemporary figures. MAXXI is more than just a museum: it is a platform open to all the languages of creativity, a place of encounter, exchange and collaboration, a space open to everyone.

Architecture MAXXI is located in Rome’s Flaminio quarter on the site of a disused army barracks. Convering an area of 29,000 square meters, with a large open square in the middle, it also hosts an auditorium, a research center with a library and archive, a bookshop/cafeteria and a café/restaurant. The architectural complex is integrated with the fabric of the city and constitutes a new open urban space that is articulated and “permeable” to transition. Inside, a large full-height hall leads to the galleries that develop over three floors, and host the museum’s permanent collections, shows and cultural events on a rotating basis. Glass, steel and concrete give the exhibition space a neutral appearance, while the mobile panels guarantee the flexibility of the installations. The fluid, sinuous shapes, the variation and interweaving of the levels determine a highly complex spatial pattern, thus offering visitors different and unexpected routes.

MAXXI, National Museum of 21st Century Arts Via Guido Reni 4 A, 00196 Roma, Italy www.maxxi.art | + 30 06 320.19.54

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enel.com

ENEL THE FIRST PRIVATE FOUNDING MEMBER OF MAXXI – NATIONAL MUSEUM OF XXI CENTURY ARTS

Enel’s participation as first private founding member in the Fondazione MAXXI will see the company offer it a membership contribution over the next three years, while also partnering the foundation in an ambitious energy efficiency plan for the MAXXI museum in Rome that will highlight sustainability and energy savings.

Culture, value and accountability are the guiding principles that have prompted Enel to forge partnerships with leading national and international institutions in order to implement innovative projects that give the public a vision of energy that is orientated towards the future. More specifically, Enel is committed to promoting art and music, putting its emphasis on young artists: in 2003 the Group became both a founding member of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and of the Teatro alla Scala and in 2015 of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Enel’s focus has always been on developing the best solutions for the economic and social development of the countries in which it operates, the enterprises that produce their wealth and the people, who are their driving force. The Group does this acting with respect for the environment and the communities that host its operations.

The world has changed. More people have more access to more powerful technologies than ever before. As people's lives become more connected, energy must equip individuals to do more. That's why Enel is committed to opening power to more people, technologies, uses and partners.

As a truly global business, Enel is perfectly placed to open power around the world. Enel operates in more than 31 countries, from Europe, to North America, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Enel connects more than 65 million customers to more reliable and increasingly sustainable power, drawing from a net installed capacity of more than 83 GW. Enel runs 2.1 million kilometres of grid network, supplying the largest customer base of any European energy company.

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Enel SpA – Registered Office: 00198 Rome – Italy - Viale Regina Margherita 137 – Companies Register of Rome and Tax I.D. 00811720580 - R.E.A. 756032 – VAT Code 00934061003 – Stock Capital Euro 9,403,357,795 fully paid-in.

SKY ARTE HD --- SKY CHANNELS 110, 130 and 400 –––

PAINTING, SCULPTURE, MUSIC, LITERATURE, DESIGN, ANCIENT AND CONTEMPORARY FORMS OFOFOF EXPREEXPRESSIONSSSIONSSSIONS::::

ART AND KNOWLEDGE ARE THE HEART OF TTHEHE PLATFORM

SKY ARTE HD it’s the first Italian TV channel dedicated to art in all its forms and it’s now available to all Sky subscribers (who have HD in their subscription) on channels 110110, 130 and 400 of the platform. Painting, sculpture, architecture, music, literature, theater, design and all forms of artistic expression are found within a single schedule dedicated not only to the fans who have the opportunity to deepen their interests, but also to the curious ones than can get closer to art in a brand new way, through both the major international productions (Sky Arts, BBC, Channel 4, Arte, PBS, Sundance Channel) and the original ones of the channel. Sky Arte HD tells the infinite resources of the world's artistic heritage, with a special consideration for the Italian extraordinary tradition and our artists’ talent and it uses a contemporary and never didactic language, characterized by the contamination of genres.

The channel hosts all the languages of art. On the one hand, the Sistine Chapel, which was presented on Sky Arte HD in all its expressive power thanks to the original production Michelangelo ––– The heart and the stone , broadcast on Sky 3D with an exclusive documentary on the Sistine Chapel, on 1 st November. On the other hand, the channel tells the provocations of Marina Abramovic and the charm of conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, or rock legends as Jim Morrison, eclectic talents as Tom Ford and the queen of photography Annie Leibovitz.

Among the original productionsproductions, there are programs especially created for children, such as Art explained to kidskids,,,, which uses cheerfulness to help children and parents to discover art as an element that can be part of everyone's life; furthermore, there are travels in the contemporary world, as Potevo farlo ananch’ioch’io hosted by Alessandro Cattelan and Francesco Bonami , who travel with us among the wonders and the paradoxes of the greatest masterpieces of contemporary life, with an ironic approach. Local events have a great relevance on the channel: exhibitions, shows and retrospectives will be told in the report Great ExhibitionsExhibitions,,,, which describes step by step the complex mechanism of an exhibition, from the transport of works to the vernissage. On the occasion of the Salone and Fuorisalone 2013, Sky Arte HD realized the original production De.signDe.sign,,,, which led the audience in the heart of Milan design week with daily capsules dedicated to the FuorisaloneFuorisalone, with a final report on the whole 2013 edition and an important doc series on the history of design. Another Sky Arte HD original production is BookshowBookshow, a show entirely dedicated to books that tells their story through a simple but in-depth tripartite structure: aaa book, aaa place, aaa guestguest. TheTheThe crossed destinies hotel is a carefree colorful cartoon which talks about particular meetings that have changed history; the set is a hotel where the room doors open and close on the fate of the protagonists. In June, Sky Arte HD presented ContactContact,Contact another original production that takes an extraordinary and fascinating journey in the forbidden city of photo proofs, near the famous photographers of Magnum Photos, the legendary agency founded in 1947. In October, Sky Arte presents Unveiled MasterpiecesMasterpieces:: Greta Scacchi will explain how a great artist, as well as an extraordinary artistic interpreter, can also be a real storyteller ofofof herherher timetime. In November a new season of Contact and Street ArtArtArt,Art ,,, an original production dedicated to the world of street art, will be broadcast on Sky Arte.

Sky Arte HD relies on the contributions of Enel, main sponsor of the channel and of its flagship shows, as Michelangelo – Il cuore e la pietra. Enel participates actively in the creation of ad-hoc productions, such as Corti di luce and the specials dedicated to Enel Contemporanea, the contemporary art project sponsored by the company, now in its 6th edition.

Sky Arts HD has also signed some important partnership with the Istituto Luce-Cinecittà and with festivals, exhibitions and fairs to tell the main Italian cultural events, such as the Festivaletteratura of Mantova, the RomaEuropa Festival and Artissima. Sky Arte HD will be a media partner of the MAXXIMAXXI: starting from the month of October, there will be some original productions which will describe the main exhibitions of the season of the National Museum of the Arts of the XXI century (MAXXI).

In line with modern language of programming, the channel has a strong presence on the web and on social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), thanks to the website www.skyarte.it and Sky Go, the streaming service program that allows youyouyou tototo watch SkySkySky ononon PCPCPC andandand smartphones. TheTheThe main contents ofofof SkySkySky Arte HDHDHD areareare also available ononon thethethe SkySkySky ononon DeDeDemandDe mand service.

«We are making a big commitment – says Roberto Pisoni, head of of Sky Arte HD – beacuse talking about arts on television, with all its facets and in a brand-new and original way is a great bet. Art, in its various expressions, both ancient and contemporary, both cultured and popular, is a life-changing experience, that offers an infinite source of exciting stories. We are proud to offer it to the Sky audience.»

Sky Arte HD Press Office MN – Cristiana Zoni – [email protected] Marilena D’Asdia – MN [email protected] Tel 06.853763 Sky Press Office – Elena Basso [email protected] Tel 02.308015837