MAXXI and Bvlgari join forces to support young talents in the arts

THE SECOND EDITION OF THE MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE PRESENTED IN LONDON

The three finalists selected by the international jury are GIULIA CENCI,TOMASO DE LUCA, RENATO LEOTTA

Their site-specific works will be exhibited at MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts from May 2020 www..art | www.bulgari.com | #MAXXIBvlgariPrize

London, 1 October 2019. Giulia Cenci (Cortona, 1988, lives and works in Amsterdam and Tuscany), Tomaso De Luca (Verona, 1988, lives and works in Berlin) and Renato Leotta (Turin, 1982, lives and works in Acireale, Sicily) are the three shortlisted artists for the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE, the project bringing together MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts and Bvlgari, an emblem of Italian excellence for over 130 years to support and promote young artists.

The three finalists and the new edition of the PRIZE, the outcome of the long standing partnership between MAXXI and Bvlgari, were presented today at the Bvlgari Hotel in London by Giovanna Melandri, President of the Fondazione MAXXI and Nicola Bulgari, Vice President of the Bvlgari Group, a great supporter of the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE, a passionate collector and patron of the arts.

The members of the international jury Hou Hanru, Artistic Director at MAXXI, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi Director of MAXXI Arte, Manuel Borja-Villel, Director of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and Emma Lavigne, President of the Palais de Tokyo, along with Lucia Boscaini, Bvlgari Brand and Heritage Curator, illustrated the PRIZE in a conversation with the journalist Suzanne Trocme. Present were the shortlisted artists Giulia Cenci, Tomaso De Luca and Renato Leotta, along with Giulia Ferracci, curator of the exhibition with the site-specific works created for the PRIZE on show at MAXXI from 7 May 2020. In October 2020, the jury will decree the winner, whose work will be acquired by the museum.

An evolution of the MAXXI Prize, which was responsible for the founding nucleus of the museum collection and which since 2000 has launched numerous new talents on the international scene, thanks to Bvlgari’s precious support, the prize has been renewed, strengthened, and launched ever more on the international art scene. The first edition of the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE organized in 2018 was won by Diego Marcon with the powerful video installation Ludwig, which is now part of the MAXXI collection.

“In 2020 the museum will be celebrating its 10th birthday”, says Giovanna Melandri, “and the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE will be one of the events celebrating this important anniversary, emphasizing the commitment to supporting young talents in the arts as one of the key aspects of the mission of this National Museum of Contemporary Art. The works of the three finalists, Giulia Cenci, Tomaso De Luca and Renato Leotta, intense and evocative, reflect on today’s society and explore the future. It will be a pleasure to have them at MAXXI and a privilege to have alongside us Bvlgari, a company that has contributed so much to Italian and international creativity, further evidence of the importance of a strategic rather than ephemeral cultural alliance between public and private.” As Jean-Christophe Babin, Bvlgari CEO, says: “Once again, the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE is an exceptional platform for the most promising talents in the contemporary art scene. The multiple languages adopted by artists stimulate a reflection on today's complex social and cultural situation, triggering a different perception of reality, and of the values that inspire it. The constant tension towards experimentation and the commitment to promoting young artists are the common ground of BVLGARI and MAXXI: I am sure that this new edition of the award will mark an important moment in international artistic research.” Hou Hanru, remarks that “This year’s selection of the candidates reflects a significant generation turn with artists born in the 1980s. They share a new sense of critique facing an increasingly uncertain world in imminent crisis — political, economical, ecological and psychological. They represent a new tendency of the young artists who are deeply concerned about the danger of the destruction of our living environments, both physical and virtual, and manage to develop plastic languages to cope with such a momentum, by reintroducing materiality, in fluid but intense change, tainted with anxiety. This implies a certain obsession with the exploration of a new global Zeitgeist. Again, the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE plays its role as a leader to demonstrate the upcoming future in the Italian and international art scene by putting forwards these individual but organically bound destinies of creative minds”.

MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE 2020: THE FINALISTS Giulia Cenci (Cortona IT, 1988, lives and works in Amsterdam and Tuscany) was chosen for “the aesthetic tension present in her work that restores sculpture to its central role within the visual arts debate, as well as for her reflection on society’s future scenarios.” She was proposed by Marianna Vecellio, Curator at Castello di Rivoli, Turin, who writes: “The works of Cenci are hybrid forms, resulting from the coexistence between living beings and an environment that is violently attacked by human beings. Through the study of form, the works of Cenci address the idea of the living being in the light of contemporary philosophical theories, which refer to the current age as the Anthropocene, a geological era that is the product of an irreversible action by human beings on the environment. Her works are the result of a formal, political and ontological “composting” process, and encourage us to change the way we look at the world, matter and human beings.” Tomaso De Luca (Verona, 1988, lives and works in Berlin) was chosen for “his ability to explore history’s different identities through the investigation of the role of objects in the contemporary social and political context”. As Lorenzo Benedetti, Curator at Kunstmuseum in St. Gallen, who proposed him writes: “Through the use of drawings, sculptures, videos and installations steeped in literary, philosophical and general culture references, Tomaso De Luca experiments with formal solutions in which the collective imagination is placed in a dialogue with a broader cultural spectrum. De Luca questions the symptoms of our society. A character of obsolescence seems to be present in his works creating a form of resistance to the consumerist nature of our time.” Renato Leotta (Turin, 1982, lives and works in Acireale, Sicily), was chosen for “the independent nature of his research within the Italian national art scene and for the narrative force of his works that echoes the existential condition of contemporary human beings.” He was proposed by Marianna Vecellio, Curator at Castello di Rivoli, Turin, who writes: Like a true archaeologist of reality, he observes the landscape to study its constitutive elements and capture its transient phenomena. Using different media, such as sculpture, photography, video, drawing and primary materials such as earth, sand and salt, he captures fragments of experience and turns them into mental pictures. In his works, he presents the reconstruction of an imagery, and through it he also provides a reconstruction of the cultural identity of today’s humanity, Moreover, his practice creates a poetic combination of apparently distant elements, such as history and the Mediterranean, the memory of places and reality, the sea and the earth, the North and South of the world.”

Bartolomeo Pietromarchi comments: “This year too we have young artists whose work already has a very well defined identity. For them, the challenge of the PRIZE – which continues to grow and has become the most important recognition for contemporary artistic research in Italy – is an extraordinary opportunity to test themselves and to develop. The finalists were selected from a list of names proposed by some of the most attentive and internationally well-known young Italian critics and curators. I would like to thank them all.” Lucia Boscaini added: “The commitment alongside the MAXXI is in the wake of the patronage activities that Bvlgari promotes to preserve the artistic and cultural heritage of the Eternal City. The MAXXI is a museum that was born in and has always been open to the world, just like Bvlgari. This partnership in the name of innovation and constant creative research stems from shared values. For each edition, the Prize boasts the collaboration of leading international professionals and contributes to making Rome a pole of attraction for those who love the art of the past, present and future.”

MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE INTERNATIONAL JURY Hou Hanru, MAXXI Artistic Director; Bartolomeo Pietromarchi Director MAXXI Arte; Manuel Borja-Villel, Director Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid; Emma Lavigne, President of Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Victoria Noorthoorn, Director Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (who was unable to attend the event in London due to prior commitments).

The three finalists for the 2020 edition were chosen from a selection of names put forward by: Cecilia Alemani, Director of High Line Art in New York, Laura Barreca, Director of the Civic Museum of Castelbuono in Palermo, Lorenzo Benedetti, Curator at Kunstmuseum in St. Gallen, Stefano Collicelli Cagol, Curator for the 17th Rome Quadriennale d’arte, Caterina Riva, Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Singapore, Marianna Vecellio, Curator at Castello di Rivoli, Ilaria Marotta and Andrea Baccin, founder of the independent platform CURA, Rome.

HISTORY OF THE PRIZE The Prize, created in 2000 as the ‘Premio per la Giovane Arte’, represents the point of departure and the birth of the MAXXI Arte collection. Over the years it has been an important springboard for many artists. Between 2001 and 2018 42 artists have taken part in the nine editions and include; Mario Airò, Yuri Ancarani, Giorgio Andreotta Calo’, Stefano Arienti, Rosa Barba, Massimo Bartolini, Vanessa Beecroft, Rossella Biscotti, Bruna Esposito, Lara Favaretto, Piero Golia, Adelita Husni-Bey, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Liliana Moro, Marinella Senatore, Nico Vascellari, Vedovamazzei, Francesco Vezzoli among many others. The first MAXXI BVLGARI Prize (2018) was awarded to Diego Marcon, with the powerful and evocative video installation Ludwig, now part of the MAXXI Collection. The other finalists were Talia Chetrit and Invernomuto, whose work Calendoola: SURUS was acquired by MAXXI thanks to the contribution of the Friends of MAXXI.

MAXXI AND BVLGARI TOGETHER FOR YOUNG ART Bvlgari’s involvement with this award represents a continuation of the tradition of prestigious partnerships with contemporary artists such as Zaha Hadid and Anish Kapoor who reimagined, with their unmistakable styles, one of the maison’s most admired icons, the B.zero1 ring. Zaha Hadid was also responsible for a virtuoso reinterpretation of Bvlgari’s celebrated Serpenti motif with an evocative artistic installation that debuted in 2011 in the Bvlgari pavilion at the Abu Dhabi Art Fair. Relations between MAXXI, the first Italian national museum dedicated to contemporary creativity, and Bvlgari, were first established in 2014, on the occasion of the exhibition Bellissima. The Italy of high fashion 1945- 1968, of 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 renewed and consolidated. As Giovanna Melandri and Jean Christophe Babin, agree, “supporting young talents means investing in the creativity of our time and our future”.

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/area-stampa/ by typing in the password areariservatamaxxi

MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts www.maxxi.art - info:+39 06.320.19.54; [email protected] opening hours: 11.00 AM – 7.00 PM (Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) | closed Mondays

For further information:

PICKLES PR Maria Cristina Giusti, +39 339 80 90 604 [email protected] , Zeynep Seyhun +39 349 00 34 359 [email protected]

MAXXI PRESS OFFICE +39 06 32 48 61 [email protected]

MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE 2020: GIULIA CENCI

The jury chose “Giulia Cenci, for the aesthetic tension present in her work that restores sculpture to its central role within the visual arts debate, as well as for her reflection on society’s future scenarios”.

“The works of Cenci are hybrid forms, resulting from the coexistence between living beings and an environment that is violently attacked by human beings. Through the study of form, the works of Cenci address the idea of the living being in light of contemporary philosophical theories, which refer to the current age as Anthropocene, a geological era that is the product of an irreversible action by human beings on the environment. Her works are the result of a formal, political and ontological “composting” process, and encourage us to change the way we look at the world, matter and human beings. I believe that the research of Cenci tackles the burning topics of our present time, such as the environment, pollution, gender issues, and globalization, and that the relevance of her art for today lies in the very fact that it offers a new perspective on the notions of “being” and “nature”, which are therefore no longer envisioned as “I”, “you”, and “they”, but are rearranged in an experience that illustrates their being in relation with one another”. (Marianna Vecellio, Curator at Castello di Rivoli, Torino)

Giulia Cenci (Cortona IT, 1988, lives and works between Amsterdam and Tuscany). Graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, IT (2007-2012), Cenci received a Master of Fine Arts at St.Joost Academy, Den Bosch-Breda, NL (2013-2015) and she took part in deAteliers residency, Amsterdam, NL (2015-2017). Selected solo shows: Da lontano era un’isola, curated by C. Rekade, Kunst Merano Arte, Merano, IT; ground ground, SpazioA, Pistoia, IT; a través, Carreras Mugica (Hall), Bilbao ES; Offspring 2017 - DEEP STATE, curated by L. Almarcegui and M. Hendriks, De Ateliers,Amsterdam, NL; Mai, Tile Project Space, Milano, IT. Group shows include: 15th Lyon Biennale / Jeune création internationale, curated by Palais de Tokyo, Institute of Contemporary Art, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes, FR; Comrades of time, curated by Whatspace, Hardspace, Basel, CH; FutuRuins, curated by D. Ferretti, D. Ozerkov, with D. Dalla Lana, Palazzo Fortuny, Venezia, IT; That’s IT!, curated by L. Balbi, MAMBO, Bologna, IT; Hybrids, curated by C. Driessen & D. Jablonowski, Lustwarande, Platform for Contemporary Sculpture, park De Oude Warande, Tilburg NL; Sessile, curated by J. Minkus, Clifford Gallery, Colgate Univesity, Hamilton New York, USA; The Lasting. L’Intervallo e la Durata, curated by S. Cincinelli, GNAM, Roma, IT. She has been recently awarded the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel 2019. .

MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE 2020: TOMASO DE LUCA

The jury chose “Tomaso De Luca, for his ability to explore history’s different identities through the investigation of the role of objects in the contemporary social and political context."

“Through the use of drawings, sculptures, videos and installations steeped in literary, philosophical and general culture references, Tomaso De Luca experiments with formal solutions where the collective imagination is put into dialogue with a broader cultural spectrum. His artistic research moves towards a synthesis between formal expedients and cultural references, comparing a complex past that develops between an archaic sense of modernity and an outdated postmodernism. The relationship between form and language conceals elements that have a rich connection to a cultural context imbued with references to historical figures and archetypes of modernism. These help to reflect on our historical situation through a kaleidoscopic landscape of cultural references. With formal solutions, De Luca questions the symptoms of our society. A character of obsolescence seems to be present in his works creating a form of resistance to the consumerist nature of our time. De Luca succeeds in instilling in us the conceptual and intellectual characters of our time almost as a mirror of time”. (Lorenzo Benedetti, curator at Kunstmuseum St.Gallen)

Tomaso De Luca (Verona, 1988, lives and works in Berlin). Graduated in 2011 at NABA, Milan. In 2017 De Luca received the Cy Twombly Fellowship of the American Academy in Rome (IT), in 2013 was one of the finalists of the IX PREMIO FURLA, (IT), in 2012 took part of the artists in residence programme LES PROMESSES DE L’ART, at IIC Paris (FR). Selected solo shows: The Passive Vampire, curated by Lorenzo Benedetti, Museo Archeologico di Potenza (IT), Ein Reiner Morgen in Amerika, Monitor Roma (IT), Frieze of the Intruder, Monitor Studio New York (US), SALOPP GESAGT SCHLAPP, curated by Fanny Gonella, Künstlerhaus Bremen, Brema (DE), An Incomplete Portrait of Anchise, Van Horbourg, Zurigo (CH), Tropical Malady, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, IIC Paris, Parigi (FR) e The Sleepers, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, MACRO Roma (IT). Selected group shows at MAMBO, Bologna (IT), IIC New York (US), CAC Vilnius (LT), American Academy in Rome, Roma (IT), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino (IT), SongEun, Seoul (KR), Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro (BR), GNAM, Roma (IT), Centre d’Art Contemporain, Noisy-le-Sec, Paris (FR), Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia (IT). Since 2012 collaborates with the Monitor Gallery, Roma, Lisbona.

MAXXI BULGARI PRIZE 2020: RENATO LEOTTA

The jury chose “Renato Leotta, for the independent nature of his research within the Italian national art scene and for the narrative force of his works that echoes the existential condition of contemporary human beings."

The practice of Leotta has always been connected to the act of contemplation: like a true archaeologist of reality, he observes the landscape to study its constitutive elements and capture its transient phenomena. Using different media, such as sculpture, photography, video, drawing and primary materials such as earth, sand and salt, he captures fragments of experience and turns them into mental pictures. His production addresses the existential nature of the human being who, although not directly visible in his works, can be perceived in the sensory dimension of experience. Human beings themselves are not the subject of the work, but are present in the mental act of its making, in the observation of experience. I consider Renato Leotta to be one of the most interesting artists of his generation. In his works, he offers the reconstruction of an imagery, and through it he also provides a reconstruction of the cultural identity of today’s humanity. In a complex situation like the one we are living in, such a restructuring could not be more necessary: in a digital society, which is the product of the Internet and of a globalized world, Renato Leotta returns to the “here and now”, blending subjectivity and participation, inclusion and singularity. In lieu of the cult of exposure typical of the online world, Leotta rescues “pure being” and, by giving us the opportunity to discover a new sensibility, restores meaning to our being of the world and in the world. Moreover, his practice creates a poetic combination of apparently distant elements, such as history and the Mediterranean, the memory of places and reality, the sea and the earth, the North and South of the world, thus giving us access to the experience of observation, and teaching us how to see. (Marianna Vecellio, Curator at Castello di Rivoli, Torino)

Renato Leotta (Turin, 1982, lives and works in Acireale, Sicily, IT). Renato Leotta’s work is rooted in the act of the observation, using the landscape as a subject. As an archeologist of the Real, Renato Leotta tries in his processes of observation to identify and circumscribe a series of images, visualized through different media, that although being related to a specific time and space contain a universal character. His work is focused on the the sea and on the garden, like a poetical themes of the man and of the nature. His recent solo exhibitions include: Renato Leotta, NYU Casa Zerili Marimò & Magazzino Foundation, New York (2019); Eine Sandsammlung, Kust Halle St. Gallen, St. Gallen (2018); AMICIZIA, Madragoa, Lisbon (2017); Aventura, Madragoa, Lisbon (2016); Piccola Patria, Fonti, Napoli (2015), Museo (cavalli cavalli), Cripta747, Torino; Selected group exhibitions include: Garden of Earthly Delights, Curated by Stephanie Rosenthal with Clara Meister, Gopius Bau, Berlin(2019); Manifesta12, Palazzo Butero, Palermo (2018); Matrix for actual time, MAC Sao Paulo, Brazil (2018); Quadriennale di Roma, Rome (2016); Intuition, Palazzo Fortunity, Venice (2017); Pompei@Madre. Materia Archelogica; curated by Andrea Viliani (2016) Madre, Napoli. Leotta is a co-founder of CRIPTA747 in Turin.

MAXXI BULGARI PRIZE. The story of the Prize

Between 2001 and 2018 42 artists have taken part in the nine editions and include: Mario Airo,̀ Yuri Ancarani, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Stefano Arienti, Rosa Barba, Massimo Bartolini, Vanessa Beecroft, Rossella Biscotti, Bruna Esposito, Lara Favaretto, Piero Golia, Adelita Husni-Bey, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Diego Marcon, Liliana Moro, Marinella Senatore, Nico Vascellari, Vedovamazzei, Francesco Vezzoli, among many others.

Created as the Prize for Young Art, in 2001 it was staged in the spaces of the former Montello army 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 2017-18 edition, the award now named MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE grew and gained further relevance, playing a key role in the international debate on contemporary visual arts, thanks to the valuable support of Bvlgari, also promoting those foreign artists who have recently created new projects in Italy within the ambit of public institutions and private situations.

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.

The first MAXXI BVLGARI Prize (2018) was awarded to Diego Marcon, with the powerful and evocative video installation Ludwig, that has become part of the MAXXI Collection. The other finalists were Talia Chetrit and Invernomuto, whose work Calendoola: SURUS was acquired by MAXXI thanks to the contribution of the Friends of MAXXI.

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 . 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 ; 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 . In 2019, Bvlgari committed for a new patronage initiative for the Eternal City: thanks to a new agreement with the Municipality of Rome, one million Euro has been devoted to the Area Sacra in Largo Argentina in order to make the archaeological site once again accessible for tourists and citizens.

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. 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 in Singapore, at the ArtScience Museum, in Tokyo at the Tokyo City View, and in 2019 in Chengdu (China) at the Chengdu Museum. 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. In 2018, on the occasion of Art Basel Miami Beach Bvlgari collaborated with the artist Raúl de Nieves in partnership with the non-profit organization Art Production Fund for the creation of the sculpture When I Look in to Your Eyes exhibited at the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach. 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.

ABOUT 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 a just a Museum MAXXI is the first national museum dedicated to contemporary creativity. It opened in May 2010 and runs by a Private Foundation constituted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. Conceived as a large campus for culture, MAXXI, designed by ZahaHadid Architects, covering an area of 29,000 square meters, is a great architectural work featuring innovative and spectacular forms. MAXXI is a platform open to all the languages of creativity, a place of encounter, exchange and collaboration. Its Art collection, that is continuously growing, includes 515 works (with works by Anish Kappor, Mario and Marisa Merz, William Kentridge Alfredo Jaar, Mark Bradford, Francesco Vezzoli, among others), while Architecture and Architectural Photography collections 210.000 works and documents The collection is open free to the public from Tuesday to Thursday and, until 31 October 2019, every first Sunday of the month. From November 2018, the collection has featured in a new presentation that includes donations, loans and recent acquisitions, with a significant selection of art and architecture works and installations displayed in rotation. On show, among others, works by Stefano Arienti, Alighiero Boetti, Monica Bonvicini, , Katharina Grosse, Joan Jonas, Hans Op de Beeck, Eduardo Stupía, Marco Tirelli, Giulio Turcato, Lauretta Vinciarelli, Bill Viola. 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. A special attention is dedicated to photography, a line of research strongly fostered by Giovanna Melandri, President of the MAXXI Foundation, with masters of photography such as Luigi Ghirri, Letizia Battaglia, Paolo Pellegrin, Elisabetta Catalano, Paolo Di Paolo, Olivo Barbieri, Petra Noordkamp, Paola De Pietri, just to name a few.

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 4a-8, 00196 Roma, Italy www.maxxi.art | + 30 06 320.19.54