RE­NAIS­SANCE

Exhibition
Design: Studio Mut
23.03.—01.09.2024

Opening and VG Award Ceremony: 22.03.2024, 19:00
Press preview: 21.03.2024, 12:15
Curated by Leonie Radine
Exhibition design by (ab)Normal

AliPaloma, Monia Ben Hamouda, Costanza Candeloro, Filippo Contatore, Isabella Costabile, Binta Diaw, Giorgia Garzilli, Sophie Lazari, Lorenza Longhi, Magdalena Mitterhofer, Jim C. Nedd, Luca Piscopo, Raphael Pohl, Davide Stucchi, Tobias Tavella

Monia Ben Hamouda, Resisting (Aniconism as Figuration Urgency), 2023, About Telepathy and other Violences II (Aniconism as Figuration Urgency), 2023, About Telepathy and other Violences (Aniconism as Figuration Urgency), 2023, Laser cut iron, spice powders Courtesy of the artist and ChertLüdde, Berlin, Photo credits: Luca Guadagnini

Museion, Bolzano’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, is pleased to announce its highly anticipated exhibition devoted to the celebration of young contemporary artists from South Tyrol and Milan. RENAISSANCE highlights transdisciplinary artistic positions who share a commitment to a regenerative and critical examination of their cultural heritage.

On the occasion of one of the highest grants for young art in Europe, awarded by the Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation, Museion presents an exhibition featuring selected works by 15 young artists from northern Italy. Despite the diversity of their practices – including sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, video, photography, and performance – all artists share a regenerative approach towards remnants from the past. How does a young generation of artists process their weighty cultural heritage, shaped by aesthetic and social “standards”, values, role models, icons, or expectations of the artist figure? How do they build upon ruins of the past which still cast long shadows?

Tobias Tavella, Atmosphere Conductors: Bridging the Urban-Natural Divide, 2023, Mixed media, Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist, Photo credits: Luca Guadagnini

All 15 artists in the exhibition use found methods, images, or materials to lay bare the foundations of hegemonic patterns of representation in order to build something new on top of them. While some set out to trace traditional rituals and spiritual practices, along with the experiences of migration or the family histories that accompany them, others undertake a critical analysis and re-evaluation of formative pop-cultural images, urban fictions, or stereotypical gender roles in literature, film, design, architecture, and advertising. Several of the artists devote themselves to recycling waste products from the creative industries, in which they sometimes work at the interface between fine and applied arts. In various transdisciplinary ways, all the artists address questions of belonging based on an understanding of cultural identity as something fluid and not set in stone. In this sense, familiar regenerative concepts of “Renaissance” or “Arte Povera” are translated into the Now and take on a new meaning.

The Milan-based design collective (ab)Normal created the exhibition’s  scenography which, through the interplay of backgrounds, lights, and shadows, enables a fluid walkthrough between the various positions.

RENAISSANCE takes place in conjunction with a grant of 60,000 Swiss francs, which the Swiss-based Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation annually awards in collaboration with an European art institution – in 2024 this is Museion – to an artist from the respective region up to the age of 35.

(ab)Normal, Renaissance, 2023 Exhibition design 

The exhibition forms the base from which the grantee will be selected by an independent international jury. There are no conditions attached to the use of the grant money given to the recipient of the VG Award.

On the occasion of the exhibition the first Museion Private Founders Award will be assigned, as well an Audience Award. Both these prizes are linked to acquisitions for the Museion collection.

Giorgia Garzilli, Never odd or even, 2023, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 195 × 115 cm RENAISSANCE, Exhibition view, Photo credits: Luca Guadagnini

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with texts about all participating artists, edited by Leonie Radine.

Collateral events

22.03.2024
17:00–00:00

OCCUPY Museion – THE YOGA OF STEALTH, curated by Haunter Records and Museion Art Club. Talk about Macao Milano, followed by a live performance by the Boli Group, a live performance by Cecilia and a DJ set by Lutto Lento

14.04.2024, 14:00

Leonie Radine about RENAISSANCE, miartalks – Milan’s international modern and contemporary art fair 

RENAISSANCE. 
New regenerative artistic practices

Leonie Radine, Curatrice di MUSEION, Bolzano, in conversazione con Lorenza Longhi, artista

16.04.2024
15:00–17:00

Erzähltreff / Incontri di Storie – Die Geister der Vergangenheit / I fantasmi del passato (DE/IT)

08.06.2024
​14:00–17:00

Im Kontext / Nel contesto with Filippo Contatore in the forgery of Franz Messner (DE/IT)

27.06.2024
​19:00

Curator’s tour with Leonie Radine (ENG)

22.07.–26.07. & 29.07.–02.08.2024
​9:00–13:00

Museion Art Club Young – SummerLab for youngs between 11 and 14 yo with Isabella Costabile and Sophie Lazari, artists from RENAISSANCE (DE/IT)

25.07.2024
18:00 + 19:00

Performances by Magdalena Mitterhofer and by Sophie Lazari in the exhibition in collaboration with BolzanoDanza/TanzBozen

RENAISSANCE

Exhibition

Curated by Leonie Radine
Exhibition design by (ab)Normal

Institutional partners
Autonomous Province of Bolzano South Tyrol Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Bolzano - Stiftung Südtiroler Sparkasse Museion Private Founders
Main Partner & VG Award 2024
Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation
Media Partners
MOUSSE Robinson la Repubblica
In collaboration with
Biennale Gherdëina 9 Bolzano Danza – Tanz Bozen

Museion Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bozen/Bolzano is looking for an Event Manager who is creative and flexible, with negotiation skills, organizational talent, drive, team spirit and lots of initiative.

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