In its eighteenth edition — which, as is traditional, took place across the whole of Italy, involving museums, foundations, public and private institutions, galleries, studios and artists’ spaces — the Giornata del Contemporaneo returned in October, in person, with the aim of showcasing the renewed vitality of contemporary art in Italy after the restrictions caused by two years of pandemic. The event nonetheless kept a hybrid format, both physical and digital, to encourage and enhance the widest possible participation with online and offline offerings, and its guiding thread was the theme of ecology, connected to that of sustainability: global urgencies that confront us with the need to rethink the contemporary art system through renewed awareness and a more widespread sensitivity.
To give shape to this reflection, the directors of the member museums decided to entrust Giorgio Andreotta Calò (Venice, 1979) with creating the event’s guiding image, a role that in previous years had involved Michelangelo Pistoletto (2006), Maurizio Cattelan (2007), Paola Pivi (2008), Luigi Ontani (2009), Stefano Arienti (2010), Giulio Paolini (2011), Francesco Vezzoli (2012), Marzia Migliora (2013), Adrian Paci (2014), Alfredo Pirri (2015), Emilio Isgrò (2016), Liliana Moro (2017), Marcello Maloberti (2018), Eva Marisaldi (2019) and Armin Linke (2021).
The image chosen by the artist is Icarus (2021–2022), the final piece of an articulated project created by Giorgio Andreotta Calò starting in 2019. From the half-light, a moth emerges in the foreground, its wings concealing the face of a young man who appears to offer it his hand, in a gentle gesture of support. The moth and the young man appear to be in communication, and for a moment the moth’s delicate wings seem to become an extension of the young man’s fingers, as if a process of metamorphosis were beginning as the sun sets. Dusk thus becomes the moment of possibility, that territory of transition between the known and the unknown, in which an adolescent transforms into a young man and, unfurling his still-fragile wings for the first time, takes on the responsibility of becoming an adult and flying alone into the world.
In the year the Giornata del Contemporaneo turns eighteen, Giorgio Andreotta Calò’s image responded, in a symbolically open way, to the invitation to reflect on the environmental crisis, emphasising the importance of passing the baton to the new generations — tomorrow’s adults — to whom we hand the responsibility of building a future better than the present we leave them as their inheritance.
Thanks to the collaboration with the Directorate-General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, this year too the Giornata del Contemporaneo – Italian Contemporary Art was extended abroad from Saturday 8 to Friday 14 October 2022, with 60 initiatives organised by Embassies, Consulates and Italian Cultural Institutes and other overseas bodies worldwide to support Italian contemporary art beyond national borders.
The Eighteenth Giornata del Contemporaneo, as in previous editions, presented several strands of activity: an ad hoc programme from the AMACI member museums, which offered a particular focus on activities dedicated to eighteen-year-olds; initiatives developed in collaboration with MAECI’s overseas network (Embassies, Consulates and Italian Cultural Institutes abroad); the involvement of the Luoghi del Contemporaneo network promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture; and, finally, proposals from participating organisations which, added to the above, made the event far-reaching, bringing out the widespread network of cultural bodies vigorously promoting the various languages of Italian contemporary art both nationally and internationally. As always, the event was marked by free admission and free participation in all initiatives.
In testimony to the event’s well-established significance and its role within the national system, the Head of State, Sergio Mattarella, once again this year awarded the Giornata del Contemporaneo the Medal of the President of the Republic.
This year too, the Giornata del Contemporaneo benefited from the support of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, the collaboration of the Directorate-General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the patronage of the Representation in Italy of the European Commission, the Senate of the Republic, the Chamber of Deputies, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, UPI – Union of Italian Provinces, ANCI – National Association of Italian Municipalities, and ICOM Italia.
For the eighteenth Giornata del Contemporaneo, AMACI was again supported by its technology partner Artshell, Italy’s first software made for managing and enhancing art collections. This year too, Artshell supported the visitor experience through the AMACI platform and its map function, which enabled more than 13,000 unique users to navigate the Giornata del Contemporaneo’s events interactively, with a 70% increase in views compared with 2021.
