Since 2005, the Giornata del Contemporaneo has earned particular attention from the wider public and from industry professionals for the important role it has played in promoting contemporary culture. Over eleven years, the Giornata del Contemporaneo has helped to build a map of today’s art that has involved not only the major cities but also smaller centres, which have always been very active, where museums have taken on the role of cultural hubs with the mission of presenting and promoting the work of contemporary artists, highlighting the important role that the contemporary plays in the cultural, social and economic development of our country.
This year in particular, the number of organisations taking part in the event is growing again: more than 950 museums, galleries, associations and public and private art venues have confirmed they will open free of charge.
As in previous editions, AMACI entrusted the creation of the Giornata del Contemporaneo’s guiding image to an internationally renowned Italian artist. Following Michelangelo Pistoletto (2006), Maurizio Cattelan (2007), Paola Pivi (2008), Luigi Ontani (2009), Stefano Arienti (2010), Giulio Paolini (2011), Francesco Vezzoli (2012), Marzia Migliora (2013) and Adrian Paci (2014), for this eleventh edition the directors of the 25 member museums called on Alfredo Pirri to create the guiding image.
Passi (Steps), the image created specially by the artist for the Giornata del Contemporaneo, depicts a gesture that is simple yet unsettling at the same time: crossing a cold and (perhaps) sharp surface barefoot. Pirri forces all of us, as viewers, into an act of trust; he invites us to let go, to engage with something whose danger we can sense without fully grasping its extent. He urges us to become aware of a risk that must necessarily be taken and to accept it as such, underlining the need — for the individual, but also for society and, on a global scale, for the whole world — to constantly put ourselves on the line, with trust and abandon. The artist explains that Passi thus becomes the synthesis of a gesture that is destructive yet, at the same time, “re-creative”, aimed at breaking forever the image we have of ourselves and of others, so as to rediscover or even create a different one that takes root and multiplies in every fragment — even in the one we thought was lost forever and never to be put back together.
In testimony to the event’s ever-growing significance and its important role within the national system, the President of the Senate, Pietro Grasso, awarded the Eleventh Giornata del Contemporaneo the bronze medal of the Senate of the Republic, while the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, awarded the representative prize of the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies.
Event promoted by
AMACI – Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums
With the support of
Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism – Directorate-General for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Suburbs
Under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic
Bronze Medal of the Senate of the Republic
Representative Prize of the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies
Under the patronage of
Representation in Italy of the European Commission
Presidency of the Council of Ministers
MiBACT – Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism
Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces
UPI – Union of Italian Provinces
ANCI – National Association of Italian Municipalities
ICOM Italia
Expo Milano 2015
Supporting Partner
Arena Broker
