The Blank Kitchen | Irene Fenara & Yasen Vasilev (winning artists of the fifth edition of Project Proposal Residency)

Friday 10 November 2017, h. 7.00 pm
The Blank Residency, via G. Quarenghi, 50 – Bergamo

The Blank Kitchen. Fatma Bucak – Un aperitivo d’artista
On the occasion of QUA! The celebration for the bicentenary of the death of the architect Giacomo Quarenghi organized by Assessorato alla Cultura of Comune di Bergamo, The Blank proposes The Blank Kitchen with Fatma Bucak.
On the occasion of The Blank Kitchen, Fatma Bucak has created a menu inspired by the culinary tradition of her homeland. The menu is prepared by Nuccio Longhi and the event is realized thanks to the indispensable collaboration of Castello Bonomi of Franciacorta and Bugan Coffee Lab.

Saturday 30 September, h. 6.30 pm
Via Giacomo Quarenghi, 9 – Bergamo

On ​Friday 25, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 May, Bergamo hosts the eighth edition of The Blank ArtDate.

With over 30 events, 45 artists and 5 institutions involved, the event is confirmed as a reference point and an unmissable appointment not only for contemporary art lovers but for all those who, in a participatory and collaborative dimension, take part in the scheduled events.

The Blank ArtDate offers a renewed appointment focusing mainly on artists who use in their practice artistic forms and means of expression such as audio, video, performance and talk.

The preference for intangible and ephemeral interventions, which are consumed at the same time in which they are implemented – as can be a vision, a listening, a conversation or a performative event – marks the new edition of ArtDate under the heading of FREQUENCIES​,​ that refers to the number of times in which an event is repeated in its temporal dimension, to the rhythm of an event, to the perception of its movement, to ​the ​participation in an activity.

In the era of streaming, on-demand and image sharing, the f​eature that characterizes The Blank ArtDate 2018 is the unavoidability of the participation of the user in a specific place and at a precise moment. The non-repetitiveness of the performances and the non-materiality of the sound and video works impose the physical presence of the body of the assistants so that they can be intercepted, coded, decoded and then transmitted again and ​narrated.

A major innovation is the participation of the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital, an operational and symbolic place of great importance for the entire community.

Artist residency proposed by The Blank Contemporary Art arrived at its fifth edition. The winners are Irene Fenara (Bologna, 1990) and Yasen Vasilev (Sofia, 1988), chosen among over 150 candidates.

Project Proposal Residency is thought as a moment of meeting and work, an opportunity to share ideas and experiences. During their stay, the artists will have the chance to interact with The Blank and to get in touch with the cultural realities of Bergamo that operate in the contemporary art field. The Open Studio, organized at the conclusion of the residency, will be the occasion to present the projects and the outcome of the research.

The fifth edition of the Project Proposal Residency will take place from October 16 to November 18.

Among the exhibitions IRENE FENARA (1990, Bologna, where she lives and works) took part in 2016: Give me yesterday curated by Francesco Zanot, Fondazione Prada Osservatorio, Milano; La disfatta dell’immagine curated by Carlo Sala, Cà dei Ricchi, Treviso; personal exhibition Se il cielo fugge curated by Amerigo Mariotti and Daniela Tozzi, Adiacenze, Bologna. In 2017: personal exhibition Le interne differenze, P420, Bologna; Family Matters project of Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio, Bologna; Essere politico, curated by Filippo Maggia and Chiara Dall’Olio, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena.
Interested in different expressive media, with a special attention to video and photography, Irene Fenara creates installations focused on the concepts of time and memory, working with images that reverse points of view and generate situations of spatial disorientation. Orientation in the physical space, closeness and distance relations and the subsequent need for movement are starting points of her research, which often produces vertical perspectives and raises the mind gaze. The use of different optical and electronic devices – often improperly used, profaning their basic function – becomes an instrument of observation of the world, researching a little poetical meaning.

YASEN VASILEV (1988, Sofia, Bulgaria) is a performance-maker, educated at the theatre academies in Sofia and Shanghai. Author of two poetry collections and four plays: The Walled In Ones (2012-2013, Nikolay Binev Theatre, Sofia), Borgestriptych (2014, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai), Elevation 506 (2015-2016, workshoped in Vienna, Sofia and NYC) and Ishmael (2016, Nau Ivanow, Barcelona). Author of Nutricula, an ongoing project presented in Asia and Europe where performers from different backgrounds re-interpret the same concept as a physical solo. His latest text for theatre premieres October 2017 in Viterbo, Italy, a commission by the festival Quartieri dell’arte.
The project on which his research will be developed is NUTRICULA is a solo physical piece that examines the body as a battlefield of enslaving and liberating forces. It puts the performer into intensive physical struggle with herself to test and re-imagine the limits of the body. NUTRICULA is a piece that aims to create raw, powerful physical language and influence audiences directly with a bare minimum of elements: no costumes, sets, music or lights. NUTRICULA’s strategy is to liberate the body and the physical actions it produces from the meaning that’s imposed on them (gender, class, race). NUTRICULA was inspired by the immortal jellyfish turritopsis nutricula – the only organism known to man that never dies. NUTRICULA was developed in China, Portugal and Lithuania so far, each time with a different collaborator and was supported by Shanghai Theatre Academy, Minsheng Art Museum, Arts Printing House and Atalaia Artes Performativas.

With the contribution of Regione Lombardia.

On Friday 26, Saturday 27, Sunday 28 May, Bergamo hosts the seventh edition of The Blank ArtDate.

The Blank ArtDate reinvents itself proposing a completely original format with more than forty events between exhibitions, conferences, special projects, educational workshops and extraordinary openings of major places in town.

The Blank ArtDate reflects on the theme of the Holy, reinterpreting rituals and gestures able to unite people in a common spirit. Taking as reference the ancient sagre – from the Latin sacrum – that were moments of communion between men and the holy, The Blank ArtDate asks numerous artists to reinterpret this fundamental subject through their contemporary artistic practice connecting tradition and modernity. The reflection on folk rituals is intertwined with the interpretation of the holy, considered as an experience inextricably linked to the effort made by humans in order to build a word endowed with meaning.

The Blank Benefit is an annual meeting organized in order to support the association’s network activities, an evening of reunion for art and contemporary culture lovers.

In occasion of the next celebrations for the bicentenary of the death of Giacomo Quarenghi, The Blank has realized an important collaboration with Riccardo Beretta, a young Italian artist whose works are already well-known on the international artistic scenario.

The artist has realized for The Blank Benefit 2016 fifty small velvet and hand embroidered tapestries, of size 33×33 cm, each of them has been created as an unique piece thanks to a pictorial intervention and to a manual making process, available for the supporters of the association and for the lovers of contemporary art.

Each tapestry can be purchased with a minimum donation of 350 EUR, that gives also access for two people to the Benefit Dinner, which will take place on Thursday 15th December, in the frame of Spazio ALT.

The original artworks will be presented in occasion of BAF – Bergamo Arte Fiera (26th – 28th November 2016) at The Blank booth.

The Benefit dinner will also host a musical performance of a harpsichordist and a repertoire of musical pieces referable to the historical period of Quarenghi will be played.

Second round of participant in The Blank TR – Transit Message:

– Sarah Victoria Barberis, Filmmaker, Translator and Writer. Italian – based in Milan, Italy.

– Noa Charuvi, Artist. Israeli – based in New York, NY, USA.

– Matteo Di Napoli, Geographer, PhD at Università degli Studio di Milano, professor at Università degli Studi di Milano, IULM and Université de la Manouba, Tunisi, Writer, Backgammon Player. Italian – based in Missaglia (LC), Italy.

– Ambra Ferrari, Neuroscience Graduate, Translator, Serious Gaming intern. Italian – based in Bergamo, Italy.

– Doron Furman and Talia Hassid Furman, Artists. Israelis – based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

– Gian Antonio Gilli, Sociologist, Professor at the Università del Piemonte Orientale. Italian – based in Turin, Italy.

– Jennifer Muñoz, Researcher. Argentine – based in Milano, Italy.

– Michele Napoli, Artist, Musician, Chef. Italian – based in Piacenza, Italy + Petra Aprile, Maternity nurse, writer and researcher. Italian – based in Lodi and London.

– David Nguyen, Academic in the field of Economic Geography, Department of Geography & Environment LSE. German – based in London, UK.

– David Reimondo, Artist. Italian – based in Milan, Italy.

– Saverio Tonoli Adamo, Painter, Photographer, Martial Artist. Italian – based in Berlin, Germany.

APPARATUS 22 and DARIO BITTO are the artists of the IV edition of Project Proposal Residency

BIO

APPARATUS 22 is a multidisciplinary art collective initiated in January 2011 in Bucharest, Romania by current members Erika Olea (b. 1982, Bucharest), Maria Farcas (b. 1977, TarguMures), Dragos Olea (b. 1979, Bucharest) and late artist Ioana Nemes (1979, Bucharest – 2011, NY).
The configuration of the collective now working both in Bucharest and Brussels started to take shape during a IASPIS residency in Stockholm, fall 2010.

The collective participated in exhibitions and festivals at MUMOK, Viena (AT), Museion, Bolzano (IT), Brukenthal Museum Contemporary Art Gallery, Sibiu (RO), MAK, Viena (AT), SteirischerHerbst, Graz (AT), Drodesera Festival, Dro (IT), Young Artists Biennial, Bucharest (RO), AkademieSchloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE), Gyeonggi Creation Center (KR), Salonul de Proiecte, Bucharest (RO), TIME MACHINE BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART, D-0 ARK UNDERGROUND, Konji (BIH), TRAFO Gallery, Budapest (HU), Future Gallery, Prague (CZ), Oberwelt, Stuttgart (DE), Ujazdowski Castle – Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (PL), WürttembergischerKunstverein Stuttgart (DE), Contemporary Art Museum (MNAC), Bucharest (RO), GaleriaNicodim, Bucharest (RO), Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem (NL), KunstMuseum Linz (AT), Osage Foundation (Hong Kong), etc. The work of the collective was exhibited at La Biennale di Venezia 2013, Romanian Official Representation. Apparatus 22 is the winner of the “BIVACCOURBANO_R RESIDENCY 2015” grant for artistic research and residency offered by ProgettoDiogene in Turin.

DARIO BITTO was born in Messina in 1989. He works currently between Milan and Pordenone. He is the promoter of project Agreements To Zinedine developed to Galleries and Artists to Milan.

Education
2009 / 2012 Academy Fine Arts, Palermo
2013 / 2016 Academy Fine Arts of Brera, Milan
2016 Contemporany Art Markets at NABA, Milan

Selected Exhibition
2015 _ Academy Awards 2015, powered by Viafarini, Milan
2015_ Sometimes She Prays, during Festival Studi, powered by La Cattedrale Studio,
Milan
2014 _ ILOVEDAIELBUREN, curated by Tile Project Space, Milan
2014_ Open Studios, The Spring Awakening during Miart Fair, Academy Fine Arts of
Brera, Milan
2014 _ Open Studio: Il sogno di mia zia (e non perché io non ne abbia), Milan
2013 _ Percorsi e Intenti: Marra, Monforte San Giorgio/Messina
2012 _ The Next Stop, Academy Fine Arts, Palerm

The purpose of the project is to give hospitality to artists and curators for a short/medium period and to offer them accommodation and relations aimed to develop artistic researches both practical and theoretical. The residency is conceived as a meeting and work place where share ideas and experience.

The participants will be asked to work on a project proposal produced during the period of residency. The project proposal will be presented at the conclusion of their staying during the Open Studio day.
At the beginning of the residency residents will introduce themselves with an informal presentation of their previous activities and works.

Moreover, participants are invited to spend some days at the mountain shelter Marco Balicco (Azzaredo Alps) and reflect on the concepts of “Movement” and “Trench”.
2 artists/curators, who will share accommodation, studio, kitchen and bathroom, will be selected.

Eligibility: the program is open to artists or curators at any stage of their career, specialized in visual arts, photography, film & video, media arts.

Location: The Blank Residency. Via Quarenghi 50, Bergamo, Italia. Rifugio Marco Balicco, Alpe Azzaredo, Monte Azzaredo

Language: Italian/English/French/Spanish

Disciplines: Visual Arts, Photography, Video, Installation.

Paid by Host: 400 € each, accommodation, studio space and internet wifi.

Paid by Artist/Curator: travel, working materials, food and personal expenses during the residency.

Duration: from 18th October to 20th November 2016

Deadline for applications: 30th July 2016

The selections will be announced by 26th August 2016 through a dedicated newsletter.

First round of participants in The Blank TR – Transit Message:

-Enrico Ghezzi, Film critic and Television Writer for La RAI. Italian – based in Rome, Italy.

-Nadeem Karkabi, Anthropologist, PhD at University of London, Fellow Member of The Martin Buber Society at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Palestinian-Israeli – based in East Jerusalem, Palestine/Israel.

-Vincenzo Latronico, Novelist and Translator. Italian – based in Milan, Italy.

-Claudia Losi, Artist. Italian – based in Piacenza, Italy.

-Davide Luca, Geographer, PhD at the London School of Economics, 2016/17 Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Italian – based in Milan, Italy – London, UK and Istanbul, Turkey.

-Flavia Mastrella, Artist, Sculptor and Theatre Director. Italian – based in Rome, Italy.

-Danni Meyerson, Jewelry designer/goldsmith, Founder of Oropa Jewelry of Tel Aviv, Israel, Activist for animal rights, Founder of The Tiny Pet Rescue. American-Israeli – based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

-Neve Mazzoleni, Culture addicted, Artistic and Cultural Advisor at UniCredit, Contributor for Artribune, Che-fare, il Giornale delle Fondazioni, Arte&Imprese. Italian – based in Milan, Italy.

-Nirith Nelson, Art Critic and Curator, Director JCVA Jerusalem Center for the Visual Arts Israel and Lecturer at Bezalel Academy, Israel. Israeli – based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

-Liliana Orbach, Interdisciplinary Artist and Independent Art Curator. Argentinean-Israeli – based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

-Antonio Rezza, Actor, Film Director and Writer. Italian – based in Rome, Italy.

-Noam Segal, Independent Art Curator, Adjunct Professor at Bezalel Academy for art and design, Israel, Guest Editor of Bezalel magazine. Israeli – based in New York, USA, and Tel Aviv, Israel.

-Gabriela Vainsencher, Artist, Writes about art for Hyperallergic, Tohu Magazine, and The Huffington Post, MFA Candidate at Hunter College and Lecturer at Williams College. Argentinean-born Israeli – based in Brooklyn, USA.

-Chiara Vecchiarelli, Curator and Ph.D. at ENS Paris/University of Venice. Belgian – based in Paris, France.

-Luca Vitone, Visual Artist. Italian – based in Berlin, Germany.

ARTDATE
Contemporary Art Festival
XI edition
NEL TEMPO SOSPESO
11 12 13 14 November Bergamo

NEL TEMPO SOSPESO is the theme of the 11th edition of the Contemporary Art Festival ArtDate that will take place in Bergamo from November 11 to 14.
It is a large reflection on the indeterminacy and apprehension that is characterizing this unforgettable period of which we are all protagonists and testimonials, a historical phase also full of expectations and desires.

Thursday 11th, Friday 12th, Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th November, Bergamo will host the 11th edition of ArtDate, Contemporary Art Festival organized by The Blank.
Over the years, ArtDate has become a reference point able to approach and promote contemporary art to a large and diversified audience. In this edition, ArtDate presents many important innovations, focusing on the theme of suspended time, refreshing the attention to the issues of accessibility and participation.

S A L E
Where everything seems to be on sale, there is the risk of losing what really matters.

On Friday 13 December 2019 took place a special event organised in collaboration with The Blank by the Bergamo-based communication agency specialising in branding: Quid – Value to communication, sponsor of the exhibition Il Corpo Insensato (2019-2020, Palazzo della Ragione, curated by Stefano Raimondi), with two special guests: Andrea Mastrovito and Giuseppe Stampone dialogued with Stefano Raimondi, director of The Blank, and Lorenzo Sommariva, owner of Quid, on the union of art and communication, posing as a main question the question “what combines art and branding?”. Giuseppe Stampone also presented his new collection Sale, a series designed to remind how art is often confined to a decorative functions, at the expense of its expressive and critical power.

Andrea Mastrovito and Giuseppe Stampone share the same ability to create images and works that appear to be easy to understand but which, on the other hand, reveal a plurality of interpretations, great sensibility and a lot of artistic and other references.

In occasion of the 15th edition of BAF – Bergamo Arte Fiera, Andrea Mastrovito (Bergamo, Italy – 1978) and Vincenzo Simone (Seraing, Belgium – 1980), proposed a series of works as part of the benefit activities supporting the programming of The Blank.

THE BLANK 10^th ANNIVERSARY

JONATHAN MONK
BENEFITS TO SUPPORT THE ASSOCIATION’S ACTIVITIES

To celebrate in the best way the milestone of the first 10 years of activity, The Blank has had the pleasure to collaborate with the British artist Jonathan Monk who has realized exclusively for the association a new series of artworks whose proceeds will support the realization of new exhibitions and projects. The works take the ironic title Shelf Life, an English expression that defines the period of time during which a good can be stored without becoming unsuitable for use, consumption, or sale.

At the same time, the artwork is presented as a bookcase of life, where the chalk simulates the spines of books that accompany us through time. The series was created for the exhibition The Gift. On Life and Death that on 13^th November 2020 will open in Bergamo on the occasion of the Festival of Contemporary Art, Artdate.

Personal exhibitions have been dedicated to Jonathan Monk (Leicester, 1969. Lives and works in Berlin) at some of the most prestigious international institutions, including Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France), Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, Ireland), Kunsthaus Baselland (Muttenz, Switzerland). His work has been included in many events, including the Whitney Biennial (2006), the 50th and 53rd Biennale di Venezia (2003, 2009), the Berlin Biennale (2001), and the Taipei Biennale (2000). In 2012 he was awarded the Prix du Quartier Des Bains, in Geneva.

JONATHAN MONK
Shelf life, 2020
Chalk on canvas series of 36 unique pieces
24 x 30 cm

800 €/ each
* The amount is paid as a contribution and liberal disbursement in support of the different cultural activities promoted by the Association “THE BLANK” and is deductible under the combined provisions of articles 100 paragraph 2 letter h) D.P.R. 917/1986 and art. 14 c. 1 D.L. 35/2005 – Social security contributions

for info and reservations: associazione@theblank.it

ARTDATE | ON-LINE
Contemporary Art Festival X edizione
IL DONO | THE GIFT

The Gift | The Gift is the theme of the 10th edition of the Contemporary Art Festival ArtDate which took place in Bergamo from 12th to 15th November.
As a reaction to the difficult historical moment we are living through, The Blank has chosen to convert the Festival into digital form instead of canceling it, thus giving a signal of resistance from the world of culture.

Here’s the links to see all the events of the Festival:

INAUGURAL LECTURE BY MASSIMO FINI
Link Facebook
Link YouTube
Massimo Fini, journalist and writer, in conversation with Claudia Santeroni on the theme of the “Gift” through a reading of Denaro, sterco del demonio, his essay written following the footsteps of Marcel Mauss.

EXHIBITION THE GIFT. ON LIFE AND DEATH
Link Facebook
Link YouTube
Link audio-videoguide in Italian and Italian Sign Language (LIS)
In waiting the exhibition to be open to the public, the curator Stefano Raimondi brings us to discover the artworks by Matilde Cassani, Alberto Garutti, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Andrea Mastrovito, Jonathan Monk, Andrea Romano, Namsal Siedlecki.

TALK with ED ATKINS and DAVID KAMP
Link Facebook
Link YouTube
Ed Atkins (artist and curator), David Kamp (composer and sound designer) and Stefano Raimondi (president of The Blank) discuss the exhibition project The Act Of Seeing With One’s Own Eye, that pays tribute to the production of the father of experimental cinema Stan Brakhage and David Kamp’s research.

GALLERIES TIME
Link Facebook
Link YouTube
The galleries and exhibition spaces of Bergamo and province present their projects through short videos.

TALK INFERNI. PAROLE E IMMAGINI DI UN’UMANITÀ AL CONFINE
Link Facebook
Link YouTube
Giuliano Zanchi presents the book by Giovanna Brambilla in conversation with the author.

TALK METAFOTOGRAFIA (2). THE MUTATIONS OF IMAGES
Link Facebook
Link YouTube
Presentation of the book with Sara Benaglia, Mauro Zanchi, Corrado Benigni, Teresa Giannico, Alessandro Sambini.

TALK ART, SIGNS, PERFORMANCE. REFLECTIONS ON VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Link Facebook
Link YouTube
curated by The Blank LISten Project
Rita Mazza (artistic director of Festival of Silence and sign performer), Nicola Della Maggiora (Visual Vernacular artist), Claudia Santeroni and Maria Marzia Minelli (curators engaged in a research on performance practices) introduce a reflection on Sign Language and its relationship with performative, theatrical and Visual Vernacular practices.

The works of Matilde Cassani and Andrea Romano were realized for The Gift exhibition during the residency at The Blank, made possible thanks to the contribution of Fondazione Cariplo.
The Festival is the result of a cultural agreement with the Municipality of Bergamo aimed at promoting and enhancing Bergamo as a city of art and culture. ArtDate is supported by the Lombardy Region and recognized by the EFFE – Europe for Festival, Festivals for Europe platform for its artistic quality, the involvement of the local community, and at the same time the European breath.

The Residence IN PRATICA is the winning project of the call for proposals “Per Chi Crea”, supported by Mibac and SIAE, realized in collaboration with AIR – artinresidence and in partnership with da FARE and Viaindustriae. From October to November 2019, 6 Italian artists under 35, selected by an international jury, realize a residency program that take them to Foligno and Bergamo.

The artists have been selected among the candidates from the residencies of the AIR-artinresidence network called to collaborate in the project, each one proposing up to a maximum of two Italian artists under 35.

The winners are:

Giovanni Chiamenti candidate from VIR Viafarini-in-residence, Matteo Coluccia candidate from GuilmiArtProject, Edoardo Ciaralli candidate from GuilmiArtProject, Mattia Ferretti candidate from Diogene-Bivaccourbano, Ludovico Orombelli candidate from R.A.M.O. Ritratto a Mano and Roberto Memoli candidate from RAMDOM.

The jury that selected the winning artists is composed of Stefano Raimondi, Carlo Sala and Eugenio Viola.

Thursday 14, Friday 15, Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 November, Bergamo hosts the ninth edition of the ArtDate Contemporary Art Festival, organized for the first time in the autumn, the protagonist of a cultural program of the city that runs throughout the year.
Over time it has become a point of reference capable of bringing contemporary art closer to and promoting a broad and diverse audience, the ninth edition of the Festival presents numerous important innovations, giving main attention to the themes of accessibility and participation.
Being part / Being part of, developed around 6 thematic sections (Show Time, Talk, Collections and Homes, Studio Visit, Kids, ArtErasmus), is an extensive reflection on the meaning of sharing, which starts from the human body and extends up to social and political body.
The theme around which the Festival is based is linked to the importance of the activity and autonomy of the individual operator within a system that supports and enhances its uniqueness, an analysis of cooperation in respect of contextual independence.
Come to an organism, where the greeting and the self-sufficiency of the parts are present in the well-being of the body it hosts, so the various realities that participate in ArtDate retain and cultivate their own singularity, but in the belief that coordinating is simpler than the intended purpose:
in this case, the growth and strengthening of the city’s cultural life.
The collective commitment is therefore combined with the high degree of autonomy and individual initiative in favor of the pursuit of shared intent.
The Festival turns into more than 30 events involving the whole city of Bergamo. The works of over 100 artists are presented and the projects include prestigious institutions such as GAMeC – Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Bergamo, Castello di Rivoli Education Department, Museum of Contemporary Art, BeGo – Benozzo Gozzoli Museum, MAMbo – Museum of Modern Art in Bologna, Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and TATE Modern in London.

On Friday 24 January 2019 The Blank proposes The Blank Kitchen | Irene Fenara – Tea and biscuits, a culinary event organized on the occasion of Bologna Art Week in Irene Fenara’s studio in Bologna.

The Blank Kitchen was born with the desire to bring some of the most interesting artists of the international scene in relation with art lovers and the curious through a transversal and convivial tool such as food and cooking.

Born in Bologna in 1990, Irene Fenara is an Italian artist who works mainly with video installation and photographic experimentation, focusing on interaction with surveillance cameras. Her research investigates the concept of time and memory, working with images that overturn points of view and generate situations of spatial disorientation, “with one eye on technology and the other on the sky”.

The Blank Benefit 2014
Guest Artist: Andrea Mastrovito
evening hosted by Cristina Rodeschini

Artists who donated:
David Adamo, Salvatore Arancio, Christian Fogarolli, Oscar Giaconia, Jan Kaesbach, Daniele Maffeis, Jacopo Miliani, Mladen Miljanovic, Gianni Politi, Luigi Presicce, Agne Raceviciute, Vincenzo Simone.

The Blank Benefit 2013

Artists who have donated:
Alis / Filliol, Davide Allieri, Francesco Arena, Riccardo Beretta, Filippo Berta, Simone Berti, Mariella Bettineschi, Davide Casari, Emma Ciceri, Cuoghi Corsello, Mario Cresci, Giovanni De Lazzari, Cécile B. Evans, Ettore Favini, Arianna Ferrari, Ferrario Freres, Pasquale Gadaleta, Oscar Giaconia, Marco Grimaldi, Miguel Guzmàn Pastor, Adelita Husni-Bey, Alex Martinis Roe, Andrea Mastrovito, Francesco Pedrini, Alexandros Pissourios, Grayson Revoir, Andrea Romano, Giuseppe Stampone, Maria Francesca Tassi, Gian Maria Tosatti.

The Blank is happy to announce the Open Studio of Simona Andrioletti and Filippo Marzocchi, winners of the HIGHLIGHTS residency program 2^nd edition.

On 15^th February at 6pm, on the occasion of the award ceremony and the final Open Studio, the artists will present their artistic project, realized during their stay on the territory, at Spazio QUARENGHICINQUANTA.

Simona Andrioletti will present the project Google IT!, realized in collaboration with Giacomo and Pio Manzù high school students. This work is born by some reflections about Moravia’s oration at Pasolini’s funeral, by a YouTube video and by an Umberto Eco’s letter to his adolescent nephew, where he explains the importance of keeping the memory exercised and of knowledge. The artist invited the students to ask questions about topics that, in their opinion, is important to know. Questions linked to studied subjects, which are fundamental and should be passed on.

Filippo Marzocchi, during the residency stay, focused on his pictorial production, specifically in the “Icon” series, where he analyzes the relation between painting and technological devices through the iconic structure of the picture, highlighting the relationship between man and these objects. There are some fundamental features in this production: the construction of rounded-angle frames, a defined use of a precise color palette and research for signs and road signs as pictorial support.

HIGHLIGHTS residency program is realized in partnership with FARE, with the support of MIBAC and SIAE, in the initiative “Sillumina – Copia private per I giovani, per la cultura”, aimed at under35 Italian artists. Projects were selected by the international jury composed by Domenico De Chirico (independent curator and artistic director at DAMA), Stefano Raimondi (curator and critic) and Driant Zeneli (artist and artistic director at Mediterranea18).

Simona Andrioletti, born in Bergamo in 1990, lives and works in Munich. She graduated at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, studying with Gianni Caravaggio. She studied visual arts at Academie der Bildende Kunst in Munich with professors Gregor Schneider, Simon Starling and Olaf Nicolai. Simona has been selected among the finalists of the Talent Prize for two years and has participated in the related exhibitions at MACRO in Rome, in October 2016 and December 2017. She presented her work at Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan, at Nir Altman Galerie, Stiftung Federkiel and at Kunstverein München in Munich, at Réfectoire des nonnes and at Palais Bondy in Lyon, at Waterworks Falkenstein in Hamburg. Her first solo show “And there was evening and there was morning” was hosted in 2016 at Twenty14 Gallery in Milan. She is among the founders of Residenza d’artista Carloforte, an artistic residency on San Pietro isle in Sardegna.

Filippo Marzocchi was born in 1989 in Forlì. His practice is based on images and sounds, developd and deepened through painting, performance and site-specific projects. His work investigates human perception, developing research about reality’s structure and about how people perceive time and space as a continuous movement. His work has been shown in institutions, galleries and independent spaces such as: Zabludowicz Collection, London; PAV Parco Arte Vivente, Turin; Istituto italiano di cultura a Parigi, Paris; UCA, Canterbury; Piramidon Centre d’Arte Contemporani, Barcelona; MAMbo, Bologna; LOCALEDUE, Bologna; CAR DRDE, Bologna; Sale Docks, Venice; Gaffdabasso, Milan; Galeria Fran Reus, Palma de Mallorca. He participated in residencies such as: Cripta747, Turin; Progetto Borca, Dolomiti Contemporanee; ManufattoinSitu, Viaindustriae; Esecuzione di Santa Caterina, Viaindustriae. In 2016 he co-founded with Mattia Pajè the space Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio in Bologna. He has been represented by Galeria Fran Reus since 2016.

Special thanks to:
Prof. Enrico De Pascale
Spazio Quarenghi50
F.lli Allieri

info:
The Blank Contemporary Art
Via G. Quarenghi 50 – 24122 Bergamo, Italy
PH +39 035 19903477
E: info@theblankresidency.it