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.

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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Giuliano Zanchi presents the book by Giovanna Brambilla in conversation with the author.

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

TALK ART, SIGNS, PERFORMANCE. REFLECTIONS ON VISUAL COMMUNICATION
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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.

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 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.

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 sixth edition of ArtDate took place on 13 14 15 May 2016.
Unlike the previous editions, marked by a general theme by which the various participants were inspired – while maintaining complete independence in planning – ArtDate 2016 is characterized by the creation of a narrative journey between an exhibition space and another. The lowest common denominator is The Castle of Crossed Destinies, short fantasy novel by Italo Calvino published in 1969 in the book “Tarot – the Visconti’s deck between Bergamo and New York”. The narrative is accompanied by reproductions of Tarot cards in various combinations from which the writer brings forth different tales. It is a work of combinatorial literature. The deck of cards is of great historical and artistic interest, both for the beauty of the precious illustrations and because, in some cases, is believed to portray members of the families Visconti – Sforza. The Colleoni – Baglioni deck dates back to 1451 and was originally made of 78 cards, of which 74 are remained: 35 are at the Pierpont – Morgan Library in New York, 26 at the Accademia Carrara and 13 are part of the private Colleoni collection in Bergamo. During ArtDate the tarot cards are associated with various exhibition spaces and, respectively, with works of contemporary art related to these cards. This engenders a progressive journey across institutions, project spaces, galleries and exhibition spaces participating in the sixth edition of ArtDate, to form a great expanded exhibition over the territory of the city.

LITERARY CONTEST ARTDATE 2016

Italo Calvino invented the stories of Il castello dei destini incrociati juxtaposing the cards and using them as a narrative combinatorial machine:

The Blank proposes to the public a LITERARY CONTEST, inviting to write a short story inspired by the succession of the exhibition spaces visited during ArtDate.

The works can serve as inspiration, but also the tarot cards associated with the places, as well as the history of the deck of cards or the experience and production of contemporary artists.

The fifth edition of ArtDate takes place during the weekend of 15, 16, 17 May 2015.
Through PLAY ArtDate you can visit artists’ studios, attend openings of museums, galleries, foundations and project spaces of the territory, visit private collections exceptionally open to the public, take part in free guided tours at historic city places in more than 40 events.
The Blank, with its network, transforms the city into an experiential, surprising and unique space of dialogue with the surrounding environment. Keyword and objective of PLAY ArtDate is “experience”, in order to develop interest, depth, knowledge, awareness, through a crescendo of proposals.
All the exhibitions at the network members and the initiatives proposed by The Blank become circuit, developing a connection with each other through music: Andrea Mastrovito has selected the tracks that will feature ArtDate, becoming a symbol and vehicle of metaphorical meanings, intangible messages, memories and ideals.

Now in its fourth edition, ArtDate is a unique opportunity to discover the city of Bergamo and its territory through contemporary art.
The Blank devotes ArtDate 2014 – Dialogo nel Tempo to the relationship between contemporary art and ancient art, as a tribute to the reopening of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo .
Two pieces of news for this edition of ArtDate 2014: Open Factory – visits to business realities who are dedicated to art and culture – and Once Upon a Time – itineraries around the symbolic historic sites of Lombard art in the city of Bergamo and surroundings. For ArtDate 2014, The Blank has enhanced the interaction with the territory through initiatives that testify the local attention to the art world with a full program of inaugurations, performances and workshops opened to the public.

On Friday 17, Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 May, The Blank organizes the third edition of ArtDate, the annual event dedicated to contemporary art, able to open the doors of an entire city to Contemporary.
All members of The Blank network participate actively through the organization of openings, lectures, guided tours and special events through the most significant places of Bergamo.
In addition to the renewed passport of art, The Blank gives life to the project The Blank Board, a window to know artists in their studios, through a series of dedicated interviews, during the days of ArtDate.

The second edition of ArtDate is articulated in several days – Friday 1, Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 June 2012 – to increase the value of individual events and involve different audiences, thanks to the moltiplication of opening times and events.
For the occasion, The Blank has produced a passport of art that, in addition to the day’s program, has a number of pages that can be marked with the “art stamp”. Each member taking part in the event has worked with an artist to create an artistic stamp. During the days of ArtDate, participation to the events and visits to the places allow visitors to stamp their passport, that becomes a true artwork.
During the three days, public is also given the opportunity to visit private collections and artists’ studios, to understand and investigate the most hidden art sides: the private one of collectors and the intimate one of artistic creation.

Saturday 14 May 2011 The Blank organizes the first edition of ArtDate, an appointment with art which allows people to discover and deepen artistic places and events in the city of Bergamo.
The network members of The Blank promote art with a series of openings, lectures, guided tours and special events. To support the initiative, a “map of art” was printed, including the day’s program, which traces a real journey of art and shares it with a specialized and widened audience.
ArtDate is the opportunity to discover in one day the most significant aspects of art in Bergamo, within a specific geographical location, able to reach an international value through the centuries.