More Opportunities for Connection and Exchange Are Needed

In your experience, which contemporary Italian artists (living) have achieved the greatest visibility abroad, and thanks to which factors (e.g., galleries, biennials, exhibitions, curators, etc.)?
Aside from Arte Povera, probably the most internationally recognized contemporary Italian artist at the moment is Maurizio Cattelan: the images from recent weeks of visitors lining up to see his exhibition at UCCA in Beijing are quite astonishing—within a few months, he had more visitors than the Picasso show. In his case, I’d say the main factor behind such notoriety, more than being associated with a particular school or group of artists (Maurizio is self-taught) or specific critics and curators, was above all his temperament—a mix of ambition and discipline. In the early 1990s, without knowing anyone, without speaking a word of English, and with very few dollars in his pocket, he went to New York, which was then considered the center of the art world: Maurizio wanted to confront that. There, he certainly formed important relationships with people who followed his work over the years, but not everyone may remember that aside from a small exhibition at Daniel Newburg Gallery in 1993—literally shut down right after the opening—it took seven years before he exhibited again in the city. Today, of course, the context is very different: there’s no longer a presumed single center to look toward, and everything is more connected. But what hasn’t changed, I believe, is the need to persevere in one’s research and to work, work, and work: if the work is of quality, it will eventually lead somewhere.

In your opinion, which contemporary Italian artists have not yet achieved adequate visibility in relation to their artistic value, and what are the causes of this lack of recognition?
Personally, I believe it’s important to always look beyond one’s own borders and to engage with what is new and different. In this sense, the role of institutions is crucial—not just in preserving and safeguarding existing works but also in commissioning new ones, providing space and resources for artists to create new productions, and generally investing in research and in aspects of the artistic process that might receive less visibility or fewer opportunities within more market-driven contexts.
I think that Italian artists from the more recent generations have suffered, in Italy, from a lack of consistent and substantial investment in this direction, and thus from the inability to compete with the kinds of opportunities and conditions available abroad—and this applies not only to younger artists but also to more established ones. This is certainly a growing area of concern and one we pay attention to at Pirelli HangarBicocca. I think, for example, of the research that led to the reconstruction of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Environments or the ambition behind Giorgio Andreotta Calò’s Produttivo project, which was later donated in an unprecedented form of joint ownership to eleven museums within the AMACI network. To name just a few other examples (hoping there will be more and more), there’s the Domenico Gnoli exhibition at Fondazione Prada, or Nathalie Du Pasquier’s at MACRO, or the one a few years ago on Cinzia Ruggeri at Casa Masaccio or at Triennale, which brought renewed attention to Gianfranco Baruchello’s film work, or again the research being pursued by the Museo del Novecento in Milan on lesser-known figures like Amalia Del Ponte or Marinella Pirelli.  More recently, the Biennale College Arte program by the Venice Biennale for the first time offers young Italian artists the opportunity to produce and exhibit a new work in the upcoming Biennale. 

In your experience, what are the steps and elements that support the international career of a contemporary Italian artist? And where is the Italian system lacking in supporting contemporary Italian art on the international art scene?
An international career is built by studying and spending time abroad, engaging with artists, critics, and curators from different contexts, and participating in residencies and exchanges: this is how relational and exhibition opportunities multiply.
Rosa Barba, for example, is an artist who, while maintaining a strong connection to Italy and her roots, trained outside of Italy and today enjoys great international visibility—much more than she does within Italy.
What I believe is needed, therefore, are more opportunities for connection and exchange—namely, residencies, travel grants, and scholarships, not only for Italians going abroad but also in Italy for foreigners—so as to build a genuine network of exchanges and possibilities.