The need to internationalize a stalled system

In your experience, which contemporary Italian artists (living) have achieved greater visibility abroad and thanks to which factors (e.g., galleries, biennials, exhibitions, curators, etc.)?
Before my return to Italy in 2019, I observed Italy and Italian contemporary art from the Eastern world, particularly from China. For over twenty years, I have seen what Italy was proposing and how Italian artists were presented in a continuously evolving and expanding China. There are not many Italian artists presented in China who enjoy great recognition, and apart from stars like Cattelan—who a few years ago held an exhibition at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai with Gucci and who had a retrospective at UCCA in Beijing—few others have enjoyed visibility. I recall Paola Pivi at Rockbund, for example, or Pistoletto at the PSA in Shanghai. Group or solo exhibitions of Italian artists in China have been set up mostly in institutions or private galleries, especially when Continua opened in Beijing, or in dynamic young galleries like Aike and Capsule in Shanghai. In the last ten years, De Carlo opened in Hong Kong, in what could be called a “free zone,” and from there he has steered exhibitions and presences mostly through Chinese institutions and fairs like Westbund, also in Shanghai. Bonami heads a museum in Hangzhou, but he does not seem to be proposing very visible programs on the Chinese scene. Other Italian curators have often organized exhibitions in China; for example, Achille Bonito Oliva brought an important exhibition on the Transavanguardia at the end of the 1990s and then encyclopedic exhibitions of contemporary Italian art and design until the mid-2000s. Photographers like Olivo Barbieri have frequently been presented in China.

In your opinion, which contemporary Italian artists have not yet achieved adequate visibility despite their artistic value, and what are the causes of this lack of recognition?
There are still no major retrospectives of Italian masters such as Penone, Arte Povera in general, Piero Manzoni—who I believe had a great influence on entire generations of Chinese and Asian artists—or Boetti... There is a lack of projects for the expansion of Italian contemporary art through exhibitions that truly bring Italian artists into the contemporary Chinese context. There remain many institutional exhibitions about ancient Italy that operate on a preconceived idea of cultural exchange based on “packaged” exhibitions imported and mechanically and functionally transported. With countries like China, what is needed—and I am increasingly convinced—is long-term planning and an “emotional” collaboration. By “emotional” I mean an empathetic attitude based on listening, which relates in an organic and respectful way. I believe that only through listening and observation can projects with Italian artists be chosen and built that truly make sense. It seems to me that not yet having had a major exhibition on Arte Povera is a missed opportunity. In fact, as everywhere, powerful galleries choose and bring projects to museums (also in China, obviously) that are too tied to particular interests.

In your experience, what are the steps and elements that favor the international career of a contemporary Italian artist? And where is the Italian system lacking in supporting Italian contemporary art on the international art scene?
I believe that Covid very clearly showed the lack of vision that our country has in supporting contemporary artists. There is a lack of vision that supports, in a widespread way, the various forms of artistic creation. Despite this, artists in Italy keep working undeterred, looking for ways to survive. Certainly, there are funds and supports from the Ministry of Culture, for example, which are virtuous but nitpicky and based on mental and technical structures that do not respond to the lively reality of the creative world. Many artists and “cultural producers,” as I like to call myself, rely more on private sources or international support bodies because not only is it more efficient and simpler, but also more dynamic and capable of moving more organically. Ironically, artists like Rossella Biscotti, Anna Raimondo, Alessandro Sciarroni, Andrea Anastasio, Chiara Bersani—whom I have been working closely with for years and with whom I recently presented “Fluxo,” a meeting with water at Pirelli HangarBicocca, which toured China and Korea—work abroad, finding “structural” resources in third countries or in the private sector. The all-Italian idea that artists and curators must work in a project system weakened by funds—granted only at the end of the project or dribbled out during the most important phase, i.e., creation—weaken and penalize the art system. It is no coincidence that motivated and successful Italian artists and curators do not live in Italy or spend only brief periods here tied to specific projects. However, I believe—and I am an advocate—that Italian professionals with strong international backgrounds should reintegrate into the Italian ecosystem, bringing their experience and trying to “internationalize” a stalled system, which seems to me to also want to move in an exponentially liberating direction. My return to Italy also represents this desire.