There is a lack of educational institutions with experimental perspectives and an international outlook

In your experience, which contemporary Italian artists (still living) have achieved the greatest visibility abroad, and thanks to which factors (e.g., galleries, biennials, exhibitions, curators, etc.)?
The artists of Arte Povera, such as Giuseppe Penone, Giovanni Anselmo, and Giulio Paolini, have achieved visibility abroad, primarily due to the historical significance of their work and, subsequently, thanks to the efforts of curators like Germano Celant, who promoted their work through exhibitions, essays, and so on. I believe a decisive factor, at least in the North American context, was Sonnabend’s choice to acquire and collect a significant number of their important works.

Maurizio Cattelan has also become very well-known and internationally exhibited, primarily because of the quality of his work, supported by the activities of a global network of intelligent gallerists, magazines, and collectors. My impression has always been that much of Cattelan’s strategy revolves around keeping his distance from environments, definitions, movements, or even human groups that are too clearly identified as "Italian." Escaping provinciality—and avoiding returning to it.

In your opinion, which contemporary Italian artists have not yet received adequate visibility in relation to their artistic value, and what are the reasons for this lack of recognition?
One name above all: Franco Vaccari. Someone who, on the contrary, has proudly chosen to live in Modena and travel very little. If I think about the trajectory of Fabio Mauri’s work, I would say that Vaccari’s work will become known and appreciated outside of Italy when a gallery like Hauser & Wirth decides to take it on.

In your experience, what are the key steps and elements that support the international career of a contemporary Italian artist? And where does the Italian system fall short in supporting contemporary Italian art on the international scene?
What is lacking in Italy is a network of educational institutions with advanced, experimental, interdisciplinary research perspectives and, of course, an international outlook.

The visual arts program at Iuav represented something along these lines, especially in its early days. But what is needed is a strong shift—again, I emphasize—towards interdisciplinarity, one that makes clear that artistic research is the crowbar that can pry open all other fields of knowledge, giving new meaning to the most diverse techniques and languages. This is something that, it seems to me, the most curious and least conventional young people are already doing—on their own.