Italian Pavilion 2017 - Artists

Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Roberto Cuoghi and Adelita Husni-Bey are the artists selected by curator Cecilia Alemani to represent Italy at the 57. International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, scheduled from 13 May to 26 November 2017.

"With their works, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Roberto Cuoghi and Adelita Husni-Bey represent complementary and distinct ways of making art in Italy today - says Cecilia Alemani, curator of the Italian Pavilion - The three artists were born in Italy between the mid-1970s and the 1980s and have emerged on the national and international art scene at the turn of this new century, achieving different levels of notoriety: from the promising young Husni-Bey to the more mature work of Cuoghi. Their works and languages are global but intimately linked to the culture of our country. I have chosen to invite a reduced number of artists compared to the past in order to align the Italian Pavilion with the other national pavilions at the Biennale. For this reason, my project does not seek to represent a comprehensive look at all Italian art: rather, it wants to look in depth at the work of three artists - original voices that have distinguished themselves and imposed themselves in recent years - giving them space, time and resources to present a large, ambitious project that represents an unmissable opportunity in their careers and that can present the public with an opportunity to immerse themselves in the artists' minds and worlds. I hope that this pavilion will be able to present an image of a contemporary and cosmopolitan Italy, no longer seen only through the nostalgic lens of previous generations, but one that looks to the future with enthusiasm and the critical capacity to confront new languages and the experiences of other nations."

The decision to announce the artists earlier than in previous editions underlines and reinforces the new course taken by the Ministry also in the management of procedures. Another novelty, in fact, concerns the timing of the appointment of the Pavilion's curator by the Minister, strongly desired by the DGAAP (previous acronym of the current Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture) more than a year before the opening of the Biennale, in order to allow the curator and artists to work with less time pressure. Finally, clearer project indications since the invitation letter on the theme and the number of presences which, considering the extension of the Italian Pavilion, should not exceed three.