C festival arte Contemporanea: Art Today, from the sacred to the profane. A debate between Achille Bonito Oliva and Massimo Cacciari.

by Editorial Team | May 20, 2011 in Art | Leave A Comment

It started this morning in Faenza (Italy) the fourth annual festival of Contemporary art focusing on the theme ‘Forms of collecting/Forme della committenza’ chosen by the scientific board: Angela Vettese, Carlos Basualdo and Pier Luigi Sacco. The intentional ambiguity of the title, with its double connotations in Italian, refers to a heterogeneous universe, the relationship between public and private, the role of institutions in the contemporary scene, but also of the intense “obsessive” dimension of collecting, and the relationship between patrons and artists.

The three days of the festival, which over the years has hosted over 500 international speakers, are an opportunity to share, discuss and debate current issues in the art world from various perspectives. Speakers and participants range from curators to artists to galleries to critics, as well as collectors and art enthusiasts, demonstrating the great potentiality of art and creativity in our times. The debate extends to questions of patronage in other disciplines including architecture, fashion, design and food. For the first time this year the festival takes place in collaboration with Faenza’s International Ceramics Museum paying tribute to the tradition of ceramic artistry in the city.

Following the official welcome to the festival, Achille Bonito Oliva, professor of the History of Contemporary Art and curator (known all over with his acronym: ABO), and Massimo Cacciari, philosopher and member of Italian and European parliaments, opened the discussion today at 12 a.m..  In question was the dynamic between collecting and artistic production which has evolved through history alongside the evolution of society. Inevitably the debate uses these observations to reflect on the future of art. Whilst Cacciari posits art as possible only in its reproducibility, ABO´s approach is more optimistic, suggesting that new pathways remain to produce art.

ABO begins by summarizing the relationship between collecting and art production through history, with the change from the artwork as pointing towards spirituality and the sacred to art´s current position within our capitalist society in which artists are often driven by success. At the same time, he suggests that public art in the last years has taken up an important position in moving outside of the traditional topical framework becoming dystopian. Cacciari extends this discussion asking how the sense of art has changed along with the changes in the forms of collecting. He also observes that in our times it is easier to intellectualize and theorize about art rather than to explore art´s transcendental potentiality, symptomatic of our times in which he defines the condition of truth is frequently ‘laughable’…

By Cyou: Martha Jimenez Rosano & Sherene Meyer

Photo Credits: Alessandra Lupino, Giovanni Mantovani, Loretta Morelli

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