We are talking about the 64 limited edition moka pots illysustainArt, presented in November at Artissima in Turin. The collection has been created recycling the aluminium of 6,400 illy issimo cans gathered during the 54th Biennale di Venezia. The proceeds will be donated to the no profit foundation lettera27 – with which illy collaborates within the project illy sustainArt – and specifically to the cultural, artistic and educational activities run by doual’art, an art centre in Douala, Cameroon.

Coordinated by Luca Antonini, the marketing manager and owner of MAG, the designer Moreno Balzani, owner of Thinkit! hand-crafted and numbered individually the moka pots, up-cycling the cans – otherwise destined to the bin - creating a strong relationship between the coffee to drink on the go and the coffee that we Italians traditionally drink at home in the morning.

A project aimed at sustaining art, where the “raw-material” collected at one of the most prestigious art events in the world becomes the “fuel” for a new art institution in the developing world.

So, coffee to coffee, art to art!

The jury that awarded her the prize today is composed of Ann Demester, Richard Flood, Polly Staple and Adam Szymczyk. Their choice of the video for which Gilligan received the award reflects her inventive use and direction of episodes to build easily-comprehensible stories. While images are in an essentially television-like format, she has a capacity to cite film theory and techniques in an elegant manner that accepts the perception of the present to interpret the future.

Francesco Manacorda declared his hapiness in giving the prize to a young woman who demonstrates advanced maturity and cohesiveness in her art.

An elated Melanie, who was present at the ceremony, was promptly encircled by arts journalists. Is a new star of the arts firmament born?

Biography

Melanie Gilligan was born in Toronto, Canada in 1979. She received her degree in 2002 at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London where she now lives and works. Her solo exhibits and projects include: Kolnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2010; Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2010; Galleria Franco Soffiantino, Torino (2009); Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, 2008, Artangel Interactive, London, 2008. She has also taken part in numerous collective events and exhibits including: Talk Show, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2009 and The Space of the Work and the Place of the Object, Sculpture Center, New York, 2009. In 2009 Gilligan was the recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists.

I arrived today in Torino to a splendidly welcoming greyness and headed to the press conference for the fair’s opening, held at noon. Amongst the presentations, what Francesco Manacorda – the new director of Artissima – had to say struck me very much. His Artissima, he says in an easygoing and direct way, is for young artists. Present-Future first of all, the section dedicated to emerging artists and their respective galleries – invitations were issued directly by an international team of four young curators. Tomorrow, a major jury will choose the winning artist.

A section of New Entries is also interesting – it’s for new galleries (open for a maximum of five years). In his speech, Manacorda often used the word “contamination of creativity and art” and this concept is applied in an unconventional way in the “House of Contamination”, an architectonic project conceived as a potential future model.

Artissima also spreads into the city and creates “solidarity” thanks to a project by Tobias Rehberger to benefit newborns in the local hospital – Manacorda supports the initiative, remarking with irony that this might be because he was born prematurely.

Tobias Rehberger is indeed an omnipresent “star” in Torino this year: having contributed a light installment to the Luci d’Artista project that illuminates Torino’s nights, for Artissima he designed the illy caffé space. The third after galleria illy in Berlin and Istanbul. Striped, of course.

(PS stop by and say hi – and pick up a copy of illywords!)

This week’s “What’s on” is dedicated to just some of the winners of the prize since 2002 at ARCO (Madrid), Artissima (Turin), Art Brussels (Brussels), and Art Rotterdam (Rotterdam). As you can see, they are all still very active!

Watch a slide show of photos taken at the illy stands at ARCO Madrid and Artissima – here you see the works being judged at Arco Madrid and some of the coffee cups made by artists who have collaborated with illy over the years:

Lotte Geeven won at ARTRotterdam in February 2010 and it’s a busy few months for him: he has two shows open/opening now:

• opening 26 February 2010: A work on display at: LOKAAL 01 Pleasure Ground – Breda, The Netherlands.
• opening March 13 until May 1 2010: Cold Origami at Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

From the Press release: ‘Cold Origami’ refers to the power of line. Thinking as a drawer, the line dictates the shape of thought for Lotte Geeven (1980). In this exhibition with new large-scale drawings and installations; the line folds an interior, breaks a grand mountain panorama and maps routes through strange cities and foreign landscapes. In its ambiguous character it explores the mechanism of memory of another place at another moment.

Avinash Veeraraghavan won the sustain art prize in 2009 at Arco Madrid. Currently his work is on exhibit until April 4 2010 in San Paolo Brazil at “Urban Manners 2″, SESC Pompeia (see invitation in the photo of this post).

Robin Rhode won in 2007 at Art Brussels and has put on numerous solo exhibitions since then. Opening this week in Los Angeles (California, USA) at the LACMA is his latest solo exhibit (March 11 to June 6). On Thursday, March 11 at 7:00 pm the artist will speak with LACMA’s curator about his experience growing up in South Africa, recent work, and the site-specific performance created at LACMA for the exhibition (tickets are free, Brown Auditorium).

Press release: The work of South African artist Robin Rhode originates from his physical interactions with drawings executed on walls on the streets of Johannesburg or, most recently, in his studio in Berlin, where he is now based. The resulting works include performances, wall drawings, photograph compositions, objects, video animations, and film. In developing his process Rhode was first “inspired by a high school initiation rite whereby young pupils were unwillingly taken into the boys’ toilets by senior pupils and forced to interact with chalk-drawn objects on the walls.” Based on this formative childhood experience, Rhode has transformed a puerile game into a compelling and innovative form of expression reminiscent of stop-action films and/or flip books, as well as the art historical movements of constructivism and surrealism. This will be the artist’s first exhibition in Los Angeles.

Michael Beutler, who won at Artissima in 2005, is part of a group exhibit closing March 21 2010 at Basis gallery in Frankfurt (exhibition info).

New works: Beutler, Fleischmann, Hoener, Lee, Pohle, Reuter: features newly elaborated positions in a series by former students of the Städel Academy in Frankfurt/Main. The works elucidate topics now emerging among contemporary international artists and simultaneously create space for new, unusual ideas and concepts. All the works presented as part of the exhibition developed in the course of the last 12 months and will be exhibited in a German-speaking country for the first time ever.

RIGHT NOW

Vernissage: Friday 26.02.2010, 18:00 (show until April 1): Noch mal leben, A photographic exhibition about life and death by Walter Schels and Beate Lakotta, presented by the Free University of Bolzano (whose students illustrated illywords #11).

Saturday Feb. 27 2010, 5pm:  “A Travelling Talk between…” public meeting with the advisory committee of the catalogue raisonné of Chen Zhen. With the participation of Daniel Buren (see interview in Illywords #8), Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Lorenzo Fiaschi (Galleria Continua), Tony Guerrero, Hou Hanru, Olivier Kaeppelin, Udo Kittelmann, Hans Ulrich Obrist (who was on the jury for the premio illy at Artissima 2009), Jérôme Sans (past director at Palais du Tokiò who helped celebrate the 10th anniversary of illycollection there), and Xu Min.
Location: Teatro dei Leggieri Piazza del Duomo – 53037 San Gimignano Italia – Info: Tel. +39 0577 943134 chenzhen@galleriacontinua.com

COMING UP

Opening March 25 2010: Luca Francesconi (1979), who won the illy Present Future Award at the ninth edition of Artissima 2009, is one of 21 young Italian artists chosen to participate in the exhibit “21 artists for the 21st century” at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino from March 25 to August 31 2010.

IN BOOKSTORES

Feb 24 2010: On the first anniversary of its publication, Giusi Quarenghi, Alessandra Mastrangelo and Loredana Farinabeing re-present ABCDEuropa by Edizioni Corraini at 121 Libreria a Tempo, Milano (see event description).

Presented Feb 9th at the Triennale in Milano, “Biografie di oggetti | Storie di cose” edited by A. Burtscher, D. Lupo, A. Mattozzi e P. Volonté (Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2009). [see photo for cover of book] Book Summary in Italian:

Il volume si interroga sulla vita delle cose, e facendo dialogare ambiti, sguardi e pratiche differenti, descrive il ruolo che esse svolgono nella quotidianità delle esistenze umane e nelle relazioni sociali.
Nella prima parte studiosi di differenti discipline etnologi, filosofi, semiologi, sociologi, storici del design illustrano il concetto di “biografia degli oggetti” attraverso riflessioni e analisi teoriche; nella seconda numerosi designer che hanno partecipato alla mostra “Storie di cose”, tenutasi a Bolzano nell’autunno 2007, di cui viene presentata la documentazione scritta e fotografica – intrecciano le loro storie personali con quelle dei loro oggetti, a testimonianza del concreto rapporto tra il mondo delle persone e quello delle cose.

The theme of this edition of illywords is “La cultura dell’ascolto” (or “the Culture of Listening”). Did this lead to the idea of choosing “Accecare l’ascolto” (“Blocking the ears”) as the title for the section on theatre and the role of theatrical performance in the modern art of Artissima?
A.B. The title, “Blocking the ears” was inspired by the theatre of Carmelo Bene, a great Italian actor who battled against the modern tradition of bourgeois theatre and script-led theatre with his naturalist approach. Bene rejected what is known as “director-led theatre” in order to restore the actor to his role as the ultimate protagonist of the theatre. Theatre is “made” by the actor and his “scenic” script rather than a script he has to recite from memory as a mere “entertainer” or “persuader”. In some ways the script is considered secondary, because a theatrical performance should be seen and experienced to the full. The word became enhanced and uncoupled from its meaning, no longer with the hitherto purely communicative function but taking on a meaning of its own, leaving traces of a sound interpreted as oblivion. In this sense, Bene speaks of “blocked ears”. We have dedicated this five-day event in Turin to this idea of a theatre as a “non-place” or a “universal place”, theatre as an “act”.

Is “Blocking the ears” intended to highlight the fact that the cognitive process depends on interdependence between the senses – or is it just a good title?
A.B. There is no need to highlight the fact that the cognitive process depends on interdependence between the senses, this concept is already very clear. As I said, “Blocking the ears” refers to a new way of experiencing the theatre. I have to admit that sometimes (but not always) I think it is also a good title!

What role has listening played in modern art, and how much has it changed during the past 30 years?
A.B. If by listening you mean the approach to listening and understanding, I’d say that this attitude has always played a fundamental role in art. You cannot see a work if you don’t understand it. If you mean listening in the strict sense of the word – with your ears – I’d say that from the early 1900s, hearing became just as important as sight. Think of the futuristic and Dadaist avant garde theatre, the work of John Cage, or the culture of “happenings”, performance and video art, for example.

What is left of the artist who used to closet himself in his studio or head off to far-flung locations in order to express his creativity?
A.B. Nothing.

Does the modern spectator want to listen, to get involved, or does he prefer a passive role, judging the work from the outside, perhaps guided by a critical framework that will help him to understand it?
A.B. There are many types of spectator, all very different. Everyone confronts a work of art as he thinks best, or perhaps to the best of his ability. A passive attitude should always be countered: to realise its potential a work of art always needs someone who can receive it and knows how to “listen”, in other words art needs us in order to exist.

Can art shows, rather than museums and biennial exhibitions, be seen as a kind of crossroads for thoughts and encounters, and therefore also opportunities for listening?
A.B. Art shows (the good ones) are effectively places where people meet and thoughts come together, so they can be seen as opportunities for listening. In the art world, biennale events and museums have a different role – obviously just as important – so it would be better not to mix up these different levels and confuse the public in the process.