Contemporary Art Day returns today: all one day dedicated to contemporary art

Today, Saturday, December 5, the Giornata del Contemporaneo (Contemporary Art Day) returns, the event dedicated tocontemporary art promoted by AMACI, theAssociation of Italian Contemporary Art Museums, which for sixteen years has been involving museums, foundations, public and private institutions, galleries, studios and artists’ spaces to tell the story of the vitality of contemporary art in our country. Also confirmed for this edition is the involvement of the foreign network of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (which includes Embassies, Consulates and Italian Cultural Institutes), which will give life from Saturday, December 5 to Friday, December 11, 2020, to a week-long promotion of Italian contemporary art abroad. This year’s Giornata del Contemporaneo takes on a necessarily different format from the traditional one, due to limitations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Edition number 16 of the event wants to put the contemporary community (starting with AMACI Museums) back at the center, and it is rethought precisely starting from the concept of community, which has come back powerfully to the fore in this year of health emergency.

How, today, can contemporary art museums and all the subjects and realities involved in promoting and raising awareness of the contemporary make community? This is the question that inspired the important innovations of Contemporary Day 2020, designed to respond to the exceptional nature of the moment we are living in. And the organizers, for their part, in addition to slipping the date of the event (which traditionally takes place in October), have chosen to adopt a hybrid format, with online and offline proposals: the context of the health emergency has in fact called for a suspension of the traditional format of the evente, and an updated edition with variations that will ensure its conduct on a dual track ,encouraging all participants to contribute on both plans, if the restrictions due to the trend of health conditions will allow it, or on a solely digital plan, adhering to the great communication campaign that today, December 5, is launched with the hashtag #dayofthecontemporary.

The dpcm of December 3 unfortunately did not make it possible for museums to reopen, and as a result the identity of the event points to a digital mosaic composed of the works of 20 artists, proposed by as many AMACI museums, instead of using the traditional guide image created by a single artist. The choice of a guide image composed of previews of the 20 works by Paola Angelini (Ca’ Pesaro), Meris Angioletti (GAMeC), Barbara and Ale (PAC), Cristian Chironi (Museion), Community Artistic Community Nuovo Forno del Pane (MAMbo),Patrizio Di Massimo (Castello di Rivoli), Andrea Facco (GAM Verona), Giovanni Gaggia (Musma), Barbara Gamper (Kunst Merano), Silvia Giambrone (Museo del Novecento), Andrea Mastrovito (Palazzo Fabroni), Marzia Migliora (MA*GA), Nunzio (ICG), Nicola Pecoraro (MACRO), Luca Pozzi (FMAV), Alessandro Sambini (Mart), Marinella Senatore (Centro Pecci), Francesco Simeti (MAN), Justin Randolph Thompson (Madre), Emilio Vavarella (MAXXI) is meant to be a direct reminder of a plurality, to that sense of community that has characterized the work of so many museums in the difficult context of lockdown and continues to be central pivot of their activities to overcome obstacles and difficulties due to restrictions and new rules of social life.

MiBACT’s General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity has also involved its network of Places of the Contemporary by proposing to them an ad hoc project for this 16th edition(I #Luoghidelcontemporary for the #Giornatadelcontemporaneo) through the creation of “video pills” that will tell about the spaces, exhibitions, initiatives and much more. The contributions will be visible on DGCC’s YouTube channel, in the playlist dedicated to the Day of the Contemporary. To enrich the program of the event, Giornata del Contemporaneo - Italian Contemporary Art is back for the third year: the participation of MAECI’s foreign network and in particular of the Italian Cultural Institutes abroad as participating venues is renewed, which will promote (with a schedule of digital activities) Italian creativity outside national borders. Thanks to the collaboration established in recent years with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and thanks to the coordination put in place since last year by the DGSP (General Directorate for the Promotion of the Country System of MAECI and the DGCC - General Directorate for Creativity Contemporary of the MiBACT), from December 5 to 11 also Embassies, Consulates and Italian Cultural Institutes abroad will organize, in their own circumscription of competence (and in the allowed modalities), debates, conferences, exhibitions and activities to enhance contemporary Italian art and culture. Already confirmed to participate are the Embassy of Italy in Vietnam, the Italian Cultural Institute of Abu Dhabi, the Italian Cultural Institute of Addis Ababa, the Italian Cultural Institute of Copenhagen, the Italian Cultural Institute of Hanoi, theItalian Cultural Institute of Helsinki, the Italian Institute of Lisbon, the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, the Italian Cultural Institute of Stockholm, the Italian Cultural Institute of Tel Aviv, and the Italian Cultural Institute of Tirana.

Also this year, as in past editions, the MAECI foreign network will involve some of the Directors and Curators of AMACI Museums with dedicated meetings: Lorenzo Balbi, Director of MAMbo, will dialogue with the Director of the IIC of Prague; Elisabetta Barisoni, Head of Ca’ Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Modena will speak with the Director of the IIC of Abu Dhabi in a meeting that will also involve the artist Paola Angelini; Cristiana Perrella, Director of the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato will discuss with the Director of the IIC of Toronto; Luigi Fassi, Director of the MAN of Nuoro, will be the protagonist of a panel discussion organized by the IIC of Lisbon; Elisa Giardina Papa will converse with the Director of the IIC of San Francisco; Martina Menegon with the Director of the IIC of Vienna; Formafantasma with the Director of the IIC of Amsterdam; and Danilo Correale with the Director of the IIC of Washington.

To participate in the 2020 edition of the Day of the Contemporary, it is not necessary to register for the event on AMACI ’s website: simply write to AMACI to receive a social pack (with visual pdf explanation) with which to promote initiatives, communicate participation, and adhere to the Day of the Contemporary using institutional graphics. The social pack will be sent to those entities that request it by writing to giornatadelcontemporaneo@amaci.org.

To date, already more than 500 entities have joined the event by requesting the social pack. The Day of the Contemporary thus confirms, even in an emergency context such as the one we are currently experiencing, as one of the most anticipated events in the sector, which can count on a wide participation, destined to grow in the next two weeks, and on an audience that has already shown interest (both online and offline) in learning about museums, foundations, academies and galleries, public and private art venues, actively taking part in debates and workshops,and coming into contact with artists and the art of the present. Moreover, thanks to this hybrid mode, for the first time the Day of the Contemporary sees the direct involvement in the communication campaign also of realities that promote contemporary art related to the world of publishing, press, and blogs.

From December 5 to 11, 2020, all the digital projects proposed by AMACI Museums, the videos of the network of the Places of the Contemporary of the General Directorate of Contemporary Creativity of MiBACT, the list of all the activities organized by the foreign network of MAECI, and the names of all the Day of the Contemporary adherents will be conveyed on the Day of the Contemporary website and will be promoted on the social channels of the Association and all the realities involved. This year’s Giornata del Contemporaneo once again has the support of the MiBACT’s General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity, the collaboration of MAECI’s General Directorate for the Promotion of the Country System, and the patronage of the European Commission’s Representation in Italy, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Chamber of Deputies, the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Cultural Activities and Tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, UPI - Union of Italian Provinces, ANCI - National Association of Italian Municipalitiesand ICOM Italy.

Image: Milan, Museo del Novecento, Sala Fontana. Ph. Credit Thomas Pagani

Contemporary Art Day returns today: all one day dedicated to contemporary art

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