CONNEXXION, a widespread festival of contemporary art, returns to Savona. Common thread will be Freedom

From November 25, 2023 to April 27, 2024, CONNEXXION returns to Savona. Diffuse Festival of Contemporary Art, an event curated by Livia Savorelli, realized with the contribution and patronage of the City of Savona, the contribution of the Region of Liguria and the Agostino De Mari Foundation, which aims to bring attention to the most significant places in the Ligurian city, rereading its historical and artistic heritage and interweaving it with the visions of artists of the present.

The Festival entitled ...to be free. Between identity and memory has the collaboration of important partners, involved by Arteam in the spirit of the event: ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’Italia Provincial Committee of Savona), ANED (Associazione Nazionale degli Ex Deportati nei campi Nazi Sezione Savona-Imperia), ISREC (Istituto Storico della Resistenza e dell’Età Contemporanea della provincia di Savona), Museo Casa Natale di Sandro Pertini di Stella San Giovanni (SV), Società Savonese di Storia Patria, Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri. Renewed the collaboration with the Museum of Ceramics, a partner in the realization of the workshops developed around the themes of the Festival.

The second edition of the Festival will be completely renewed in structure, with two important development moments, coinciding with the opening and closing of the event, and exhibitions that can be visited for five months on the Priamàr Fortress. The first focus will involve two of the city’s museums, namely the Civic Archaeological Museum and the Sandro Pertini and Renata Cuneo Museum, in conjunction with the Arteam Cup 2023 finalists’ exhibition, scheduled from Nov. 25, 2023 to Jan. 6, 2024 inside the Commissioner’s Palace, also on the Priamàr Fortress(www.arteamcup.it).

"With the second edition, entitled ...to be free. Between Identity and Memory,“ explains the curator, ”the Festival aims to stimulate a wide-ranging reflection on the concept of freedom, in a world increasingly moved by nationalism, authoritarian drifts, wars and upheavals at the planetary level, and by a heightened drive toward radicalism and extremism. Accompanying us on this journey around freedom will be a figure so beloved by the Italian people, and by the people of Savona in particular, as that of Sandro Pertini, to whom a special tribute will be paid with the exhibition Dialogues around Freedom, which takes place in the rooms of the Sandro Pertini and Renata Cuneo Museum. The title of this edition is inspired, in particular, by a phrase by Pertini: ’...men to be free it is necessary that they be freed from the nightmare of need... it is in solidarity with other members of the community that the personality of the individual is elevated...’. A vision declined in the plural by Pertini, with an eye always turned to the new generations - those for whom, through struggle and a youth spent safeguarding their democratic ideals, he worked to ensure a future of freedom - so that young people would be persuaded of this: ’dictatorship is darkness, democracy is light; dictatorship is silence, democracy is reasoning.’"

The second edition of CONNEXXION will be officially presented to the public on Saturday, November 25, at 4 p.m., in the Sibyl Hall on the Priamàr Fortress, and will be preceded by the presentation of the CONNEXXION 2022 video-documentation and its dedicated volume (Vanillaedizioni, 2023).

New for the 2023 edition will be the presence of a Guest Curator, Matteo Galbiati, who will join the curator in some key moments of the Festival and who will co-curate the exhibition at the Civic Archaeological Museum.

Two exhibitions will kick off the second edition of CONNEXXION: Fragments. Acts of preservation for a future of freedom, curated by Livia Savorelli and Matteo Galbiati at the Civico Museo Archeologico with works by Roberto Ghezzi, Alberto Gianfreda, Laura Pugno, Attilio Tono and Ivano Troisi; Dialogues around freedom, curated by Livia Savorelli at the Sandro Pertini Museum and Renata Cuneo with works by Elena Bellantoni, Davide Dormino, Rocco Dubbini, Armida Gandini, Gianni Moretti.

"The second edition of CONNEXXION," stresses Nicoletta Negro, councillor for the Comprensorial Policies of Culture and Tourism, “is distinguished by a new territorial synergy that passes through the Associations that deal with historical memory and anti-fascism, as well as reconfirming the collaborations of the museum realities in the city such as our Civic Archaeological Museum and the Sandro Pertini and Renata Cuneo Museum. It will be the theme of Freedom that will guide performances, installations, and exhibitions, declined also thanks to the figure of Sandro Pertini and the collection set up in the Museum dedicated to him on the Priamàr. A second part, on the other hand, will reopen the Sant’Agostino Prison, right in the week of the April 25 celebrations. An important reflection, in addition to the ritual torchlight procession, that will allow art to guide us and intercept an unprecedented public. It will be an important challenge, which will not spare surprises and deep reflections that are sadly still needed today.”

A further moment of development of the Festival is planned for April 20-27, 2024, inside theformer Sant’Agostino Prison, the great novelty of this edition, which for a week will be enlivened by site-specific installations, performances, talks and moments of discussion. Closed for years, located in the center of the city of Savona, the former Sant’Agostino Prison was strongly desired by the curator as the location of the Festival - immediately supported by Mayor Russo, Councillor for comprensorial policies of Culture and Tourism Nicoletta Negro and Councillor for Urban Regeneration Ilaria Becco - as a space from which to transit for a concluding reflection around the concept of freedom, memory and identity, to implement a regeneration that from individual can become collective, accompanying itself with a culture-based planning that can with the years return this place to the city with renewed functionality.

In the months linking the two main moments of the Festival, there will be workshops, guided tours, and opportunities for in-depth study based on the themes of the Festival. One of the first artists invited to develop a talk dedicated to his research is Roberto Ghezzi, featured in the exhibition Frammenti. Acts of preservation for a future of freedom. On Wednesday, Nov. 29 from 4 p.m., the meeting entitled Blue Tears. Naturographies and Other Stories on Climate Change, which will feature Roberto Ghezzi and Monica Mazzolini. The talk will revolve around the question: how do different artistic media manage to influence public opinion, to shake consciences with respect to the urgencies of our contemporary times, such as climate change and global warming?

As with the first edition of CONNEXXION, the partnership with the Museum of Ceramics has been renewed for the development of workshops that artists have designed around the Festival’s themes. Through Feb. 26, 2024, the Museum presents At the Table with Rochester Square, a project curated by Alessio Cotena, Marco Isaia and Daniele Panucci in collaboration with Francesca Anfossi, and Diario, a solo exhibition by Tommaso Corvi Mora curated by Daniele Panucci with critical contributions by Irene Biolchini and Luca Bochicchio.

Parallel to CONNEXXION, inside the Palazzo del Commissario, also on the Priamàr Fortress, is the exhibition of the finalists of the Arteam Cup 2023 national art competition, curated by Livia Savorelli and Matteo Galbiati. The exhibition, promoted by the Arteam Cultural Association under the patronage of the City of Savona, is open to the public until Jan. 6, 2024, when the category winners (Painting, Sculpture, Photography) and, among them, the overall winner will be announced. For information: www.arteamcup.it.

For all information on events promoted as part of CONNEXXION: www.connexxion.it

Image: Alberto Gianfreda, Circular Ephemeral (2022; ceramic and aluminum chain, 60 x 60 x 15 cm). Photo by Cosimo Filippini.

CONNEXXION, a widespread festival of contemporary art, returns to Savona. Common thread will be Freedom

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