TURIN.- Rebeca Romero represented by Copperfield gallery based in London is the winner of the OGR Award 2023 with the project Semilla SAGRADA. Organised by Artissima and Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, the OGR Award has been created to identify an artist who effectively conveys the complex, sophisticated relationship between art, technology and innovation, with a particular focus on digital.

This year, the prize was awarded by an international jury composed of Amira Gad, curator and writer, Rotterdam, Lars Henrik Gass, director, Festival Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Samuele Piazza, senior curator, OGR Torino, and Domenico Quaranta, art critic, curator and lecturer specialised in media art, Milano.

The jury expressed the following statement: “We decided unanimously to award Rebeca Romero, represented by Copperfield gallery based in London, for her project Semilla SAGRADA. As is exemplified by her artistic practice whereby she adopts an archaeological approach, the project excavates ancient histories into a future civilization, evoking the complex relationships between the real and the virtual, the digital and the material, heritage and symbolism. The jury appreciates the analogue angle of using materials such as textiles in her engagement with the metaverse as well as the links drawn between shamanism and the digital. Additionally, with this prize, the jury supports a project that addresses the metaverse as a shared place that can be actively and collectively designed, contributing alternative, non-Western histories and imaginations to its development.”

OGR Award in dialogue with METAmorphosis

In this edition, the Award has been in dialogue with METAmorphosis, the second initiative of the Beyond Production platform, in which Artissima and Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT reflect annually on the most innovative trends in contemporary art. The 2022 edition is focused on the complex phenomenon of the Metaverse and was divided into four phases.

Four artists were shortlisted for the OGR Award during Artissima 2022: Marcos Lutyens – Alberta Pane, Paris and Venezia; Eva & Franco Mattes – Apalazzogallery, Brescia; Rebeca Romero – Copperfield, London; R M – Martina Simeti, Milano.

Artists and their galleries were subsequently involved in a training cycle that enabled them to explore the potential and limits of the metaverse under the guidance of technical partners Artshell, LCA Studio Legale and Revibe - Metaverse Experience Factory – specialists in digital technologies, legal issues connected with NFTs and the computer 3D graphics inside the metaverse respectively.

The four artists then created a physical artwork and a digital alter ego of the work in the Metaverse, supported by Ilaria Bonacossa, director of the Museo Nazionale dell’Arte Digitale in Milano, with budget provided by Fondazione per l’Arte Contemporanea CRT. The projects are hosted online on a digital platform by Artshell.

Finally, the jury determined the winner of the Award, bestowing it on Rebeca Romero. The artwork Semilla SAGRADA will be mounted in the Metaverse and will be unveiled to the public on 17 May 2023, in a dedicated event at OGR Torino. The winning works will be acquired into the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT collection and will go on display at OGR Torino.