MILAN.- From 14 to 16 April 2023 (VIP preview on 13 April)
miart the international modern and contemporary art fair in Milan, organised by Fiera Milano and directed for the third year by Nicola Ricciardi, returns. With 169 participating galleries (a double digit increase compared to 2022 edition) from 27 countries around the world, with works by modern masters, established and emerging contemporary artists alike, this 27th edition confirms its role as a key appointment for the art public and its international appeal with almost 40% more exhibitors based abroad.
After smantellato il silenzio (dismantling silence) in 2021 and starting a primo movimento (first movement) in 2022, this year the fair continues to draw inspiration from music, building the imagery of the new edition around the word Crescendo, an expression that in music language marks the gradual increase in the intensity of sound but referred to the fair wants to emphasise the progressive growth in participation and audience observed in the last two years and the wish to continue on this trend beyond 2023.
Inspired by the concept of Crescendo, for the first time, the contents of the fair extend beyond its traditional boundaries to engage other places in the city, starting on Saturday 15 April with Triennale Milano which is hosting a series of conversations titled miart LIVE at Triennale Milano: meetings developed around the theme of art's ability to appeal to other places and other disciplines far from the traditional locations and schedules.
Massimiliano Gioni and Beatrice Trussardi will talk about how Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, a nomadic museum par excellence, has disseminated contemporary art in multiple places and through the most diverse channels, twenty years after its first intervention in Milan, in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, in 2003; Angharad Williams and Gianmaria Andreetta will talk about The Wig, an initiative through which they reflect on artistic practices that take shape in places other than the studio; Jonathan Monk will speak with Anna Ebner and Marco Scotti about the Multiple Locations exhibition project that during miart will bring some of Monk's editions to shops, restaurants, and bars in via Porpora in Milan; Davide Giannella will invite Riccardo Benassi and the duo Eva & Franco Mattes to discuss the evolution of the concept of public art and its possible future interpretations; Gianni Pettena and Italo Rota will discuss the relationship between architecture and landscape, art and mountains; Valerio Barberis, Loris Cecchini and Mario Cucinella will wonder about the city of the future starting from an unprecedented alliance between art, architecture and reforestation; and finally, Nico Vascellari will talk with Damiano Gullì, Gea Politi and Cristiano Seganfreddo starting with his work Falena, which will be installed in the institution's outdoor spaces from 15 April.
The collaboration between miart and Triennale Milano is also highlighted by the exhibition FOG - Triennale Milano Performig Arts, which will present two Italian premieres to the public during the fair: How a Falling Star Lit Up The Purple Sky by Jeremy Nedd, an international choreographer and performer, and Impilo Mapantsula, a global network specialising in energy-packed dance style (12 and 13 April); and Le sacre du printemps, a choreographic research by Dewey Dell inspired by Igor Stravinsky's masterpiece, a milestone in musical literature and an endless visual wonder (15 and 16 April).
Particularly significant is also the synergy with Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, with whom miart has shared several special projects for the city of Milan in the past. This year, the Foundation has chosen to begin the celebrations for its first 20 years as a nomadic museum right inside the pavilions of the fair: on 13th April, Beatrice Trussardi and Massimiliano Gioni will involve the public in the cutting of a cake donated by Maurizio Cattelan.
The circulation of artistic content inside and outside the fair is also highlighted by the unprecedented partnership with the fashion brand MSGM, which commissioned a site-specific work for the miart entrance at the artist duo Eva & Franco Mattes. Consisting of digital cables that allow the transfer of data, the installation that welcomes the public rotates an invisible image inside sent randomly via AirDrop from the duo's personal smartphone to passers-by. Inspired by the widespread practice among teenagers of exploiting crowds to airdrop digital materials, Eva & Franco Mattes' work can generate a human connection that is in contrast with the idea of the fair as a place for commercial transactions only. Every visitor, even without being a collector, will have the opportunity to take away, and in turn redistribute, a unique artistic content.
Confirming the ambition to involve a wider audience, for the first time the themes of the fair are also conveyed via radio with thanks to the project The Sound of miart powered by Radio Deejay, Radio Capital and M2O: three music playlists created by the Gedi Group radio stations, downloadable from QR codes across the fair or from the website miart digital and that follow the mood of each section, Established, Emergent, Decades.
miart 2023, therefore, makes itself a promoter and producer of culture, capable of creating synergy between the art system, citizens and the territory; and this is also present in the new edition of Milan Art Week (April 11 – 16), the widespread event coordinated by culture department of the municipality of Milan which connects the main public institutions and foundations of the city dedicated to modern and contemporary art, with exhibitions and activities.
On the occasion of the Milan Art Week, some exhibitions of the season open in important city venues. These include, to name but a few: the solo exhibition of Belgian artist Ann Veronica Janssens at Pirelli HangarBicocca; Candice Lin | Arnaldo Pomodoro Prize for Sculpture at the GAM Galleria d'Arte Moderna in collaboration with the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro; Yuri Ancarani's solo exhibition and Silvia Giambrone's Project Room at the PAC; the Forum 900 project at the Museo del Novecento in which the gallery on the ground floor hosts contemporary art works and design seating, transforming the large spaces into a place for discussions, debates and presentations; the two projects dedicated to modern art Diego, the other Giacometti and Hortus Alchemicus at the Fondazione Luigi Rovati; the exhibition dedicated to the installations and videos of the artist Dara Birnbaum at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada.
During Milan Art Week will also feature the spaces of Fondazione Prada with the exhibition Cere Anatomiche, Fondazione ICA Milano with Nathlie Provosty's solo exhibition and Triennale Milano with the new exhibitions Lisa Ponti. Disegni e voci, Text and Droog30. Design or Non-design, with a new display for Museo del Design Italiano, and with performances and installations. Guided tours, special projects and extraordinary opening hours characterise the spaces with exhibitions currently on display, such as the Palazzo Reale, Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia, Armani/Silos and Gallerie d'Italia, which exceptionally opens its vault with an excursus into Italian and international 20th century art.
There will be no shortage of initiatives dedicated to public art thanks to the inauguration of three new works by Rossella Biscotti, Liliana Moro and Otobong Nkanga for ArtLine, the site-specific contemporary art path through the Citylife park; Franco Mazzucchelli's double installation displayed both at Triennale Milano and in Darsena, in collaboration with Ufficio Arte Pubblica; and Falena, Nico Vascellari 's monumental installation conceived for the façade of Triennale Milano building.
The collaboration with Gruppo Intesa Sanpaolo, which supports miart as main partner, continues. Internationality, excellence and attention to the cultural development of the territory are the values that bind miart to the banking group, with the aim of consolidating Milan's centrality on the national and international scene and offering the city a further driver of growth and economic, cultural and civil development.
As usual, the Bank will contribute to the 2023 edition by also bringing its own original content. Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking will present the Art Advisory activity and related artistic heritage management services by welcoming guests to the Fair, in the VIP Lounge, where an exhibition dedicated to young emerging artists will be set up as part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Culture Project.
The Fondazione Fiera Milano Acquisition Fund, founded in 2012, is confirmed for the 27th edition of miart. Worth 100,000 euros, it is intended for works of art that will implement the Fondazione Fiera Milano collection, currently housed in the Palazzina degli Orafi, the Foundation's headquarters, and which currently consists of over 100 works representing different artistic languages. Enrico Pazzali, Chairman of Fondazione Fiera Milano, will be assisted in the selection of acquisitions by a high-profile international jury chaired by Diana Bracco (Executive Committee, Fondazione Fiera Milano, Milan) with Ralph Rugoff (Director Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre, London); Dirk Snauwaert, (Director, WIELS, Bruxelles); Bettina Steinbrügge (General director, Mudam Luxembourg).
Also confirmed are: the Herno Prize, now in its eighth edition, which awards a prize of 10,000 euros to the stand with the best exhibition project; the LCA Prize for Emergent, worth 4,000 euros, born in 2015 from the collaboration with LCA Studio Legale and destined for the gallery with the best presentation within the Emergent section; the Covivio Award, dedicated to the Emergent section and which will select an artist to commission a site-specific work with an investment of up to 20,000 euros to set up at the Wellio by Covivio proworking space in via dell'Unione 1, Milan.
These awards will be joined by: the first edition of the Henraux Foundation Sculpture Commission, which will commission a work in marble to be exhibited from April 2024 at the Museo del Novecento in Milan. The winning artist will realise the project during a residency at the Foundation in Querceta di Seravezza (LU) where confront himself with the marble stone, the historical craftsmen and the innovative technologies of Henraux Spa. The Orbital Cultura - Nexi Group Prize dedicated to photography with the aim to provide Italian historical museums with contemporary and high-quality images, to encourage a continuous exchange between past and present. Selected among those represented by the galleries in the Established and Decades sections, one artist will be commissioned to create, with an award of Euro 10,000, a photographic documentation work of the external buildings and common spaces of a museum complex. The first edition of the prize is dedicated to Gallerie degli Uffizi complex. The Matteo Visconti di Modrone Prize, in memory of the President of the Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, worth 10,000 euros, will be awarded to an artist who can create his/her work in the Foundry with the assistance of the artisans working there; After a year off, for its thirteenth edition, the Rotary Club Milano Brera Award for Contemporary Art and Young Artists returns, established in 2009 as the first recognition in the context of miart, provides for the acquisition of a work by an emerging or mid-career artist to be donated to the Museo del Novecento in Milan. Finally, the Massimo Giorgetti Prize, in its first edition, born from the desire of fashion designer and collector Massimo Giorgetti to support young artists at the start of their careers, will award a prize of 5,000 euros.
Also thanks to these awards, which more than doubled in number compared to 2022, miart 2023 demonstrates a renewed international spirit, expressed by the prestigious list of directors and curators who will have the task of identifying the winning works and artists. Among them: Fernanda Brenner (Artistic Director, Pivô, São Paulo); Nicholas Cullinan (Director, National Portrait Gallery, Londra); Sébastien Delot, (Director, LaM – Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut); Yilmaz Dziewior (Director, Museum Ludwig, Colonia); Massimiliano Gioni (Artistic director, New Museum, New York e Artistic Director, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan); Radine Leonie (Curator, Museion, Bolzano); Laura McLean-Ferris (Curator-at-Large, Swiss Institute, New York); Catherine Nichols (Creative mediator, Manifesta 14, Pristina e curator, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin).
The partnership with Maison Ruinart is also renewed for 2023, confirming its commitment to the world of art by presenting an unprecedented art project in the Ruinart VIP Lounge for this edition with the presence of the artist Carte Blanche 2023 Eva Jospin.
Switzerland Tourism, which presents an innovative concept expressing the many faces of Switzerland has confirmed its participation.
The renewed partnership with Elle Décor Italia boosts miart 's VIP Lounge with furniture by Kartell and Saba.
A very welcome novelty for those who love Italian excellence: with miart 2023 the combination of art and food comes to life thanks to the Italian Association of Ambassadors of Taste. The 10 Milan-bound Ambassadors of Taste - Andrea Berton, Cesare Battisti, Vittorio Borgia, Vincenzo Butticè, Carlo Cracco, Roberto Di Pinto, Antonio and Vincenzo Lebano, Davide Oldani, Aya Yamamoto, and Viviana Varese - were called upon to dedicate one of their creations to art and to host in their restaurants some of the most beautiful works of the private collection of Fondazione Fiera Milano.
Also growing around miart is collecting and in particular international collecting also thanks to ICE - Agenzia per la promozione all'estero e l'internazionalizzazione delle imprese italiane which supports the event in the incoming of a selection of international collectors. It is also thanks to the support of ICE Agenzia that Club degli Orafi Italia takes part in miart for the first time with its Double Face exhibition with artist's jewellery.
