The finalists of the third edition of the MAXXI Bulgari Prize. Here's who they are

Alessandra Ferrini (Florence 1984), Silvia Rosi (Scandiano - RE 1992) and Namsal Siedlecki (Greenfield USA 1986) are the finalists of the third edition of the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE, a project for the support and promotion of young artists that unites MAXXI - National Museum of XXI Century Arts and Bvlgari.

Selected from artists presented by Italian critics and curators Valentina Bruschi, Gaia Di Lorenzo, Eva Fabbris, Simone Frangi, Pier Paolo Pancotto, Gea Politi, Paola Ugolini and Eugenio Viola, the finalists were chosen by an international jury composed of Hoor Al Qasimi (President and Director Sharjah Art Foundation United Arab Emirates), Chiara Parisi (Director Pompidou-Metz), Dirk Snauwaert (Director WIELS Contemporary Art Centre Brussels), with Hou Hanru (MAXXI Artistic Director) and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi Director (MAXXI Arte).

“Alessandra Ferrini, Silvia Rosi and Namsal Siedlecki were chosen for their ability to express the aesthetic diversity, experimentation and productivity of the young Italian artistic generation through an innovative use of expressive media, from sculpture to photography and multimedia installations,” said the jury, “for the urgency manifested in their practices to imagine the future, addressing the ecological issue through the transformation of matter, rethinking and redefining the question of cultural identity and geopolitical reality in relation to the consequences of colonization and socio-cultural transformations in the global context.”

The site-specific works created by the finalists will be exhibited in June 2022 at MAXXI in an exhibition curated by Giulia Ferracci. In October 2022, the jury will evaluate the submitted works and name the winner, whose work will be acquired by the museum.

“Each with their own language, Alessandra Ferrini, Silvia Rosi and Namsal Siedlecki speak to us about the relationship between man and nature, migration, identity, belonging, ideology, all urgent themes of our time,” explained Giovanna Melandri, President Fondazione MAXXI. "It is a privilege to continue this journey together with Bvlgari, a maison that has given so much to Italian and international creativity and for us an irreplaceable partner: with Bvlgari we share a strong and consolidated cultural project, a virtuous example of a non-ephemeral strategic alliance between public and private."

Evolution of the MAXXI Prize, born in 2000 as the Young Art Prize and the founding nucleus of the museum’s collection, which over the years has launched artists such as Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Stefano Arienti, Vanessa Beecroft, Rossella Biscotti, Lara Favaretto, Piero Golia, Adelita Husni-Bey, Liliana Moro, Marinella Senatore, Nico Vascellari, Francesco Vezzoli and many others, the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE, thanks to the support of Bvlgari has been renewed, strengthening and projecting itself even more on the international scene.

The encounter between MAXXI and Bvlgari, which took place in 2014 on the occasion of the exhibition Bellissima. L’Italia dell’alta moda 1945-1968, is strengthened with the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE in a partnership based on common values and awareness of the importance of supporting culture and the strategic role of the public-private alliance. “Supporting young talent means investing in the creativity of our time and our future,” say Giovanna Melandri and Jean Christophe Babin.

THE 2022 FINALISTS

Alessandra Ferrini (Florence, 1984, lives and works in London) is an artist, researcher, and educator, among the few of her generation to have undertaken a critical analysis of the legacies of Italian colonialism and fascism, with a particular focus on the construction of national identity, foreign and racial politics, and relations between Italy, the Mediterranean region and the African continent. Her complex artistic practice uses moving images, multimedia installations and performance-lectures.

Silvia Rosi (Scandiano - Reggio Emilia, 1992, lives and works between London and Modena). An Italian-Togolese visual artist and photographer, she uses the medium of photography and moving images combined with textual fragments in her practice. Through a series of portraits and self-portraits, she traces her family history, drawing on her Togolese heritage and those migratory paths that led her to be born in Italy, investigating themes such as identity, citizenship, and belonging.

Namsal Siedlecki (Greenfield USA, 1986, lives and works in Seggiano - Grosseto) works primarily with sculpture, with a particular interest in the manipulation and evolution of matter, its transition from one status to another. Like a modern alchemist, he deals with a wide variety of materials - different types of metal, leather, parchment, wax, glass, ash - and technical solutions aimed at their transformation, moving along the thin barrier between the ephemeral and the permanent.

Image: Self-portrait as my Father(2019) from the series Encounter ©Silvia Rosi

The finalists of the third edition of the MAXXI Bulgari Prize. Here's who they are

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