CAMeC, La Spezia’s Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, enters a new phase in its history with the appointment of the new director of the non-institutionalized public-private partnership for the enhancement of cultural activities: Antonio Grulli. The announcement was made official during a press conference held on the morning of Wednesday, July 2, in the presence of La Spezia Mayor Pierluigi Peracchini, Fondazione Carispezia board member Debora Cossu and Technical Committee Chair Giacomo Bei.
“It is an honor for me to be able to direct CAMeC,” says Antonio Grulli, director of the non-institutionalized public-private partnership for the enhancement of the cultural activities of CAMeC - La Spezia Center for Modern and Contemporary Art. “First and foremost for its roots, which are rooted in a living history in which La Spezia has played an undeniable role as a laboratory of the contemporary: from Futurism to the many cultural and countercultural ferments of recent decades, passing through the prestigious Gulf Prize and inextricably intertwined with the constant presence of poetry and poets in this wonderful gulf. But also because of the recent history of the CAMeC museum institution, made up of important legacies, acquisitions of the highest caliber, and extraordinary exhibitions. An excellent example of this is the exhibition now underway, which compares two giants of 20th-century world art, Fontana and Morandi, curated by such undisputed professionals as Maria Cristina Bandera and Sergio Risaliti. It is from this history, more or less recent, from the very DNA of CAMeC, that I want to start again in order to build together with Fondazione Carispezia and the Municipality of La Spezia the future of this institution. Looking at an increasingly attractive territory and without forgetting the border role of a city like La Spezia, which can allow CAMeC to be a reference institution also for the nearby and dynamic Tuscan territories, with the goal of making it a permanently international and increasingly active museum.”
“Something at CAMeC has changed,” argues Pierluigi Peracchini, Mayor of La Spezia, "and confirming this are the numbers: from October 5, 2024, the date of the museum’s reopening with the renewed restyling and rethinking of the permanent civic collection curated by Wolf, to date, nearly 14,000 visitors have admired the Gulf Prize Room, the Accessibility Room, the temporary exhibition Morandi Fontana. Visible and Infinite and have participated in the many diverse events offered. The decision to include Antonio Grulli in what I now believe to be a great working team is further evidence of the joint will of the City Council and the Foundation to pursue with great determination a real breakthrough in the Museum’s cultural activities. Therefore, I wish Antonio Grulli and all those who collaborate at and for CAMeC all the best in their work."
Grulli’s first public outing is set for Friday, July 4, at 7 p.m., at the presentation of the catalog of the current exhibition at CAMeC, entitled Morandi Fontana. Invisible and Infinite. The meeting will also be attended by exhibition curators Sergio Risaliti and Maria Cristina Bandera, along with Rosanna Cappelli, managing director of the Electa publishing house, which edited the volume. The exhibition, which will remain open until Sept. 14, represents the first major temporary exhibition promoted by the museum in this new management phase.
“The appointment of Antonio Grulli represents a further fundamental step in the revitalization of the museum, which Fondazione Carispezia is pursuing with the City of La Spezia in a synergic and shared action,” says Andrea Corradino, president of Fondazione Carispezia. "After the reopening and remounting of the Permanent Collection curated by Gerhard Wolf, the first important step in this project, and after the exhibition Morandi Fontana. Invisible and Infinite, the second step in this journey of enhancement, today CAMeC is preparing to face a new phase of growth. A path that strengthens the role of the museum as a cultural reference point for the city and the territory, and that confirms the Fondazione’;s commitment to supporting a dynamic culture, capable of looking to the future with ambition and vision."
The CAMeC is currently involved in an articulated process of transformation, born out of a collaboration between the city administration and Fondazione Carispezia, which has resulted in a series of interventions aimed at the renovation of museum spaces and the enhancement of the permanent civic collection. The new layout, entrusted to art historian Gerhard Wolf, offers a thematic reading of the more than 200 works on display, divided into sections that include body and performance, architecture, ecology, Pop Art, the 1980s and an area dedicated to the Gulf Prize.
Art critic and curator, Antonio Grulli is currently in charge of the Luci d’Artista public art project in Turin(lucidartistatorino.org). In 2024, he curated the Albanian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale and, in the same city, he is now engaged in the direction of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation’s studies program.
In the past, he oversaw the collection and contemporary art activities of Palazzo Bentivoglio in Bologna(palazzobentivoglio.org), served on the board of Viafarini in Milan(viafarini.org), and conceived several exhibition, editorial, and experimental projects in collaboration with artists, curators, and collectors. These include Lucerna, in Milan, created together with Federico Pepe, and the FBI space housed in artist Jacopo Benassi’s studio in La Spezia.
Throughout his career, he has curated exhibitions in public and institutional venues such as the Ala Scaligera of the Rocca di Angera (Varese), the Fondazione Carispezia (La Spezia), the Fondazione del Monte (Bologna), the Match Gallery in Ljubljana, MAMbo (Bologna) and the Museo di Castelvecchio (Verona); in realities nonprofits such as C21 (Reggio Emilia), Codalunga (Vittorio Veneto), Hamlet (Zurich), Le Dictateur (Milan), Neon Campobase (Bologna), Viafarini (Milan); as well as in private galleries including 3+1 (Lisbon), Artnoble (Milan), De Foscherari (Bologna), Francesca Minini (Milan), Francesco Pantaleone and Giovanni Rizzuto (Palermo), MAI36 (Zurich), P420 (Bologna), Raffaella Cortese (Milan), Tiziana di Caro (Naples).
He has written for numerous specialist magazines, including Arte e Critica, Arte Mondadori, Artribune, ATP Diary, Boite, Cura Magazine, Exibart, Flash Art, Le Dictateur, Mousse Magazine and Studio Magazine. He is a regular contributor to the national pages of La Stampa newspaper, for which he signs articles devoted to contemporary art.
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| Antonio Grulli appointed director of the new cultural course of the CAMeC of La Spezia |
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