Catanzaro is inaugurating a new space for reflection dedicated to contemporary art. It is called Catanzaro Contemporanea and is the cultural project conceived and curated by Francesco Vaccaro that, from July 4 to 6, 2025, offers three days of exhibitions, screenings and public debates. The San Giovanni Monumental Complex will host the launch of an initiative that aspires to redefine the relationship between artistic production, urban space and collective participation. The review is structured around three main directions: video art, cinema dedicated to art and a series of public conversations. Admission to all activities is free.
The event, promoted by the City of Catanzaro under the patronage of the Region of Calabria, the Marisa Bellisario Foundation, the Order of Architects of the Province of Catanzaro and the Magna Graecia University, is organized in collaboration with the Catanzaro Academy of Fine Arts and Artecinema Napoli, an international film festival on contemporary art founded in 1996 and directed by Laura Trisorio. The program presented is only the beginning of a broader journey, which will continue through November through workshops, educational initiatives and new activities in the area.
The exhibition section opens with VIDIMU, a group exhibition of video art curated by Claudio Libero Pisano. Inaugurated on July 4 at 6 p.m., the exhibition takes place in the rooms of the San Giovanni and presents the works of eight artists active on the Italian and international scene: Sonia Andresano, Elisabetta Benassi, Bruna Esposito, Iulia Ghita, Myriam Laplante, Raffaela Mariniello, Marzia Migliora and Fiamma Montezemolo. The works address themes ranging from the political to the social, from the intimate to the collective, through heterogeneous visual languages and research. The exhibition will be open until July 31, daily from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. To accompany it, a catalog published by Rubbettino will be distributed free of charge to visitors, students and cultural workers, with the intention of offering a critical and educational tool.
“Vidìmu in Calabrese is a verb that expresses more than just looking,” points out Claudio Libero Pisano, curator of the project, “an idle word that contains different options on how to see things, without stopping at what appears, which is in front, instead shifting the gaze to the borders and periphery of the image, where other solutions are revealed.”
Alongside the exhibition, Catanzaro Contemporanea is hosting for the first time in Calabria the Artecinema in Catanzaro review. The initiative, curated in collaboration with Artecinema Napoli, features two evenings of outdoor screenings in the courtyard of the San Giovanni, dedicated to documentary cinema on contemporary art. On July 4 at 9 p.m., Arte Povera. Notes for History (Italy, 2023), a film directed by Andrea Bettinetti, who will be present at the screening. The documentary offers an account of Arte Povera through testimonies and archival materials, exploring one of the most influential artistic experiences of the second half of the 20th century in Italy. The following day, Saturday, July 5, at 8:30 p.m. Daniel Buren will be screened. L’Observatoire de la lumière à la Fondation Louis Vuitton, a film by Gilles Coudert dedicated to the French artist’s project in Paris. Following this, at 9:30 p.m., it will be the turn of Renzo Piano. The Architect of Light by Carlos Saura, a portrait of the famous Italian architect. Both directors will be present at the screenings, which are open to the public free of charge while seats last.
The program is completed with Conversations, a section dedicated to public meetings with protagonists of the artistic and cultural scene. The first appointment is scheduled for Friday, July 4 at 7:30 p.m. with La curatela come atto poetico, a meeting with Chiara Bertola, curator at GAM in Turin, and Michela Alessandrini, curator at Fondation Cartier in Paris. The discussion, moderated by Francesco Vaccaro, will focus on the role of curating as a narrative form, relational gesture and listening device. The following day, Saturday, July 5, at 7 p.m., Light is made space willdialogue artist Gregorio Botta, known for his works based on transparencies, voids and impalpable materials, with architect Luca Galofaro, founder of the LGSMA studio and university lecturer. The meeting, moderated by Mara Varia of the Catanzaro Academy of Fine Arts, will explore the relationship between light, form and matter, interrogating the symbolic potential of space.
Two outdoor moments further enrich the program, with urban crossings and guided tours that relate contemporary art to symbolic places in the area. On Saturday, July 5 at 10 a.m., there will be a tour of the International Biodiversity Park, a curatorial journey among the contemporary artworks installed in the park, signed by artists such as Antony Gormley, Tony Cragg, Mimmo Paladino, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Denis Oppenheim and Stephan Balkenhol. On Sunday, July 6, at 11 a.m., the public will be able to visit the Scolacium Museum and National Archaeological Park, an area that preserves important Roman and medieval remains and has hosted important contemporary art interventions over the years.
The project, as announced by the organizers, will continue until November, with new events to be announced through the festival’s official channels. Looking ahead, the festival intends to take root in the territory as a place of cultural elaboration, capable of activating processes of symbolic, social and urban regeneration. Underlying the project is the belief that contemporary art can play an active role in the transformation processes of territories, helping to define new forms of cultural citizenship.
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| A new art festival is born in Catanzaro: Catanzaro Contemporanea |
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