Now in its third edition, CONNEXXION - Festival Diffuso di Arte Contemporanea, curated by Livia Savorelli and promoted by the Arteam Cultural Association under the patronage of the City of Savona, returns to inhabit and interrogate the city’s urban spaces through the plural gaze of contemporary art. From June 7 to 14, 2025, and with a preview on June 6, the festival reconfirms its public, participatory and site-specific vocation, involving artists, curators, scholars and citizens in a deep dialogue with the city and its memory.
After the success of previous editions, which saw an exceptional reopening of theformer Sant’Agostino Prison in Savona in 2024, CONNEXXION 2025 continues its research around the concepts of monumentality, memory and freedom, opening new scenarios of meaning. The title of the edition, Free inside, free outside, takes inspiration from the reflections of philosopher Ivan Petruzzi, and invites us to overcome the vision of freedom as a concession or transitory state, to recognize it as an existential choice and a daily practice. Art thus becomes a critical and regenerative tool, capable of activating new narratives in the symbolic places of urban living.
The artists of this edition are: Gino D’Ugo, Federica Mariani, mCLp studio and Daniele Nitti Sotres, Angelo Demitri Morandini, Matteo Musetti, Isabella and Tiziana Pers, Irene Pittatore, Mona Lisa Tina, Silvia Vendramel, Narda Zapata, Maya Zignone.
“At a time of profound crisis of mankind on a global level,” Livia Savorelli, creator and curator of CONNEXXION, introduces the theme of the edition, "in which the logic of overwhelm suffocates any breath of humanity and freedom - and bewilderment at the individual level, with an increase in violence as a direct consequence of the anger and frustration but also of the total lack of values that rage in our society, asking what it means to ’be free’ is a question to which to try to give answers. Contemporary art can, in this sense, help focus on certain questions, opening the door to reflections germinating new visions. Embracing the reflections of Ivan Petruzzi, in his enlightening book Liberi dentro. Free Outside. The Concept of Freedom in Times of Crisis, with the new edition of CONNEXXION we question a new conception of freedom, not as a “transitory permission” but as an “existential attitude.” Are we really capable of exercising our right to freedom, to live it fully ’out’ in our everyday life, or are we only able to dream about it, on a par with an abstract concept that we are unable to give shape to in reality?"
The preview of the festival will be held on June 6 with two interventions spread over the urban territory: I have no shame. Itinerant, a performance by Mona Lisa Tina in various places in the city, and Monumenta Italia / Cantiere Savona, a public art project signed by Irene Pittatore with the curatorship of Lisa Parola and Tea Taramino, developed starting from three city monuments - to the Fallen, to Garibaldi and to the Sailor - intended as active tools of confrontation and reflection. The exhibition centerpiece will once again be the former Sant’Agostino Prison, already temporarily reopened in 2024. The intervention is made possible by the collaboration between the Agenzia del Demanio, the Municipality of Savona and the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the provinces of Imperia and Savona. The exhibition, set up in the various rooms of the prison facility, features site-specific installations, performances and talks. The itinerary opens with the section Glimpses, which includes The Invisible City in the Colloquium Room and The Forgiveness Has the Smell of Trampled Flowers by Matteo Musetti in the mezzanine cell. The former project, conceived by Michela Vernazza and co-curated by Savorelli, combines anthropological research and installation, inviting visitors to share memories related to the city in a digital archive. Musetti’s work, on the other hand, addresses the theme of human frailty and forgiveness through images taken in RSAs, materials such as TNT sheets and hospitalization sticks, accompanied by a video and an olfactory installation. The installation ZERØ by mCLp studio and Daniele Nitti Sotres, set up in Cell 1, explores the concept of limit and imprisoned voice through sound and matter, while Maya Zignone with Alone (Cell 2) reflects on contemporary individual and social loneliness.
Cell 3 hosts Il mio secondino è un numero by Angelo Demitri Morandini, winner with Federica Mariani of the Connexxion Prize at Arteam Cup 2024. The work stages the confrontation between individual freedom and digital algorithmic systems through narratives orchestrated by artificial intelligences, with materials such as kerosene evoking the opacity of computer systems. In Cella 4, Gino D’Ugo ’s ALI proposes a reflection on knowledge and metamorphosis, uniting books and butterflies in an installation suspended between lightness and transformation. Narda Zapata, in Cell 5, with Sala de espera presents 12 Andean figures in kaolin installed on metal bases, accompanied by poetic audio tracks and prayers in different languages. The work addresses the theme of waiting and hope in contexts of confinement and suspension. Silvia Vendramel, in Sulle pareti nulla (Cell 6), plunges the viewer into darkness, activating shadow games with the use of cell phone flashlights. On the same day as the opening (June 7), the artist will also lead the collective action Dressing Space, Shortening Distances, in the prison courtyard, a reflection on the body, relationship and otherness. In Cell 7, Federica Mariani presents Body search by-the-book, a project focused on female searches in the prison context. Works include the video It’s not always easy to be a cop and the sculptures The knives are out, composed of paraffin wax knives. On Saturday, June 7, the artist will dialogue with Alberto Rizzerio (Antigone Liguria) and Luigi Debernardi. Cell 8 closes the itinerary, where Tiziana Pers presents The Age of Remedy, an installation composed of numbered plates that invite reflection on everyday gestures and coexistence with other living things. On June 12, a performance at PAV in Turin will symbolically connect the Savona installation with the Turin museum. The following day, together with her sister Isabella Pers, the artist will lead the Earthlings workshop, aimed at creating a collective ceramic work in dialogue with the local ceramic heritage.
On June 14, the final day, two initiatives dedicated to play and contemporary art will be held at the Civic Market, in collaboration with Arscode - The Art Game. At 3 p.m. workshop for children by Viviana Siviero and, from 5 p.m., game presentation with Diego Santamaria. Connexxion will be open to visitors free of charge until June 14: Sunday, June 8 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3:30 to 7:30 p.m., June 9 to 13 from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 14 during the same hours as Sunday. All information is available at www.connexxion.it.
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| Savona, 2025 edition of Connexxion festival brings contemporary art to city streets |
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