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11/05/2020

Dr. Tenley Bick Continues Interview Series on Contemporary Italian Art and Activist

On November 20Dr. Tenley Bick (Art History) continues her lecture series COSTELLAZIONE in an online conversation with the Palermo-based artist collective Fare Ala (Luca Cinquemani, Andrea Di Gangi, and Roberto Romano) at 12pm EST on Instagram @costell.azione. These short-format interviews (10 minutes in Italian and then 10 minutes in English) focus on one work of art of the artist’s choice. Fare Ala will discuss one aspect of their recent interventionist, multimedia work, Viva Menilicchi! (Long Live Menelik!, 2018), done in collaboration with author Wu Ming 2 for the European “nomadic” biennial Manifesta 12 held in Palermo. Dr. Bick has an essay in press on the artists’ work, entitled “Ghosts for the Present: Countercultural Aesthetics and Postcoloniality for Contemporary Italy. The Work of Wu Ming 2 and Fare Ala” (in Global Revolutionary Aesthetics and Politics after Paris ’68, edited by FSU colleagues William Cloonan, Barry Faulk, Martin Munro, and Christian Weber, in press with Lexington Books).

During her year as Scholar-in-Residence at Magazzino Italian Art in the mid-Hudson region of New York, Dr. Bick watched as Italy became one of the first global hotspots in the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by New York in her immediate research environment. Urging for continued programming online at Magazzino during the crisis, which included pivoting her lecture series on Arte Povera’s global vision to an online platform, Dr. Bick also leveraged her experience in conducting virtual research interviews with contemporary artists in Italy, including Afro-Italian artist Luigi Christopher Veggetti Kanku (b. 1979) and Jem Perucchini (b. 1995), an Italian artist of Ethiopian origin, to address the intersections between art, anti-racist activism, and race politics in pandemic-era Italy. Dr. Bick recently wrote about Veggetti Kanku and Perucchini’s work, as well as that of Fare Ala and Nov. 13 COSTELLAZIONE guest OZMO (Gionata Ozmo), in her essay on race politics, contemporary art, and activism in Italy in her essay, “‘My world now is black in color’: Pandemic-Era Programming, Anti-Racist Activism, and Contemporary Art in Italy,” published in CAA International News (August 11, 2020).

Luigi Christopher Veggetti Kanku, Oggi per domani (Today for Tomorrow), 2020. Image courtesy of the artist

Dr. Bick premiered COSTELLAZIONE (Constellation) in October 2020, focused on emerging artists alongside maestri  with affinities in their exploration of resistance, activism, and identity in Italy and its cultural geographies, past, present, and yet to come. Conceived as a platform for creative azione (action), COSTELLAZIONE seeks to constellate a new community for dialogue, research, and exchange in our current moment of distance and global crisis. Through live video conversations in Italian and English with Italian artists (or those who have worked extensively in Italy), COSTELLAZIONE deepens our knowledge of contemporary Italian artists’ research. COSTELLAZIONE thereby highlights new directions and complexities in the contemporary field of and around Italian art.

Palermo-based collective Fare Ala (Luca Cinquemani, Andrea Di Gangi, and Roberto Romano) will follow on Nov. 20 at 12pm EST, and Marinella Senatore will conclude the 2020 program before the holidays on Dec. 4. COSTELLAZIONE’s 2021 season begins Jan. 15 with maestro Mimmo Paladino.

Marinella Senatore will conclude the fall 2020 program on Dec. 4. COSTELLAZIONE’s 2021 season begins Jan. 15 with maestro Mimmo Paladino followed by Alessandra Ferrini, with later spring conversations scheduled with Francesco Simeti, Palermo-based street artist Mr. Cens, and Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar.

 

Interviews are also available to watch after the live event on Instagram, @costell.azione, and through the website www.costell-azione.com, where you can also find the complete itinerary and details about the artists.