They are looking for a new director for the Castello di Rivoli • The United States returns two ancient objects to Iraq • Two museums merge in San Diego • New digitization of images from the Federico Zeri Foundation • New directors: Martina Bagnoli at the Carrara Academy and Francesca Malgara at Mia Photo Fair • The day in 11 news
Looking for a new director for the Castello di Rivoli
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, director of Castello di Rivoli from 2016 to 2023, will step down at the end of this year due to her retirement. The Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art will publish the announcement of the new Director on Monday, May 29, which will be published at the following link. In pole position would be Francesco Manacorda (1974), independent curator, former director of the VAC Foundation and Tate Liverpool, and Andrea Viliani (1973), former director of the Mother of Naples and currently in charge of the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome. The new Director will assume the position as of January 1, 2024. [Redazione]
US returns two antiquities looted from Iraq
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has ordered the return to Iraq of two looted antiquities, a Mesopotamian limestone elephant and a Sumerian alabaster bull. The repatriation is part of a larger restitution campaign undertaken by District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s Antiques Trafficking Unit (ATU), which has facilitated the recovery of more than 800 items since 2021. The items they had been stolen from Iraq during the Gulf War (1990-1991). ) and smuggled into New York. Its total value is 275 thousand dollars. They hail from the ancient kingdom of Uruk, one of the oldest known civilizations in the world. The handover ceremony was held at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington. [Torey Akers]
In San Diego, two museums merge
In San Diego, California, effective July 1, the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) and the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) will merge into one institution. Under the terms of the agreement, announced May 23, SDMA will create a new department, called the Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art, where the existing MOPA collection will reside. Currently, the two institutions operate in buildings near Balboa Park, the city’s central green space, which houses most of the cultural institutions. [Torey Akers]
New digitizations of images from the Federico Zeri Foundation
Within the framework of the cataloging and enhancement project of the photo library of the art historian Anna Ottani Cavina, curated by the Federico Zeri Foundation, they are available at the catalog link and in Romagna and on the production of the painter Felice Giani. In particular, the first 3,000 photographs of the core dedicated to Felice Giani and neoclassical decoration in Italy are now visible: fundamental materials that document Giani’s activity as a decorator and interior designer with photographic campaigns carried out since the late 70s. available the 561 images related to works by Ludovico, Agostino and Annibale Carracci, such as the pictorial cycles of Palazzo Fava and Palazzo Magnani in Bologna, as well as paintings and drawings by Annibale and Carraccis Domenichino, Grimaldi, Albani. [Stefano Luppi]
Martina Bagnoli to the direction of the Carrara Academy from February 1, 2024
Martina Bagnoli, currently director of the Gallerie Estensi in Modena, has been appointed director of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo as of February 1, 2024. On that date, she will succeed Maria Cristina Rodeschini for a four-year term. In the coming months, she will join the Accademia Carrara staff to work on future programming. «Martina Bagnoli is a figure of absolute prestige, certainly capable of giving continuity and new impetus to the excellent work carried out in recent years by Maria Cristina Rodeschini», commented Giorgio Gori, mayor of Bergamo and president of the Accademia Carrara Foundation. [Redazione]
Francesca Malgara new artistic director of Mia Photo Fair
Fiere di Parma has chosen Francesca Malgara as artistic director of Mia Photo Fair, the international fair dedicated to photography, which is opening registrations to participate in the 13th edition. The event will also change location for 2024: in fact, it will take place in Milan from April 10 to 14, at the new Allianz MiCo headquarters. [Ansa]
The third “Restoration Day” at the Faenza Mic postponed from June to July
Due to the emergency caused by the floods in Romagna, the third edition of the study day that the Mic of Faenza, together with the IGIIC, the Italian Group of the International Institute for Conservation, organizes every two years to explore different topics related to ceramic restoration and brings about a hundred restorers, students and professionals from the sector to Faenza to debate and discuss good practices and specific techniques. [Redazione]
Restoration of the castle of Issogne: there are “anomaly profiles” in the procedure
In the expression of interest published in November 2022 by the only recruitment station of the Aosta Valley Region, regarding the conservative restoration of the paintings of the facades of the courtyard of the castle of Issogne (Ao), there are some «anomaly profiles». This is the conclusion of the National Anti-Corruption Authority. The amount of the works based on the tender was 2.5 million euros. According to the Anac, the examination carried out does not appear “justified the choice of this recruitment station to limit by half the invitations to submit offers to companies with registered office” in the valley. For the authority, the «criterion of the different territorial location“should not”discriminate against economic operators or lead to undue and unjustified restrictions of competition». From this point of view, as stated in the minutes, “the decision to limit participation in the negotiated procedure only to operators with registered office in the region” AND “referable to a discretionary choice of the hiring station». This option is the judgment of the Anac, “should have been specifically motivated and adequately explained in the notice of expression of interest». [Redazione]
The Museo Gran Vía 15, a new contemporary art center, inaugurated in Madrid
In the Spanish capital, the Gran Vía 15 Museum is inaugurated on June 1, located on the popular street that gives it its name, in a historic place that has housed the Aldao jewelry store for more than a century. The Museo Gran Vía 15 is a project promoted by a group that works to offer its own perspective on contemporary art and its new movements, with installations that aim to connect with the viewer through sensations, emotions and reflections. [Redazione]
exhibitions that open
Contemporary art and artificial intelligence at WeGil in Rome. A collective exhibition, titled “Sparks and Friction”, “Scintille e attriti”, with works by 12 creatives in the WeGil rooms in Trastevere, is open from yesterday May 24 to June 18. The artists come from China, India, the United States, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Italy. They are “playwrights” created by artificial neural networks near strange sea creatures, virtual biomes (portions of atmospheres), and arabesque images to follow and imagine the various space explorations. This future-present that investigates the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and contemporary art is the third Roman edition of the great collective exhibition of “Re:humanism”, which explores and creates new imaginaries and new narratives rejecting the increasingly widespread technocratic fanaticism . [Tina Lepri]
MIC NEWS
13 million for the Maschio Angioino in Naples
The Ministry of Culture, through the General Directorate of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape and the General Directorate of Museums, has allocated 13 million euros for the conservative restoration works of the Maschio Angioino in Naples. Resources of 2.5 million euros, from Pnrr funds, are allocated to the elimination of physical and cognitive barriers, 6 million euros to the restoration and consolidation of the triumphal arch that celebrates the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples by Alfonso d’Aragón . The other 4.5 million, from the community funds of the action and cohesion plan, will be allocated to security measures, completion of the architectural barriers and reinforcement of the facilities. [Ansa]
