Three days to inaugurate a cultural project that, until
November, explores the languages of the contemporary in the heart of
Calabria.
4 – 5 – 6 July 2025
San Giovanni Monumental Complex – Catanzaro
curated by Francesco Vaccaro
A new project dedicated to contemporary art is born in Catanzaro: Catanzaro
Contemporanea is the name of the event that kicks off from July 4 to 6, 2025 with three
days of exhibitions, films, meetings, and urban explorations. The program revolves around three
main axes – video art, art cinema, and public conversations – to
tell the story of art not only as an aesthetic experience, but as a practice of looking, listening,
and relating.
The first edition of Catanzaro Contemporanea marks the start of a broader
journey, which will continue until November with workshops, training activities, and new
events in the area. A project that puts artists, curators, scholars, and
citizens in dialogue, and that chooses the city of Catanzaro – a reference center for
contemporary art in Calabria – as the place from which to rethink the languages of the
contemporary, in connection with the public dimension, critical reflection, and collective
life. A program open to all, with free admission to every event:
a way to make art accessible, close, and shared.
Conceived and curated by Francesco Vaccaro, and promoted by the Municipality of Catanzaro with the
patronage of the Calabria Region, Marisa Bellisario Foundation, Order of
Architects of the province of Catanzaro, and Magna Graecia University, Catanzaro
Contemporanea is realized in collaboration with Artecinema Napoli and the Academy of
Fine Arts of Catanzaro.
A FESTIVAL IN THREE ACTS: VIDEO ART, CINEMA, PUBLIC
CONVERSATIONS
The opening program of Catanzaro Contemporanea unfolds over three days that
intertwine visual art, public discourse, and cinematic storytelling. Three sections designed
to activate different but deeply connected experiences: an exhibition of
video art with eight internationally renowned female artists, a series of documentary films
on contemporary art, and a cycle of conversations open to the public, with the
participation of curators, artists, and architects among the most interesting on the current scene.
The first is VIDIMU, a group exhibition curated by Claudio Libero Pisano, hosted in the
spaces of the San Giovanni Monumental Complex, which will be inaugurated on July 4
at 6:00 pm. A focus dedicated to contemporary Italian video art that offers the
presentation of works by eight prominent artists on the national and international scene:
Sonia Andresano, Elisabetta Benassi, Bruna Esposito, Iulia Ghita, Myriam Laplante,
Raffaela Mariniello, Marzia Migliora, and Fiamma Montezemolo. The works, of extraordinary
visual and conceptual quality, present a plurality of perspectives, languages, and research that
address political, social, intimate, and collective themes. “Vidìmu in Calabrian is a verb that
expresses more than just looking, an idle word that contains several options on
how to see things, not stopping at what appears, what is in front, but instead shifting
the gaze toward the edges and periphery of the image, where other solutions are revealed,”
emphasizes Claudio Libero Pisano, curator of the project. The exhibition, open until
July 31, open every day from 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm with free admission, is accompanied
by a catalog published by Rubbettino, conceived as a critical and educational tool,
which will be distributed free of charge to visitors, students, and cultural operators involved in the
project.
Within the Catanzaro Contemporanea program is also Artecinema in Catanzaro,
a series organized in collaboration with Artecinema Napoli, one of the most authoritative
international festivals of films on contemporary art, founded in 1996 and directed by Laura
Trisorio. For the first time in Calabria, Artecinema brings to the courtyard of San Giovanni two
evenings of screenings that offer a direct look at the creative processes, poetics, and
contexts in which art takes shape. Friday, July 4 at 9:00 pm, “Arte Povera.
Notes for History” (Italy, 2023) by Andrea Bettinetti will be screened, with the director present.
Saturday, July 5 at 8:30 pm, the film “Daniel Buren. L’Observatoire de la lumière à la
Fondation Louis Vuitton” by Gilles Coudert, with the director present, followed at 9:30 pm
by “Renzo Piano. The Architect of Light” by Carlos Saura. The films will be screened
outdoors, with free admission until seats are filled.
The third section of the festival is Conversations, a cycle of public meetings with curators,
artists, architects, and theorists, conceived as a lively space for discussion on the themes of art,
design, and contemporary thought. Friday, July 4 at 7:30 pm, “Curating as a Poetic Act” is scheduled,
with Chiara Bertola, curator of GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin, and Michela Alessandrini, art historian and
curator at the Fondation Cartier in Paris. The dialogue, moderated by Francesco
Vaccaro, curator of Catanzaro Contemporanea, focuses on the role of curating
as a narrative form, relational gesture, and listening tool. Saturday, July 5, at
7:00 pm, the second event, “Light Becomes Space,” involves Gregorio Botta, a visual artist
known for his work on emptiness, transparency, and intangible matter, and Luca
Galofaro, architect, professor, and founder of the LGSMA studio, in a dialogue, moderated by
Mara Varia, professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Catanzaro, focusing on the
relationship between light, form, and matter, exploring how space can become a sensitive experience and a symbolic dimension.
The festival program is also enriched by two guided tours designed to
relate contemporary art to some symbolic places in the city and province.
Saturday, July 5 at 10:00 am, there will be a visit to the International Park of
Biodiversity, a curatorial walk that restores value to one of the most important
public art projects realized in Calabria in recent decades, among the works of Antony
Gormley, Tony Cragg, Mimmo Paladino, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Denis Oppenheim,
Stephan Balkenhol, and many others. Sunday, July 6 at 11:00 am, the journey continues with a
guided tour of the National Archaeological Museum and Park of Scolacium, an extraordinary
archaeological area immersed among centuries-old olive trees and Roman ruins, in the territory of Borgia. A
place that preserves the layered traces of the ancient history of the Mediterranean and that, over the
years, has already hosted important interventions of contemporary art, in a fertile dialogue between
memory and vision.
A JOURNEY THAT DOES NOT END
July is only the first stage of Catanzaro Contemporanea, which in the
coming months will continue to weave relationships, activate meetings, and generate visions. The project
will continue until November with new events, workshops, and moments of
in-depth study, which will be announced through the festival’s official channels.
Catanzaro Contemporanea is based on the belief that the spread of contemporary thought
in the area can act as a true cultural enzyme, capable
of generating new vitality in places, landscapes, and communities. In this sense, art
becomes a tool for transformation, capable of regenerating the cultural and social fabric and
restoring to Calabria an active and central role in the national debate on contemporary culture.
CONTACTS:
www.instagram.com/catanzarocontemporanea
frvaccaro@gmail.com