One year ago, in what was the building site of the MAXXI museum, we presented the first edition of the Terna Prize.  During the press conference we spoke of our objectives, ambitions and expectations that we had placed in the artists, the media, the public and in other parties to be involved.  One year  as of  that  presentation, we are pleased to underline that we reached many partial objectives, but that  we also  understood what change  to make based on our experience in the field, without ever taking anything for granted.   Confirming our flexible attitude similar to  intelligence, we have grown with the desire to grow,  knowing that we are adults, but never fully.

Today we are once again at the MAXXI,  even if things have physically changed for both:  the Terna Award is a project with a recognizable and appreciated identity, MAXXI is a museum that is being completed and is about to open its doors to a global public.  We are taking off  from here with the ambition of building something that is malleable, yet lasting, the concept our group shares with the architectural structure of  Zaha Hadid: dynamic and solid flow, experimentation and clarity, novelty and historical tradition.

Many aspects will be confirmed for the Terna Prize 02 also because it would be senseless to change a formula that was so successful under so many different angles.  Faithful to the promise of not being simply a contest, but a cultural platform, we have added many novelties that will improve the project’s technical aspects.

The blend between success and improvement has created a proportion that embodies something more than an inspirational theme.  Energy, Mankind, Future and Environment are terms that we consider being closely connected with one another, four parts of a formula that we should absorb like a lay mantra to be applied to our daily actions.  The theme intends to be a guideline for artists, a sort of viable route for channelling creative characteristics, personal style, aesthetic language and concepts inherent to the artwork. We are not interested in a closed and didactic theme, as we already mentioned last year when we added “contemporary metaphor” into the theme of energy transmission.  We want all artists to feel channelled, but not limited, inspired, but not obligated.  We wish for the theme to be open, to be a spark, an idea for channelling one’s linguistic expression

Happy proportions to all!

This is the question and the challenge that lies in the middle between the business world and culture, between a new prize and its second edition and the art system. Its being somewhere in the middle that allows creating a mechanism where these two worlds interact with each other, the apparently irreconcilable synthesis of two worlds that have often attempted to meet, without ever having much success. This mechanism is a membrane that allows a selective osmosis joining passion and shared ethics, more distant from the immediate and outdated market logic (competition, monopoly, profit, etc.) and closer instead to the idea of a living organism that transforms and adapts, but that above all, shares ideas, operating as a laboratory for the immaterial, for creativity, generating and producing innovation.
Our prize was created on a specific identity that is punctually defined with every edition. This year it is based on four main elements: Energy, Mankind, Future and Environment. Identity is not only created through heritage, but is built and preserved also considering that it lies ahead of us and represents the project's terrain, the dream. It is heritage that proposes "a world", a culture to aspire to, an identity charged with expectations that are the matter making up the future, redefining a person's value, not as a "human resource" applicable to other resources; the value of knowledge, as the world's new economy, as a transitive raw material that enriches who donates it, without impoverishing the one receiving it; the value of innovation, as a necessary tuning-in with the accelerated transformation of "technological, economic, social and cultural scenarios".
Lastly, the visions, the projects, the intentions, the will, more than the need, to set goals. Meeting this challenge means focusing on young people and on women. Providing opportunities and accepting the risk, concentrating on young generations that represent a society's strongest biological and creative force, the courage to be feminine, to express values that are translated into concepts that produce value through relations and encounters among people that combine identity and differences. For the Terna Prize, differences are seen as aspects that add and enrich, rather than elements that detract, that distinguish and cannot be generally applicable. Its being different is not aimed at creating competition, at playing who is best, but at contributing to building the best conditions under the aegis of quality and sensibility: the future belongs to those who are brave enough to believe in the beauty of their dreams, and behind every successful endeavour, lies a person who has taken a courageous decision.

We thought a lot about the opportunity of devoting energy to art at a difficult time for the world and for Italy, particularly faced with the suffering of our fellow citizens in Abruzzo. Last year, when the project was created, our considerations were based on concepts such as the connection between contemporary creativity and the entrepreneurial world, and the wider  public was  finally able to perceive the economic and cultural value of the disciplines tied to visual arts.  As part of these considerations, there are professional and cultural dynamics that guide Man, ever since, in his continuous evolution and in his relationship with history, with the environment and with knowledge.  In view of the results obtained last year and above all because we believe in this blending of values, we believe that the project can serve also those who can and intend to be inspired by culture and the environment for renewing the concept of the quality of thought and of architecture, of evolution and national identity also linked to the themes chosen for the Terna 02 Award.
We attempted to build a small example of a joint effort between different and integrated experiences and know-how, a synthesis between imagination and pragmatism. This year we included new elements into the project proposing as part of the contest a practical and concrete phase for aggregating national outstanding talents and creating an exchange with international culture.
Not only.  Another novelty is represented by the involvement of the Committee of Gallery Owners.  
The gallery owner is the only professional figure committed in real life to developing artists and their careers. Curators, advisors and technicians work with the gallery owners strongly contributing to the success of the initiatives, but the gallery owner is also the only one to take on the actual business risk, with fixed costs, expenses and totally private investments.  The gallery owner is a key figure in the scenario of expertise that is necessary for building a more developed and evolved management context worthy of its name.  For an artist, working with one or another gallery owner is what makes the difference.
We insisted on the concept of a system last year.  In this edition we are insisting even more on the phase where models are materialized inviting Italian gallery owners  through their  sector association and its president to join us in this attempt of  creating an alliance between art and the country and among all operators in the sector.  A sector that in developed countries ranks first among national interests and that in other times, was  the pride of our country.  Excellence, however,  requires ongoing change and interconnection among know-how, sensibility and expertise.  The future is built by considering the past, but also and above all by building solid bridges between eras that resist every type of shock and that are crossed only by strong renewed energy.