Alberto Garutti Terawatt category; Simone Bergantini Gigawatt category;
Stefano Cagol Megawatt category; Francesco Simeti Connectivity category.
Michele Manzini awarded the Online Prize. Honorable mention to Dino Pedriali among the Terawatt artists.
Mauro Folci and Giulio Delve' awarded the Gallery Director's Prize
Rome, October 22, 2009 – The Jury of the Terna Prize 02 for Contemporary Art chaired by Luigi Roth and Flavio Cattaneo, Terna’s Chairman and CEO respectively, and formed by the Prize’s curators Gianluca Marziani and Cristiana Collu, by Massimiliano Fuksas, Matthew Higgs, Giuseppe Piccioni, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Vicente Todolì and Luigi Ontani, announced the finalists among 3,500 participants with the winning artworks for the Terawatt, Gigawatt, Megawatt and Connectivity categories.
The first prize among the 45 participants in the Terawatt category, devoted to well established artists, was awarded to Alberto Garutti, from Milan, with the artwork “Temporali” (Storms).
The first prize among over 1,300 participating artists in the Gigawatt category, devoted to artists under 35, was awarded to Simone Bergantini , 32 years old from Turin, with the artwork “Work n. 77”.
The first prize among over 2,000 artists participating in the Megawatt category, devoted to artists over 35, was awarded to Stefano Cagol, 40 years old from Revò (TN) with the artwork “Dissoluzione di luce“ (Light dissolution).
The first prize among 100 participants in the Connectivity New York category, this edition’s novelty and devoted to artists of all nationalities that work in New York City on an ongoing basis, was awarded to Francesco Simeti with the artwork “Esercizio #2” (Exercise #2).
The Jury also attributed honorable mention to Dino Pedriali, with the artwork “Miraggio” (Mirage), as a recognition for the artwork’s quality and for the value of a coherent and rigorous career.
The second and third prizes were: for the Gigawatt Category, Stefano Canto (Rome), with the artwork “Tao” and Alia Scalvini (Desenzano sul Garda-BS), with the artwork “Crossing the field”; for the Megawatt category, Andrea Aquilanti (Rome), with the artwork “Acqua” (Water) and Emanuele Becheri (Prato), with the artwork “Temporale” (Storm); for the Connectivity category: Isola and Norzi, with the artwork Isolanorzi – fall” and Maeen Hasan, with the artwork “Landscape#1”.
The Gallery Director’s Committee, the other novelty of this edition of the Terna Prize, formed by Marina Covi Celli, from the Oredaria Gallery for contemporary arts (Rome), Paolo Curti, Curti and Gambuzzi Gallery (Milan), Alberto Peola, Alberto Peola Gallery (Turin), Hélène de Franchis, Studio La Città (Verona), Laura Trisorio, from the Studio Gallery Trisorio (Naples) and coordinated by Art Consultant Francesco Cascino, awarded two special merits: to Mauro Folci, 50 years old from L’Aquila for the artwork “Noia” (Boredom), for the Gigawatt Category and to Giulio Delvé, 26 years old from Naples, for the artwork “Brainstorm” for the Megawatt category. All the over 3,500 artworks registered in the Terna Prize 02 also participated in the Online Prize. The public, voting on the website www.premioterna.it, chose the winner with 1940 votes: Michele Manzini, 42 years old from Verona with the artwork “Untitled (#87)”, that was awarded a purchase bonus of the value of 4,000 euros. From October 10th to the 20th, the period for online voting, the Terna Prize’s website registered 75,000 votes and the record figure of over one million and a half pages visited, the highest number of pages ever registered for a contemporary art prize.
The winner of the Terawatt category will be awarded 100 thousand euros, 30 thousand of which for the artist and 70 thousand for a social initiative within the cultural and artistic areas to be defined in agreement with the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities on the basis of the three-year Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry and Terna for promoting contemporary art in Italy.
The winners of the Megawatt and Gigawatt categories will receive a four month Artist Residency Program at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. The winner of the Connectivity category will receive a three month artist residency program at the American Academy in Rome. The second and third prizes of the three categories will each receive purchase bonuses for the value of 4,000 and 3,000 euros, respectively. “The quality of the artworks, the public’s wide participation and the expertise of the jury stand to witness the Terna Prize’s success, but above all, mark the victory of the artists and their creativity on relevant issues such as the environment, the future and energy. Our sincere compliments and thanks go out to all the winners and participants. The Terna Prize – stated Flavio Cattaneo at the conclusion of voting– confirms with this second edition the intention of being an integrated project for enhancing art. A special thanks also to the jury members, the gallery directors, the authorities and the experts that supported and allowed organizing the Terna Prize”.
“The results of this second edition confirm both our expectations, but also add an unexpected novelty: the artworks exceeded in quantity and quality those of the past edition, even though the theme proposed this year was more complex than the previous one. In announcing the winners, we wished to consider above all the linguistic heterogeneity, the eclecticism and the artist’s freedom of expression. The qualitative profile of these artists on the average was synonymous of excellent technical-formal and conceptual capabilities of their work. With its second edition, the Terna Prize confirms the will to be an important platform for enhancing art”, commented the Prize’s curators Cristiana Collu and Gianluca Marziani.
2009-10-23
