The Venetian Spring of Contemporary Art will start with the 13th Exhibition of Arte Laguna Prize

The 13th edition Arte Laguna Prize will kick off the art season in Venice with the exhibition of the finalists opening on March 16th, with more prizes than ever before, unveiling a comprehensive radiography of contemporary art: 120 artworks from all over the world, from painting, sculpture and installation, photographic art and digital graphics to design, virtual art, video art and short films, performances, urban art and land art. The 13th Exhibition of Arte Laguna Prize will be open to the public until April 7th, with a rich schedule of guided tours, activities for children and talks related to the sections of the Prize.

The first appointment is on March 16th, at 5 p.m., at the Nappe Arsenale Nord, with the great awards ceremony that annually attracts over 4 thousand visitors. The exhibition will include 30 paintings, 25 sculptures and installations, 25 works of photographic art, 10 videos, 5 land art projects, 5 urban art projects, 5 virtual art projects, 5 digital graphics, 5 design projects and 5 performances that will be staged live during the opening night. It is the international jury of this edition to bring on stage, after a careful selection, the six absolute winners awarded with cash prizes of 42.000 euro.

For this edition, the jury committee is composed by: Igor Zanti - curator of the Prize and director of IED Florence, Flavio Arensi - director of the Museums of Legnano; Filippo Andreatta – theatre-maker and co-curator of Centrale Fies; Alfonso Femia - architect and founder of AF517; Mattias Givell - co-director of Wanås Konst in Sweden; Eva González-Sancho - co-curator of the first Oslo Biennial in 2019; Simone Pallotta - curator of public and urban art; Richard Noyce - writer, scholar and art critic; Danilo Premoli - architect and designer, member of the Scientific Committee for the final selection of ADI Design Index 2018 and 2019 and for the Compasso d'Oro 2020; Enrico Stefanelli - artistic director of Photolux Festival in Lucca; Alessandra Tiddia - chief curator at Mart Museum of Trento and Rovereto; Vasili Tsereteli - director of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art; Maxa Zoller - film curator for Art Basel and artistic director of the International Film Festival Dortmund in Cologne.

The winners of the special prizes are to be announced, as well, during the opening night. They will have the opportunity to exhibit in important international galleries, to collaborate with companies or to carry out an artistic residency in Italy and abroad:

• Sustainability and Art Prize | Together with Corepla (National Consortium for the Collection and Recycling of Plastic packages) and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the Prize promotes a sensitization of the artistic gesture, of creativity, of design and in general of the visual and performing arts towards the Reuse Recycle Reduce strategies. The Sustainability and Art Prize, worth 3,000 euros, the moral patronage of the Ministry for the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea and for this year is focused on plastic and on plastic packagings, with the support of Corepla.

• Artist in Residence | A program of art residencies in Italy and abroad offering an artistic experience of growth, in contact with a new culture, in order to create new artworks and to be immersed in a multicultural environment. The residencies are assigned to nine artists by: GLO’ART in Belgium; Basu Foundation for the Arts in Kolkata; Espronceda in Barcelona; Farm Cultural Park in Favara, Sicily; Maradiva Cultural Residency, in Mauritius. Starting this year, four more institutions have been involved: Lanificio Paoletti in Treviso, Centrale Fies in Trento, Open Dream in Treviso and Nuart Festival in Norway.

• Business for Art | Collaborations with companies meant to connect creativity with the production sector. This year, the artists will have the chance to: create a new artworks using the precious textiles of Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua of Venice; win 2.000€ by submitting an artistic proposal designed to enhance the spaces of 47 Anno Domini winery; be awarded with 2.000€ by submitting graphic proposals for the packaging of Fraccaro Spumadoro products; or win 2.000€ by presenting to Maglificio Giordano's artworks linked to the fashion world.

• Artist in Gallery | Organization of 4 exhibitions in international Art Galleries, including setting up, opening and catalogue. The venues of this edition are: Galerie Isabelle Lesmeister in Germany; Várfok Galéria in Budapest; Anise Gallery in London; Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, United States.

• Festivals and Group exhibitions | Selection of 13 artists to take part to collective events in Slovenia, at Art Stays Festival, in Beijing within the events organized by Art Nova 100, in Venice within the exhibition TraVellArt, organized by Arte Communication, and in Lucca with the participation to Photolux Festival.

• Art Platforms and Supporters | Collaborations with foundations and institutions whose main mission is to promote art and support artists and their careers: the Canadian platform Biafarin and the foundation for the promotion of the pastel medium The Art Spirit Foundation in Connecticut, USA.

The Prize has been awarded with a medal by the President of the Italian Republic and has the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Veneto Region, the Municipality of Venice, the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the European Institute of Design, among others.