Riccardo Bennassi, Monia Ben Hamouda, Binta Diaw in mostra a cura di Giulia Ferracci

With three site-specific works specially conceived and created for this occasion, Riccardo Benassi (Cremona, 1982), Monia Ben Hamouda (Milan, 1991), and Binta Diaw (Milan, 1995) are the protagonists of the exhibition for the fourth edition of the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE. This project unites MAXXI and Bulgari, working together to support and promote young artists in Italy and worldwide.

Curated by Giulia Ferracci and set up in the Gian Ferrari Hall of the Museum, the exhibition opens to the public on October 25 and will conclude in 2025 with the announcement of the winner and the acquisition of their work, which will become part of the MAXXI permanent collection. As in previous editions, visitors will also have the opportunity to vote for their favorite artwork.

Announced last October 2023 during a special event at the Italian Embassy in Paris, the three finalists were unanimously selected by an international jury composed of: Francesco Stocchi, Artistic Director of MAXXI; Nicolas Bourriaud, Director of the curatorial collective Radicants and Artistic Director of the 15th Gwangju Biennale (South Korea); Diana Campbell, Artistic Director of the Samdani Art Foundation (Dhaka, Bangladesh) and Chief Curator of the Dhaka Art Summit; Andrea Lissoni, Artistic Director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich; Ute Meta Bauer, founder and Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art in Singapore and Artistic Director of the 2024 Contemporary Art Biennale in Diriyah (Saudi Arabia). The finalists were chosen by the jury from a shortlist of candidates identified by key figures in the contemporary art scene in Italy: Antonia Alampi, Maria Alicata, Martina Angelotti, Nicolas Ballario, Lucrezia Cippitelli, Valentino Catricalà, the duo Alfredo Cramerotti and Aurora Scalera, Lorenzo Madaro, Francesco Urbano Ragazzi. A significant innovation of this fourth edition is the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE for Digital Art, which awarded a special mention for the best digital project to Roberto Fassone. On January 17, 2025, the date of the winner announcement, the artist will present the project "And we thought" (2021 - ongoing) in the museum's hall, a Sineglossa production, exploring the relationship between authorship and artificial intelligence, investigating the limits of imagination and challenging the self-referential logics of the contemporary art system.

Established in 2001 as the Prize for Young Art, it became the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE from the 2018 edition, strengthened by the valuable support of Bulgari. The Prize forms the foundational core of MAXXI's art collection and has been an important launching pad for many artists over the years, enhancing their innovative and experimental artistic expressions. Among the finalists of previous editions are Yuri Ancarani, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Vanessa Beecroft, Rossella Biscotti, Lara Favaretto, Marinella Senatore, Nico Vascellari, Francesco Vezzoli, Tomaso De Luca, Diego Marcon, Alessandra Ferrini.

Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of Bulgari, added: "It is an honor for Bvlgari to have reached the fourth edition of the Maxxi Bvlgari Prize. There is a thin thread that connects art to jewelry, and that is creativity. A force that implies the need to generate emotions through unprecedented and surprising languages. The value of art is a global heritage to be preserved in the present and for future generations."

Francesco Stocchi, Artistic Director of MAXXI, concluded: "Now in its fourth edition, the MAXXI Bvlgari Prize represents the benchmark award for enhancing young Italian artists. Since 2018, the museum has collaborated with Bulgari to support and promote the paths of the latest generation of artists, giving rise to a wide network of research and perspectives that address contemporary urgencies and express the complexity of the time in which we live."

A reading room set up with drawings, images, videos, and documents introduces visitors to the universe of the three main protagonists of the exhibition. In the aesthetic diversity of their expressive means, the artists outline the new frontiers of art that imagines the future through their personal interpretation of the past and present. Opening the exhibition route is ASSENZAHAH ESSENZAHAH (2024) by Riccardo Benassi. Inside the museum's freight elevator, two robotic dogs perform actual choreographies created by the artist, moving in the space accompanied by a musical composition and a laser-projected text on the walls. The installation opens new perspectives on our existences and the impact of new technologies that invade our domestic, emotional, and corporeal spaces.

At the center of the space is Binta Diaw's work, infused with personal and collective memory: it is titled Juroom ñaar (2024) and is inspired by a historical event in 1819 commemorated by the artist with seven columns of charcoal. Seven are the women from the Senegalese village of Nder who died by self-immolation to avoid slavery following the Moorish invasion. Surrounding the sculptures are braids of hair, sounds, and voices in the Wolof language that accompany visitors in a reflection on forms of resistance to abuse. With Theology of Collapse (The Myth of Past) I-X (2024) by Monia Ben Hamouda, the exhibition route concludes with an encounter with a visual language full of cultural and ritual symbolism.

The work consists of ten laser-cut iron panels with motifs inspired by Islamic calligraphy and mosques. The plates, painted with spices such as paprika, hibiscus, and cinnamon, are installed on the back wall of the gallery, creating a collapsing effect that evokes the fragility of contemporary identities.
Web: www.maxxi.art/