“G. Montauti” Prize 2024: Art at High Altitude. A Pact Between Art and Nature in the Mountain Villages of Abruzzo. The Prize is promoted by the municipalities of Fano and Crognaleto, the Gran Sasso – Monti della Laga National Park, Italia Nostra, with the patronage of the Abruzzo Region, Pro Loco Fano Adriano, Pro Loco Nerito, and BIM (the consortium of the municipalities of Vomano and Tordino).

The “G. Montauti” Prize, curated by Professor Paola Di Felice, aims to support the work of emerging artists who utilise artistic mediums (installation, sculpture, painting, video, etc.) as a means of reflecting on the role they play in today’s visual culture and the themes of the contemporary world.

The climate emergency increasingly compels contemporary thought to question the anthropocentric paradigm, which regards nature as both a measure and a resource at humanity’s disposal—a pristine realm of goodness and beauty to escape to, or a resource to exploit and mould. The notion arises that nature does not exist as a biologically determined primordial condition; rather, the entire planet results from transformative processes enacted by multispecies agents, each of whom should be acknowledged for their capacity and intent to shape. If “the planet is an enormous and communal garden where we all cultivate one another” (Emanuele Coccia), can contemporary imagery reveal new potential relationships between humans (in their individuality, communities, and species) and the rest of living beings that are not founded on notions of superiority and domination, but instead explore the intermediary spaces, zones of contamination, and reciprocal transformation? Can they assist us in transcending the binary reductionism of city and nature, control and anarchy, normal and deviant, useful and useless, situating us in the ambiguous space of uncertainties, shifts, and irregularities?

Invited Artists: Luca Farina, Bu Shi, Maria Krymskaya, Maurizio Esposito, Federico Massa (known as Iena Cruz), Irene Stellin, Paola Cenati, Giovanni Longo, Alessandro D’Aquila, Giuseppina Michini.

The invited artists, hosted in the villages of Fano Adriano and Vallevaccaro (Municipality of Crognaleto) to explore the socio-environmental realities, proceeded to create a panel that will contain the conceptual idea for the work to be realised. The piece that wins the prize will be installed in the space surrounding the Hermitage of Annunziata, above Fano Adriano. The panels created by the ten artists will be exhibited from 9 to 24 August at the Auditorium of Fano Adriano. On 24 August, the winning work will be awarded; all other proposed works will contribute to a project bank that, over time, could be realised according to the specific guidelines of each artist, eventually forming an “Art Park” integrated into sustainable tourism pathways.

“G. Montauti” Prize 2024: Art at High Altitude
Curated by Paola Di Felice

Officine del Gran Sasso
Fano Adriano, Teramo

Opening: 9-24 August 2024
Inauguration: Friday, 9 August 2024, 5:30 pm
Free admission