Contemporary Art Languages
Contemporary Art Languages
In recent weeks, the city has been reclaiming its artistic spaces both inside and outside institutions with important anniversaries, such as the 40th anniversaries of Museion and ar/ge kunst, and the 25th anniversary of Transart, alongside the now traditional event BAW, the Bolzano Art Weeks.
Museion was founded in 1985 thanks to the namesake association, with the goal of creating a museum of modern and contemporary art that would serve as a place for discussion and a laboratory for the production of artworks. Actual activity began a couple of years later in the former hospital building on Via Sernesi — today the seat of the Free University of Bolzano (LUB) — with Karl Nicolussi-Leck as president and Pier Luigi Siena as director. In 2008, the new building was inaugurated, now a landmark of Bolzano, acting as a bridge between the historic center and the city’s more contemporary areas. As stated in its statute, one of Museion’s main objectives is to promote and enhance contemporary art from the 1950s onward. The institution also represents a meeting point for international art and a support tool for South Tyrolean art. The important 40th anniversary will be celebrated on September 13th with a 24-hour event open to everyone, during which Museion will join forces with Transart, which this year marks its 25th year of activity.
Transart is a multidisciplinary festival spanning music, dance, visual arts, and performance, crossing the boundaries between art and the physical spaces traditionally devoted to culture. This year, the timeframe to explore with the public the most contemporary, stimulating, poetic artistic expressions — always attentive to the rhythm of time — runs from September 11th to 21st. The physical locations vary, inviting discovery as visitors wander through the city’s streets and squares.
An open invitation to all to live a unique experience intertwining art, community, and the extraordinary energy that defines Museion as a cultural multiplier in Bolzano and beyond.
The other 40th anniversary highlighting the vibrancy of the city’s artistic life is that of ar/ge kunst, Bolzano’s Kunstverein, founded in 1985 in the premises at Via Museo 29 where it is still based today. The name ar/ge kunst derives from the abbreviation of Arbeitsgemeinschaft (working community), indicating its aim to promote a collective work idea around the languages of contemporary art and their relationship with disciplines such as architecture, design, performing arts, and cinema. This is a goal shared with its member associates and the public.
For its fifth edition, from October 3rd to 12th, BAW Bolzano Art Weeks investigates the relationship between culture and the nature of the territory through the keyword landmark in its double spatial/temporal meaning. The intention is to (re)map and enhance existing natural elements and areas inside and outside the city, and to (re)generate eco-socio-cultural, non-commercial spaces for a biodiverse community shifting from an EGOcentric to an ECOcentric conception.
Image: MUSEION, Graffiti. Ph. Marten de Leeuw. Courtesy The Estate of Rammellzee