VIII BIENNIAL OF YOUNG ARTISTS FROM EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN – TORINO 1997

17 April – 11 May 1997

 The VIII edition of the Biennial of Young Artist from Europe and the Mediterranean was hosted in Turin.

The invitation to meet, confront and participate was one of the elements of strength of this edition of the Biennial, which, according to the will of a cultural re-launching of the town, left significant traces in Turin.

In fact the Biennial highlighted the activity of the local artistic communities, especially the young ones, at an international level, it demonstrated that different cultural components of a territory could be joined into a system and it started an important dialogue between culture and enterprises. Furthermore, the Biennial managed to bring the public at large closer to contemporary art and its messages.

It has also been an opportunity to recovering some forgotten spaces of the town for cultural purposes.

This objectives were achieved also trough a reformulation of the general set up of the Biennial, activating connections with other European networks and new Countries on the other shore of the Mediterranean but also in other European areas, promoting new forms of political and cultural dialogue. The new members were: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jordan, Libya, Lebanon, Israel, Malta, Palestine, Turkey, Egypt and Syria.

To assure the quality of the different activities included in the program and to determine the cultural lines of the Biennial, the organization appointed a Scientific Committee, comprised of Italian and foreign personalities, such as: Ugo Perone (President), Brahim Alaoui, Alessandro Baricco, Franco Battiato, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Michele Capasso, Pier Giovanni Castagnoli, Furio Colombo, Jean Digne, Piero Gilardi, Pier Paolo Giglioli, Giorgetto Giugiaro, Philippe Grombeer, Kyriacos Koutsomallis, Jack Lang, Predrag Matvejevic, Christian Poitevin, Giuliano Soria, Ibrahim Spahic, Giovanna Tanzarella, Gabriele Vacis, Gianni Vattimo, Claude Veron, Guillermo Perez Villalta, Daniele Lupo Jallà.

The disciplines were: Architecture, Visual Arts, Cinema and Video, Dance, Design, Photography, Comics and Illustration, Gastronomy, Graphic Design, Urban Design, Fashion, Music, Literature, Theatre.

Numbers

The eighth edition of the Biennial was officially opened in the presence of more than 5.000 people. Some 600 artists participated from 23 Countries (Albania, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Croatia, Egypt, France, Jordan, Greece, Israel, Italy, Libya, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Republic of San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey), plus 4 non-Mediterranean guest Countries (Holland, Finland, Argentina, Germany).

The spectators and visitors of the Biennial totaled 138.000 people.

In addition, the “Biennial Off” proposed some hundred productions involving more than 250 artists from Piedmont and 50 from Italy and abroad.

The most outstanding artists were: A12 Group, an architect group from North Italy, Klitsa Antoniou, visual artist from Cyprus, Davide Bertocchi, visual artist from Bologna but living in Paris, Erikm, visual artist and musician from Marseille, Davide Ferrari, musician and composer from Genoa, Folkabbestia, folk music band from Bari, Tomo Savić Gecan, visual artist from Zagreb living in Amsterdam, Eliza Ulises Pistolo, visual artist from Valencia and Roberto Zappalà, choreographer from Catania.

Venues

The exhibition section was hosted in the Cavallerizza Reale (Royal Riding School), a group of 18th Century buildings located in the city centre, which were returned to the city in occasion of the Biennial after years of neglect.

Furthermore, another 60 places were reserved in town and throughout Piedmont for the different exhibitions of the program, among them: the Lingotto factory, the Murazzi (the banks of the Po river), the Docks Dora and the Ferrante Aporti, a juvenile detention centre. 

 

 

 

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