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X    V A F    F O U N D A T I O N    P R I Z E   

27.09.2024

“The VAF-Stiftung Prize stands out among many respectable ones for the research and love it reserves for young artists. And it is a projection of Volker W. Feierabend's sensibility, taste and instinct, which is confirmed in retrospect by the critics' choices which accompany his passion for the art of the Italian 20th century and for the artists of the latest generations on whom the judgement has not yet been established.
Feierabend owes a great deal to the MART, which welcomed his collection and gave it order and organisation; and the Mart in Rovereto owes a great deal to Feierabend and can be said to have become the home for his paintings, which are then ours. The fact that, after Kiel, the Award organisation has asked the Mart as the venue is for me the confirm of a relationship that is now historic and a source of pride for the commitment that the selection of the competitors and the choice of the Prize-winners entail, in the surprise of recognising up to now unknown personalities.
It is with this spirit and with this confident expectation that I shared the Founder's desire to welcome the award in the museum ehibition halls inhabited and enlivened by the fundamental works of so many twentieth-century masters belonging to the VAF Foundation, so that, before being part of it, the new works of young artists might live and share the same spaces.”

Vittorio Sgarbi

The Mart Museum hosts the tenth edition of the VAF Prize, established by the German foundation of the same name to support young Italian art.
While the Prize enables the Foundation to expand its holdings with purchases of recognised quality, it also promotes innovative positions in contemporary art and presents them to the public in Italy and Germany. In fact, the project first stopped at the Stadtgalerie in Kiel, Germany, from 15 June to 1 September 2024 and now at the Mart from 28 September 2024 to 9 February 2025.

 

The Prize was established in 2003 with the aim of promoting the artistic and creative potential of artists under 40. Over the years, the organisation of the competition has boasted numerous collaborations with important national and German exhibition venues, such as the Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rovereto, the Museo della Permanente in Milan, the MACRO Testaccio in Rome, the Museo civico di Palazzo della Penna in Perugia, the Institut Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, the Künstlerhaus in Graz and the Stadtgalerie in Kiel.
The pre-selection of artists, carried out for the first time on the digital platform of the Foundation's website, resulted in the evaluation of more than a hundred applications. Following careful examination of the various artistic positions, the Scientific Committee of the VAF Foundation chose the names of the 13 finalists for the exhibition: Adriano Annino, Antonio Barbieri, Chiara Calore, Valentina Diena, Roberto Fanari, Debora Garritani, Teresa Giannico, Jacopo Ginanneschi, Monica Mazzone, Alessandro Nanni, Davide Quartucci, Michele Tajariol, Beatrice Taponecco.

From September 28, 2024 to February 09, 2025 the artworks of Valentina Diena will be exhibited, on the occasion of the second stage of the prestigious X VAF Foundation Award, in the prestigious rooms of the MART Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Trento and Rovereto.
After the award, the VAF Foundation purchased three of Diena's artworks. Farewell, Nosedive! and Chasing Venus will therefore be part of the prestigious VAF Foundation Private collection.



 


 


 

 

X VAF Foundation Award Exhibition, Mart Museum - opening day
Credits: Mart, Edoardo Meneghini

 


 


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