Over the years it has become a point of reference for contemporary art enthusiasts and recognized by the European platform EFFE – Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe for its artistic quality, the involvement of the local community and at the same time its European and global scope, The Blank ArtDate reinvents itself, proposing a completely original format with over forty events including exhibitions, conferences, special projects, educational workshops and extraordinary openings of symbolic places in the city.
The Blank ArtDate reflects this year on the theme of the Sacred, re-reading rituals, gestures and rites, capable of uniting people in a common spirit. Taking as reference the ancient festivals – whose term derives from the Latin sacrum – which were above all moments of communion between men and the sacred, The Blank ArtDate asks numerous artists to interpret and re-read this fundamental theme through their contemporary practice, combining with originality tradition and current events. The reflection on popular rites is intertwined with the reading of the sacred, understood as an experience inextricably linked to the effort made by man to build a world that has meaning.
Friday May 26th
The inaugural conference of The Blank ArtDate takes place in collaboration with the Adriano Bernareggi Museum, which hosts in its headquarters in via Pignolo 76 at 17.00, the intervention of the sociologist Gian Antonio Gilli, focused on ex votos, (objects offered in sanctuaries for thank the recipient of the vote when his prayer has been answered), of which the Museum has a large collection, mainly containing the type of painted and embossed ex voto. Also at the Bernareggi Museum, at 18.00, the exhibition "A woman dressed in the sun" will be inaugurated: which presents a series of "dressed Madonnas", or rather the statues of the Virgin dressed in the costumes of the women of the time, both commoners and noblewomen. The dressed Madonnas are part of a rite linked to popular devotions, which spans the centuries from the Middle Ages to the present day and which involves a large part of Catholic Europe.
Following the success of the last edition, The Blank ArtDate proposes the School Day again: over five hundred students from 20 high school classes who took part in The Blank Educational project will be guided to discover a preview of the exhibitions scheduled for ArtDate through various itineraries.
The Head Office of UBI Banca (Piazza Vittorio Veneto, 8) at 15.00 pm presents the video by Cosimo Terlizzi "The Blessing of the Animals", followed by an exclusive guided tour of the installation created with works from the Institute's collection, edited by Enrico De Pascale.
Spazio Polaresco (via del Polaresco, 15) from 14.00 to 19.00 hosts a performance, curated by the collective SIGNZ and Paolo Baraldi, which delves into the study of the letter and the alphabet, highlighting the duality that elevates them to sacredness.
At the former ARS bookshop (via Pignolo, 116) at 18.30 pm there will be the presentation of the catalog The Blank TR – Transit Message and the setting up of a habitat by Flavia Mastrella, “L'esaltazione dell'insignificante” (the day following the ex library there is a guided tour accessible to deaf people with translation into LIS).
The day ends in the suggestive setting of Porta S.Alessandro with the event organized by Bergamo Film Meeting in collaboration with The Blank: from 21.30 pm OVO, indie noise rock group and noise maker, live music and James Whale's film Frankenstein.
The film, based on Mary Shelley's novel of the same name, was selected because the film's success led to the entry of the "creature" into the collective imagination, a "symbolic and metaphysical representation of man, tormented and divided between gratitude and hatred for a creator who made it so imperfect” (P. Mereghetti).
Saturday May 27th
Gabriele De Santis and Jonathan Monk, two of the greatest interpreters of contemporary art, are the speakers at a conference organized at Casa Suardi (Piazza Vecchia), in the Upper Town: the meeting, scheduled for 10.00, reflects on the necessary dialogue between artists and the public, making fun of the distance that generally exists between the two parts.
Mauro Zanchi, at 11.30, will take care of the visit to the initiatory itinerary through images of the choir of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, a unique example of art history that houses the cryptic inlays by Lorenzo Lotto attributable to the Culto del Sole.
At 15.00 pm, BACO Arte Contemporanea (via Arena, 9) will host an unusual study on the poetics of Bill Viola curated by Corrado Benigni, Ugo Morelli, Stefano Raimondi, Mauro Zanchi.
Throughout the afternoon GALLERIES TIME offers inaugurations and events of the member galleries of The Blank network: Galleria Elleni (Renzo Nucara, Carla Volpati); Marelia Gallery (Ludovico Bomben); Triangoloarte Gallery (Gaetano Orazio); Marco Fioretti (Dorothy Bhawl) art studio; Studio Vanna Casati (Valerio Ambiveri, Sabina Sala); Thomas Brambilla (Edoardo Piermattei); Traffic Gallery (Eve Hide); viamoronisedici/spazioarte (Davide Conventi); Quarenghicinquanta (Dario Guerini); Abitare Baleri (Andrea Baleri); Spazio Meno Uno (Edoardo Manzoni; inauguration on Friday 26, 18.00 pm).
The day ends at the Monastery of Astino with a night guided tour, from 22.45 pm, to the exhibition "Mario Giacomelli: written lands". The initiative is centered on the images of landscapes seen from the sky, coming from the Mario Giacomelli Archive in Sassoferrato and recounts a journey that reinterprets the rural landscape of the Marches, taken up in a very personal way by Giacomelli and interpreted in a graphic and conceptual way.
Sunday May 28th
ArtDate's Sunday program is dedicated to the "Tour of the Sacred Contemporary", a visit to three exceptional places of worship in the Bergamo area where there are impressive interventions by contemporary artists, such as the Church of the Pope John XXIII Hospital, the Roman of Lombardy and the Church of San Giacomo Maggiore in Sedrina. From 9.00 to 13.00 visitors will be accompanied to these three sites by three exceptional guides: the artists Andrea Mastrovito, Stefano Arienti and Mario Airò.
At the same time, in the city, at 11.00, the inauguration of the exhibition "Amplitude" by Francesco Pedrini, curated by Sara Benaglia and Mauro Zanchi, takes place at BACO Arte Contemporanea.
At “Magus” (via Camozzi, 144) the GAMeC Club organizes the annual Club GAMeC Prize, at 15.00 pm. On display the works of Riccardo Baruzzi, Matteo Callegari, Giulia Cenci, Priscilla Tea for "Concretizing the Uninhabitable", curated by Domenico De Chirico.
At 16.00 the GAMeC (via S. Tomaso, 53) organizes a guided tour of the Andy Warhol and Pamela Rosenkranz exhibitions. Andy Warhol's "L'opera multiplita" fits precisely into the theme of the Sacred: the mass production that has characterized the artist's practice "subtracts the product from the sphere of tradition" (Benjamin, 1935), depriving it of its aura . This is followed by the performance by Gabriele De Santis "We're short a guy": artists, collectors and art world enthusiasts challenge each other in an unusual game of five-a-side football, with the obligation to hold or wear a work of art for the duration of the meeting.
The day ends with contemporary locus 12: from 21.00 pm in collaboration with Lab 80, at the Auditorium in Piazza della Libertà, with the screening of Kader Attia's film "Reflecting Memory", followed by a guided tour of the exhibition contemporary locus 12_Kader Attia, Alvin Curran in the nearby Ex Albergo Diurno.
Among the novelties of the 2017 edition, The Blank ArtDate presents for the first time the Sagra dell'Arte project, a meeting place and evening hangout, which grafts the artistic vision on the concept of popular festival. Thanks to the collaboration with the organizing committee of the annual Festa di S. Antonio, one of the most popular in the city of Bergamo, the oratory of Longuelo (via Longuelo, 39) becomes for three days the venue for a real artistic festival, where the distinctive elements of this kind of context, such as food, music, dance, traditional games and furnishing accessories, are designed by some of the most important protagonists of the world of Contemporary Art.
Cory Arcangel, (American artist who works in the new media experimentation sector, with an interest in the relationship between technology and culture), created the T-shirts for the service staff, devising unpublished graphics for the volunteers of the festival; Ryan Gander, drawing from his book Artist's Cocktails, which collects the recipes of the favorite drinks of some of the most important artists in the world, has selected the cocktails that will be offered to the public on Saturday evening; Erik Saglia took care of the creation of the "wheel of fortune"; Marco Basta, Riccardo Beretta and Andrea Mastrovito created the graphics of the placemats; Simone Berti organizes an unusual "darts tournament" in which the targets are works of art: in medieval iconography the arrows represent plague, war and famine, hurled by Christ the Judge against sinners, while the Virgin Mary protects the faithful by defending them with his mantle that becomes a shield.
The rows of colored flags are works by Zak Kitnick, while Ethan Cook exhibits bronze sculptures that simulate food, camouflaged among the typical dishes of the party. Gabriele De Santis and Jonathan Monk, using a stall, develop an ironic reflection on the theme of art/economy.
On the evening of Saturday 27, at the Festival, DO YOU NEED MORE PROOF THAT WE ARE UNITED? | GHET BISÒGN DE OTRE PRÖE CHE 'N SÉ ÜNICC?”, an unprecedented performance by Marinella Senatore, one of the most recognized Italian artists abroad. Marinella Senatore will pay homage to Bergamo with a performance dedicated to Bergamo traditions, drawing inspiration from popular rituals. The artist has involved a folk group from Bergamo, the Rataplam, who will perform together with a DJ who will mix their songs, thus creating an exclusive superimposition of apparently irreconcilable languages.
The Blank ArtDate is conceived and created by the cultural association The Blank under the patronage of the Lombardy Region, the Municipality of Bergamo, the Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with ATB - Bergamo Transport Company and in media partnership with L'Eco di Bergamo, ATP Diary, Bergamo News, CTRL, thanks to the support of the Banca Popolare di Bergamo ONLUS Foundation and the Bergamo Community Foundation.
On the occasion of ArtDate, some events will be held as part of the AIR tour, a project born from the partnership between AIR – artinresidence / FARE and The Blank Contemporary Art, in collaboration with the Valle Camonica Cultural District, with the support of the Cariplo Foundation.
Image cover: Andrea Mastrovito, Color, courtesy the artist
