June 6 – November 27, 2011
Opening: Monday, June 6, 2011 – 6:30pm
Istituto Italiano di Cultura
496, Huron Street,
Toronto, ON
T: 416-921-3802 ext. 221
Hours: Mon – Fri 2:30 – 4:30pm
The Italian Cultural Institute is proud to present Padiglione Italia in the World at the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. On display works by Tony Calzetta, Vincenzo Pietropaolo, Francesca Vivenza. Opening remarks by the Consul General of Italy, Gianni Bardini.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities have launched a special event. For the first time ever the Padiglione Italia at the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale has been extended over the national boundaries to include the Italian Cultural Institutes in the world.
The aim of the project, which has been devised by Vittorio Sgarbi, art director of Padiglione Italia, is to map out Italian creativity abroad. Each Institute has elected a number of Italian artists or artists of Italian descent living and working in its own jurisdiction, active in various disciplines, from painting to sculpture, photography, video, design, graphics. Over 400 artists’ portfolios have been submitted to a special commission made up of art historians and critics and chaired by Vittorio Sgarbi and 219 have been chosen.
The artists selected for Toronto are Tony Calzetta, Vincenzo Pietropaolo, Francesca Vivenza.
A collective exhibition of their works will be on display from June 6 until the end of the Venice Biennale, November 27 at the Institute. The exhibition has been filmed in a video which will be screened at the Padiglione Italia on a multimedia installation created by Benedetta Miralles Tagliabue. The accompanying music, “Da Pitagora e oltre”, has been composed for the occasion by Ennio Morricone. The exhibition has been curated by Adriana Frisenna (IIC Acting Director) and Corrado De Luca, (from De Luca Fine Art Gallery: www.delucafineart.com).
A special bilingual catalogue edited by Skira and curated by Francesca Valente (project coordinator) will accompany the exhibition.
BIOS:
Tony Calzetta
Over the last 30 years, since graduating from York University with an M.F.A., Tony Calzetta has exhibited continually in solo and group exhibitions. He works mainly on canvas and paper and occasional in the areas of sculpture and printmaking. He published two major livres d’artiste, Acts of Kindness and of Love in collaboration with writer John Metcalf, and more recently How God Talks In His Sleep and Other Fabulous Fictions with writer Leon Rooke. In addition to commissioned works he is represented in public and private collections in Canada, U.S. and Europe and in 2004 was elected as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (R.C.A.).
www.artishell.com/calzetta
Vincenzo Pietropaolo is an independent documentary photographer who lives and works in Toronto. He is internationally best known for his empathetic social documentary photo essays on immigration, work, and labour movement. He has published 8 photographic books, among which Making Home in Havana, Not Paved with Gold and Harvest Pilgrims. His latest large documentary project, Invisible No More (Rutgers University Press, 2010), deals with Canadians with intellectual disabilities.
www.delucafineart.com
Francesca Vivenza graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Milan, Italy. Vivenza has been living and working in Toronto since1970, and has exhibited since 1966. Her practice consists of mixed-media works, which include book-works, cut-out collages and site-specific installations, that she calls Tentative Itineraries. Vivenza addresses themes of travel, distance, disorientation, and questions the stability of taken-for-granted sites of personal identity as home, nation and native language
www.francescavivenza.com
In collaboration with: Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Venice Biennale
