Biography
EUGENIO VIOLA
Curator of Italian Pavillion 2022
Born in Naples in 1975 and lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia.
Eugenio Viola is the current Chief Curator of MAMBO – Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, in Colombia. From 2017 to 2019, he was the Senior Curator of PICA – The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in Perth, Western Australia. From 2009 to 2016, he was Curator at the MADRE Museum in Naples, where he was involved, since 2013, in developing the museum’s collection. Here he co-curated the first major institutional exhibitions in Italy of Boris Mikhailov and Francis Alÿs, a site-specific installation of Daniel Buren and, retrospective exhibitions devoted to Vettor Pisani and Giulia Piscitelli.
He has collaborated with numerous Italian and international institutions, curating exhibitions devoted to, among the others: Regina José Galindo (Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 2016); Karol Radziszewski (CoCA – Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Torun, 2014); Mark Raidpere (EKKM – The Contemporary Art Museum of Tallinn, 2013); Marina Abramović (PAC – Milan, 2012); Francesco Jodice (MSU – The Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 2011), ORLAN (MAMC – Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint Etienne, 2007). In 2015 he curated the Estonian pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.
He has curated over 70 exhibitions in Italy and abroad, over 50 catalogues and books, and contributed to numerous international publications.
Viola has a Ph.D. from the University of Salerno on “Methods and Methodologies of Archaeological and Art Historical Research” and is a scholar of the experiences related to performance and the body. On this subject, he has edited the monographs dedicated to Teresa Margolles (Edizioni MAMBO, Bogotà, 2019); Regina Jose Galindo (Skira, Milan, 2014); Hermann Nitsch (Morra Editions, Naples, 2013); Marina Abramović, (Sole 24 Ore Cultura, Milan, 2012); ORLAN (Charta, Milan-New York, 2007).
He has collaborated for many years with the American magazine Artforum and Italian Arte. His writings have also been published in Flash Art, Segno, Exit Express, Arte e Critica, Enciclopedia Treccani and many other Italian and international magazines and publications.
Born in Naples in 1975 and lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia.
Eugenio Viola is the current Chief Curator of MAMBO – Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, in Colombia. From 2017 to 2019, he was the Senior Curator of PICA – The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in Perth, Western Australia. From 2009 to 2016, he was Curator at the MADRE Museum in Naples, where he was involved, since 2013, in developing the museum’s collection. Here he co-curated the first major institutional exhibitions in Italy of Boris Mikhailov and Francis Alÿs, a site-specific installation of Daniel Buren and, retrospective exhibitions devoted to Vettor Pisani and Giulia Piscitelli.
He has collaborated with numerous Italian and international institutions, curating exhibitions devoted to, among the others: Regina José Galindo (Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 2016); Karol Radziszewski (CoCA – Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Torun, 2014); Mark Raidpere (EKKM – The Contemporary Art Museum of Tallinn, 2013); Marina Abramović (PAC – Milan, 2012); Francesco Jodice (MSU – The Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 2011), ORLAN (MAMC – Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint Etienne, 2007). In 2015 he curated the Estonian pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.
He has curated over 70 exhibitions in Italy and abroad, over 50 catalogues and books, and contributed to numerous international publications.
Viola has a Ph.D. from the University of Salerno on “Methods and Methodologies of Archaeological and Art Historical Research” and is a scholar of the experiences related to performance and the body. On this subject, he has edited the monographs dedicated to Teresa Margolles (Edizioni MAMBO, Bogotà, 2019); Regina Jose Galindo (Skira, Milan, 2014); Hermann Nitsch (Morra Editions, Naples, 2013); Marina Abramović, (Sole 24 Ore Cultura, Milan, 2012); ORLAN (Charta, Milan-New York, 2007).
He has collaborated for many years with the American magazine Artforum and Italian Arte. His writings have also been published in Flash Art, Segno, Exit Express, Arte e Critica, Enciclopedia Treccani and many other Italian and international magazines and publications.
GIAN MARIA TOSATTI
Artist of Italian Pavillion 2022
Born in Rome in 1980 and lives and works in Naples.
Trained in performance, he began his artistic journey in Rome in 2005 investigating the border between architecture and visual arts, creating site-specific environmental installations that would become the hallmark of his work. Between 2008 and 2016, he lived and worked in New York before settling back in Naples, Italy. His projects are long-term investigations into issues related to the concept of identity, both on a political and spiritual level, designed for entire buildings or urban areas. His practise often involves communities connected to the places where his works take shape.
He is the current artistic director of the Rome Quadrennial for the triennium 2021-2024 and also works as a columnist and journalist for Il Corriere della Sera and Opera Viva magazine. He writes essays on art and politics and has recently published Experience and Reality for Postmedia Books. Esperienza e Realtà. Teoria e Riflessioni sulla Quinta Dimensione. [Experience and Reality. Theory and Reflections on the Fifth Dimension].
He has developed exhibitions and personal projects in numerous national and international spaces, including: A4 Arts Foundation (Cape Town, 2019); Manifesta 12 (Palermo-Catania, 2018); Homo Novus Festival (Riga, 2018); Madre Museum (Naples, 2016); Hessel Museum of the CCS BARD (New York, 2014); the Salerno Archaeological Museum (Salerno, 2014); Morra Foundation (Naples, 2013-2016); the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (New York, 2011). In 2017 he won the New York Prize and in 2019 his exhibition project My heart is empty as a mirror was among the winners of the VII edition of the Italian Council.
The exhibition at the Museum Madre in Naples in 2016, curated by Eugenio Viola, was the artist’s first solo exhibition in an Italian public museum. The first anthological exhibition about his career, curated by Vicente Todolì, is being programmed for 2023 at the Hangar Bicocca in Milan.
