Curated by Angela Vettese and Cornelia Lauf
Opening
march 14, 6 pm
http://www.iuav.it
Twenty works by students of visual arts are on show at the MAXXI in Rome, created by pupils of the Visual Arts Degree Course (Clasav) at Iuav University of Venice. This is a small and somewhat modest exhibition, aware that it is just a step in the journey of the students who have not yet undertaken professional careers in the arts and do not know if they will do so. However, this is an important occasion, as it seals a union of two hopes: the first is that MAXXI in Rome will soon re-open, after its transformation into Italy’s most important and largest centre for contemporary art, able to create relationships with other international centres and also meet needs in Italy (including those related to teaching). The second hope is that the teaching of contemporary art (to which Italy has contributed very little recently, despite a history of its own so affected by art) will be part of an increasingly clear dialogue with institutions and with the art world itself. The works chosen have a declaration of intent that there is no single prevailing technique and no single discourse on a theme or application of a method. Photography, video, installation, performances, object sculpture: the diversity of means corresponds to a deliberate welcome of all sorts of techniques by the school from which the students come. Clasav was created in 2001 at the Iuav University of Venice and has been able to unite students from all over Italy and abroad. Their training is provided by leading experts in art and related disciplines. In 2007 the Venice Foundation intervened to support Clasav by providing a Venice Foundation Chair, which is currently held by the director of the course, Angela Vettese. The exhibition was created under the auspices of the Venice Foundation and the Foundation of Higher Art Studies. As well as having full time lecturers such as Giorgio Agamben, Marco De Michelis (the Dean), Paolo Fabbri, Paolo Legrenzi, Patrizia Magli, Franco Rella and Pierluigi Sacco, students have attended three-month courses (not just one-off lessons, therefore, but real workshops that almost always end with an exhibition and sometimes with a small publication) with visiting artists and experts like Stefano Arienti, Mario Airò, Carlos Basualdo, Francesco Bonami, Maja Bajevic, Lewis Baltz, Nicolas Bourriaud, Tania Bruguera, Olafur Eliasson, Guido Guidi, Mona Hatoum, Rene Gabri, Alberto Garutti, Runa Islam, Cornelia Lauf, Armin Linke, Joseph Kosuth, Antoni Muntadas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Lucy and Jorge Orta, Giulio Paolini, Cesare Pietroiusti, Marietica Potrc, Pierre Rosenberg, Remo Salvadori, Stalker, Lewis Baltz, Tobias Rehberger, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Grazia Toderi and Gilberto Zorio.
Angela Vettese
Director Graduate programme in visual arts
For more information go to: http://www.iuav.it