L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano Young Italians and the Ar ts: A talk with Curator Cecilia Alemani They call it brain drain, the latest plague that affects our modern societies, including the Italian one. But is it really a plague? In a globalized world c a n w e c o n s i d e r p r o g r e s s - e i t h e r s c i e n t i f i c , a r t i s t i c o r human in general - as a preroga- tive of one country or the other? What should be highlighted, perhaps, is the importance of the cultural background that nurtured some great minds and the reasons, if any, why they eventually decided to live and THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015 www.italoamericano.org 4 SILVIA SIMONETTI work in a foreign country. T o g e t h e r w i t h V a l e n t i n a Castellani, Francesco Bonami, a n d h e r o w n h u s b a n d Massimiliano Gioni (artistic director of the New Museum in New York), 38-year old curator Cecilia Alemani has recently been named a representative of the Italian excellence abroad by La Repubblica newspaper. In 2011, after founding the inde- pendent No Soul For Sale con- temporary art festival, Cecilia Alemani was invited to join as a curator the public art program of the High Line - the elevated freight rail line on Manhattan's W e s t S i d e , w h i c h h a s b e e n transformed into a public park for the community to enjoy. Since 2012, she has also curat- ed Frieze New York, one of the world's most famous contem- porary art fairs. Cecilia, have you always been interested in contempo- rary art or how did you get close to it? I h a v e a d e g r e e i n Philosophy from the Università degli Studi of Milan. I graduat- ed in Aesthetics and that's when I first approached the field of contemporary art, from a more academic background. W h e n a n d w h y d i d y o u move to New York? How was the impact with the U.S. art scene? I m o v e d t o N e w Y o r k i n 2 0 0 3 t o g e t a M a s t e r s i n C u r a t o r i a l S t u d i e s f o r Contemporary Art from Bard College. New York is the heart of the art world and when it comes to the contemporary art landscape there is no other city in the world that could offer the same: New York has some of the best art galleries, museums, non-profit spaces, and artists in the world. What is the project you feel most attached to/proud of and why? Certainly the High Line Art p r o g r a m : b r i n g i n g m u s e u m quality art to an audience of 6 million visitors a year is some- thing I'm very proud of! A s t h e d i r e c t o r o f t h e Public Art Program at High Line Art, have you introduced a n y i n n o v a t i o n o r c h a n g e ? And which projects are you currently working on? T h e H i g h L i n e c h a n g e s almost every day, as does the city around us: we use this mul- t i f a c e t e d p l a t f o r m t o i n v i t e artists to create new ways of looking at our surroundings. We have just opened a group exhi- bition titled Panorama, which is a show about landscape, both r e a l a n d i m a g i n a r y . http://art.thehighline.org/pro- ject/panorama/ Do you believe that your Italian origin has somehow i n f l u e n c e d y o u r s u c c e s s f u l career in the art sector? And h a v e y o u e v e r t h o u g h t o f returning to Italy? My art formation has hap- pened in the US. Growing up in Italy makes you certainly famil- iar with art, but doesn't help you turning that knowledge into a p r o f e s s i o n u n f o r t u n a t e l y . Right now the art situation in Italy is not doing that well so no, I don't think I would go back to Italy until the system will understand that it needs to give space to a younger genera- tion. According to your experi- e n c e a n d k n o w l e d g e o f t h e current trend, what advice w o u l d y o u g i v e t o y o u n g Italians who see their future in contemporary art as artists or curators? To confront themselves with an international reality by look- ing at as many exhibitions as possible, by reading internation- al magazines, and if possible, b y t r a v e l i n g a b r o a d t o l e a r n what's going on in the rest of the world (which is very differ- ent from what's happening in Italy). Cecilia Alemani

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