Introduction
2020 ART QUADRIENNALE
FUORI
The FUORI 2020 Art Quadriennale, curated by Sarah Cosulich and Stefano Collicelli Cagol, is the exhibition of contemporary Italian art at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, which offers a unique and unforgettable journey through works from the 1960s to the present day.
With its 43 artists, more than half of whom are aged less than 40, and its large female presence, FUORI (meaning OUT) aims at being an unexpected reinterpretation of Italian art by building previously unseen bridges between different generations that have worked in various sectors of creativity.
FUORI, which is the result of three years of research, presents paintings, sculptures, videos, drawings and installations resulting from the mingling of visual arts and other disciplines such as drama, dance, cinema, fashion, architecture, music and design.
FUORI overcomes the boundaries between disciplines and media, but also those between sex and gender, to welcome feminine, feminist and queer imageries into its rooms.
FUORI is not a themed exhibition, but was created through reflection on three fields of research: the Palace, as a metaphor for the relationship between art and power, starting from the very venue, Palazzo delle Esposizioni; Desire, because seduction has always lied at the heart of art; the Incommensurable, testifying to the need of art to transcend the boundaries of what is known to cross the threshold of the unimaginable.
FUORI is an invitation to think outside the box, to assume an eccentric – off-centered – position, to adopt an oblique look based on a mutual relationship with otherness.
FUORI is liberation from any constraint or category.
OUT of mind,
OUT of fashion,
OUT of time,
OUT of scale,
OUT of play,
OUT of everything.
OUT of place is what the 2020 Art Quadriennale wants to be, through the works and research of the presented artists.
THE DISPLAY
For the set-up of the FUORI 2020 Art Quadriennale, Sarah Cosulich and Stefano Collicelli Cagol invited architect Alessandro Bava to interpret the exhibition through a rereading of the spaces of Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
Plasterboard walls thus redesign the spaces of the building and its proportions.
FUORI wants to distort the perception of the architecture and set up the exhibited works of art in a unique way.
THE ARCHIVE
Storyteller, actor and performer Luca Scarlini has been invited by the curators to develop an original storytelling project in which the stories from the Quadriennale archive are intertwined with the works presented in the exhibition. The history of the Institution, with its anecdotes, gossips and events, becomes an integral part of FUORI and its reflection on Italian art from the 20th century to the present day.
The Curators
Sarah Cosulich
Sarah Cosulich (1974) is the Artistic Director of Fondazione La Quadriennale di Roma and co-curator of the 2020 Art Quadriennale. She is currently also the curator of the MUT exhibition space in Fiorano Modenese and of the Mutina for Art corporate program, dedicated to supporting international contemporary art. Cosulich graduated in Art History in Washington D.C. and studied in Berlin and London, where she obtained a master’s degree in Contemporary Art Critique with a thesis on the relationship between the Commedia dell’Arte tradition and the work of Maurizio Cattelan. In 2003, she was assistant curator of Francesco Bonami at the 50th Venice Biennale. From 2004 to 2008, she was curator of the Villa Manin Contemporary Art Center, where she curated the exhibitions and special projects of over thirty artists. In the 2009-2010 two-year period, she curated the exhibition project of Cardi Black Box in Milan, with a program of solo and collective exhibitions and remakes of historical projects. From 2012 to 2017, Cosulich directed Artissima in Turin, contributing to the international expansion of the fair by introducing new ways of involving curators and collectors in the program, innovative formats and new sections. For Artissima, she also conceived collateral exhibition projects in collaboration with Turin’s leading museums and, in 2014, it is the turn of SHIT AND DIE, an exhibition curated by Maurizio Cattelan. In 2017, she was development consultant for the Manifesta12 European Biennale in Palermo. Her writings include monographs dedicated to Jeff Koons (2006) and Gabriel Orozco (2008) and various collaborations with Italian and foreign universities.
Stefano Collicelli Cagol
Stefano Collicelli Cagol (PhD) is curator of the 2020 Art Quadriennale and has been curator of Fondazione La Quadriennale di Roma since 2018. In 2020, he was appointed Curator at Large of BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou, an exhibition center that will open in China in 2021. He has taught “Exhibition and Display” at the Design for Arts 2nd level master’s degree at the Turin Polytechnic. In 2015, he curated the Inclinazioni exhibition for Artissima, Turin. From 2015 to 2017, he was Curator at Large at Trondheim kunstmuseum, Norway, where he curated projects by Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Sidsel Meineche Hansen. In 2014, he obtained a PhD at the Curating Contemporary Art department of the Royal College of Art in London. In 2013, he curated the project of Chiara Fumai, winner of the Furla Prize, at Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice. He has curated exhibitions and projects in institutions such as Palazzo Grassi, Venice; LUX Artists’ Moving Image, London; steirischer herbst festival, Graz; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; GAM – Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery, Turin. He has published essays in catalogues and magazines such as “Stedelijk Studies”, “Domus”, “Flash Art” and “Mousse”.
Catalog
THE FUORI CATALOG
The exhibition catalog, published by Treccani, includes a series of in-depth analyses: a section dedicated to new historical-artistic research methods and a section dedicated to the topics discussed in the Q-Rated workshops held by La Quadriennale di Roma between 2018 and 2019.