Stefano Antonelli, founder and artistic director of 999Contemporary, led the last in this spring's invitational Business Lecture series with a presentation entitled 'Economics in the XXI Century.' However, if the packed Zoom-audience had come to hear solely about traditional economic theory, they may have been left unsatisfied. Antonelli has made a career out of pushing the boundaries of art and curatorship and redefining the concept of the museum or gallery.
Antonelli began by expanding upon the theory behind art creation. He then carried the audience through the history of art creation, from cave drawings to Banksy and beyond. This overview culminated in an elaboration of the very concept of culture and how people are affected by both encyclopedic and anthropologic concepts of it. If people perceive life as ordinary while they view culture as extraordinary, what is the relationship between our daily lives and our cultural lives; the relationship between what's art and what's ordinary?
A thought-leader in the realm of museoformation, the interaction between creators, individuals, communities, and artworks, Antonelli seeks to give anthropological value to the place where the artwork is created by producing and organizing new and original repertoires of shared symbolic wealth. This concept was the driving force behind the unique 'Big City Life' project at Tor Marancia in Rome.
Big City Life is an urban museum project, conceived and curated by Antonelli, which started on January 8 and ended on February 27, 2015. Two months to transform an entire neighborhood into a museum.
The common purpose was to transform the historic Roman area of Tor Marancia into a unique contemporary public art district, involving the local community, schools, and neighborhood associations in this process. The 500+ families who live in the public housing of this historic area (owned by the Municipality of Rome), met and welcomed twenty-two artists from ten different countries who arrived to paint the entire neighborhood. The work created by each artist is the result of this meeting with the people that live there. Twenty-two monumental works, created on the facades of the eleven buildings. Also involved in the conception and delivery of the art were the pupils of the Dalla Chiesa elementary school, the Settimia Spizzichino middle school, and the Caravaggio high school while the staff of 999Contemporary held professional workshops for the people of Tor Marancia to give them the skills to promote, maintain, and enhance the artistic heritage. This has made Tor Marancia a real living public museum, open to all, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.
Beyond the local impact, Rome received a wholely new attraction that has contemporary urban art as its protagonist, created through the perceptions of twenty-two of its most important international interpreters. This project created a museum unique of its kind and that rightfully places itself directly in the historical continuity of this city that has hosted the very best art in the world for over 2,500 years.
AUR is honored that Stefano Antonelli made the time to share his experience, knowledge, and insight with our audience of students and guests. We'd also like to thank Professor Laura Prota for organizing this event - it was an amazing finale to what has been an outstanding series of lectures hosted by the Business program at the university.
999Contemporary
999Contemporary is a non-profit, private, and independent cultural institution engaged for over fifteen years in the study and contemporary artistic practices, often in collaboration with public institutions. 999Contemporary's projects investigate and reflect the relationships between art and ordinary life by studying, promoting, and experimenting with artistic practices informed by an interest in the aesthetics and ethics of the public sphere. Many of the projects reflect the transition from disciplinary to transdisciplinary practices that understand and compose urban expressive languages and constitute the grammar of a curatorial language capable of addressing the public discourse of art trying to challenge the traditional interpretation of collection, conservation, and presentation of works of art.
Founded and directed by Stefano Antonelli, 999Contemporary is based in Rome at via Ostiense 110 / D.
Find out more about current and past 999Contemporary projects at http://www.999contemporary.com/
