The “A Collection” Prize goes to Serena Gamba and Sebastien Reuzé.

The “A Collection” Prize has been awarded. The production prize – associated with a residency course – allows the winning artist to design a tapestry and preside over the ensuing weaving phases.

The commission – made up of Francesca Taroni, editor-in-chief of Living, Corriere della Sera and of the website living.corriere.it, Director of Abitare, Donatella Bollani, freelance journalist, web editor and podcaster for the development of content and special initiatives, lecturer at 24Ore Business School and member of the ADI “Research for Business” Commission, Roberto Bosi, Head of Casabella Formazione, Director of ProViaggiArchitettura, professor of Architectural Design, University of Florence, Chiara Casarin, Director of “A Collection” APS and curator, promoter of the Award, and Giovanni Bonotto, President of “A Collection” APS, master weaver and promoter of the Prize – decided to award two artists: Serena Gamba, represented by Isolo 17 Gallery, Verona, for “the refined research that invites observers, on the basis of verbal language, to create their own visual image, letting them participate in the creative act” and Sebastien Reuzé, represented by UN-SPACED Gallery, Paris, “who uses photography together with pictorial language, creating a lyrical evocation. Both embody the spirit of the prize, aimed at creativity and the basis of the creative process as provided by the tapestry.”

The digital edition of Art Verona 2020 hosted and promoted the A Collection residency and production award. The jury – made up of Giovanni Bonotto (President of A Collection), Chiara Casarin (Vice-President of A Collection), Marcello Forin (collector) and Nicola Zanella (cultural manager, founder of Collective and contributor to Arteconomy 24 of Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper) – viewed the galleries taking part in ArtVerona and all the artists represented, examining artists from very different generations and with a range of languages. The aim of the A Collection Residency Prize is to support artists, to present them with a new production project and to let them recount the deeper nature of the artistic project through tapestry. The group unanimously oriented their choice towards Marc Bauer (Geneva, 1975, represented by Gilda Lavia, Rome) for the strength of his pictorial language and the delicate power to be found in his drawings as well as the challenges triggered by his use of colour. For Bauer, who recently won the Meret Oppenheim Prize 2020, the residency in A Collection implies a challenge to measure up against in terms of new cultural and expressive references.

The A Collection Prize for Artefiera in Bologna was awarded to The Cool Couple: an artist duo represented by MLZ Art Dep in Trieste, with the work the worm – time travel stuff (2018), inkjet print on baryta paper, aluminium frame, museum glass, 70 × 55 cm. The jury was comprised of Giovanni Bonotto (president of A Collection), Chiara Casarin (vice-president of A Collection), Diego Bergamaschi, collector, and Maria Chiara Valacchi, art critic and independent curator. Due to its formal and chromatic properties, the selected work lends itself to an interesting and challenging translation into the language of tapestry. The chance to make this work real and three-dimensional adds stimulus to an already highly complex process. Moreover, the research carried out by the Cool Couple – visually investigating scientific and mathematical fields – focuses on contents akin to those of A Collection, in which art and new environmental technologies merge.