THE DREAMS OF THE YOUNGER GENERATIONS THROUGH THE EYES OF MASTERS OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Mimmo Jodice, Bellezza
Andrea Bocelli Foundation

Curated by Micol Forti
With the collaboration of Livia Ficoroni
From the project “Parola ai giovani” by Giovanni Caccamo
With the precious collaboration of Andrea Bocelli Foundation   

The Rimini Meeting hosts an unprecedented exhibition that tells the story of twelve great protagonists of Italian contemporary art in dialogue with the dreams and ideas of the younger generations. 

At the beginning of 2022 “Parola ai Giovani” came to life, a collective project born from a brilliant idea of the Sicilian singer-songwriter Giovanni Caccamo, a pupil of Franco Battiato. Young people under 35, coming from every social, disciplinary and professional background, were invited to take a proactive attitude and reflect on some “key words” that could give substance to their vision of community participation and change in the world, the same world that they are called to preserve and improve for the future.
This appeal aroused over 900 responses, including university students, through seminars held in numerous Italian universities, and young professionals. Thanks to the ideas and commitment of all the participants, a Cultural Manifesto of Change was drawn up, in which about 50 words (and the reflections connected to them) were merged, the result of careful selection work.
Convinced that words are seeds that produce fruits, build bonds, bridges and alliances, and that there is no future without roots, Micol Forti, Curator of the Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Vatican Museums, together with Giovanni Caccamo, then imagined involving some of the most famous Italian artists, representatives of the most mature generations, in this exceptional adventure.
These great protagonists of the art world have been entrusted with the dreams and hopes of the younger generations in the form of “keywords”, typed, with an ancient typographic process with movable type (the ancient Gutenberg technique of the fifteenth century), on sheets of cotton paper in A4 format. In a real generational comparison, each master has freely used the sheet as a real support or source of inspiration, precious material to be transformed or transfigured, thus creating an unprecedented work starting from the questions and appeals addressed to them by young people. 

 The artists who have enthusiastically accepted the invitation and who have created the works that will be exhibited for the first time in the exhibition at the Meeting are:  

• Emilio Isgrò
  title “Electiveness”
  text by Mariangela De Luca 

• Arnaldo Pomodoro
  title “Alienation”
  text by Marco Anastasio 

• Maurizio Cattelan
  title “Ghosting” 
  text by di Carlo Corallo  

• Michelangelo Pistoletto
  title “Childhood”
  text by Angelina Mango 

• Mimmo Paladino
  title “Gratitude”
  text by Giovanni Caccamo 

• Mario Ceroli
  title “Family”
  text by Andrea Caschetto

• Julia Napoleon
  title “Spread”
  text by Matteo Trapanese
   
• Mimmo Paladino
  title “Gratitude”
  text by Giovanni Caccamo 

• Mimmo Jodice
  title “Beauty”
  text by Beatrice Canullo 

• Francesca Cataldi
  title “Diving”
  text by Alan Cappelli Goetz   

• Ferdinando Scianna
  title “Courage”
  text by Anna Caputo 

• Fabrizio Plessi
  title “Hospitality”
  text by Remon Karam 

The works born from this generational comparison, on display at the Meeting, will be collected in a volume published by Itaca Edizioni, which will also include texts by Micol Forti, Giovanni Caccamo, Father Antonio Spadaro, SJ, Director of “La Civiltà Cattolica,” and H. Em. Cardinal José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. 

In October 2023 at the behest and generosity of the promoter soul of the project Giovanni Caccamo the unique works created by the artists mentioned above will be auctioned at an auction organized in order to raise funds to support the mission “empowering people and communities” of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation – Philanthropic Organization, and in particular in favor of the scholarships that the Foundation conceives and promotes in order to create opportunities for growth and enhancement of talents (andreabocellifoundation.org)