For its fifteenth edition, the In Sesto Prize involves the artists Julia Hohenwarter (Vienna, 1980), Andrea Kvas (Trieste, 1986), and Nuvola Ravera (Genoa, 1984), who have been invited to submit a proposal for a public work for an area of the town.
The chosen location in San Vito’s historic centre is the Auditorium H. Zotti. This multi-purpose space is a venue for various cultural activities, and with its strong social value it truly stands as a place for the community. Characterised by evocative and impressive architecture, the indoor spaces of the building seem designed to be inhabited and walked through, and its large surfaces are perfect for accommodating artistic interventions.
On the first floor of the Antiche Carceri several works, representative of each artist’s research, are displayed while the rooms on the ground floor present the three project proposals to be voted on.
The most normal things about me are my shoulders by Julia Hohenwarter is an intervention located at three different points in the building. It consists of a wall relief to be read and an audio component active only at specific times of the day. The artist “transforms the space into a sort of sound body, in order to intensify the connection between the inhabitants and the architectural setting”.
On the other hand, Miriade (Myriad) by Andrea Kvas is a collective pictorial intervention that, under the guidance of the artist, is supposed to take place with the involvement of the community in a series of workshops aimed at the production of large painting panels. “Participation and sharing” are meant to transform washes of colour, lines and surfaces into large paintings to be displayed on the walls of the building.
“The building’s internal portico immediately reminded me of the bed of a river”. Behind these words lies the concept at the core of the project Il sogno di un fiume (The dream of a river) by Nuvola Rivera. The artist’’s idea is to insert glass sculptural elements in the central passage of the building, imagined as organic remains to emphasise the generative, transformative, and creative dimension of the place itself.
