ROME.- Giulia Cenci (Cortona, 1988, lives and works in Amsterdam and Tuscany), Tomaso De Luca (Verona, 1988, lives and works in Berlin) and Renato Leotta (Turin, 1982, lives and works in Acireale) are the three shortlisted artists for the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE, the project bringing together MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts and Bvlgari, an emblem of Italian excellence for over 130 years to support and promote young artists.

The three finalists and the new edition of the PRIZE, the outcome of the long-standing partnership between MAXXI and Bvlgari, were presented today at the Bvlgari Hotel in London by Giovanna Melandri, President of the Fondazione MAXXI and Nicola Bulgari, Vice President of the Bvlgari Group, a great supporter of the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE, a passionate collector and patron of the arts.

The members of the international jury Hou Hanru, Artistic Director at MAXXI, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi Director of MAXXI Arte, Manuel Borja-Villel, Director of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and Emma Lavigne, President of the Palais de Tokyo, along with Lucia Boscaini, Bulgari Brand and Heritage Curator, illustrated the PRIZE in a conversation with the journalist Suzanne Trocme.

Present were the shortlisted artists Giulia Cenci, Tomaso De Luca and Renato Leotta, along with Giulia Ferracci, curator of the exhibition with the site-specific works created for the PRIZE on show at MAXXI from 7 May 2020. In October 2020, the jury will decree the winner, whose work will be acquired by the museum.

An evolution of the MAXXI Prize, which was responsible for the founding nucleus of the museum collection and which since 2000 has launched numerous new talents on the international scene, thanks to Bvlgari’s precious support, the prize has been renewed, strengthened, and launched ever more on the international art scene. The first edition of the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE organized in 2018 was won by Diego Marcon with the powerful video installation Ludwig, which is now part of the MAXXI collection.

“In 2020 the museum will be celebrating its 10th birthday”, says Giovanna Melandri, “and the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE will be one of the events celebrating this important anniversary, emphasizing the commitment to supporting young talents in the arts as one of the key aspects of the mission of this National Museum of Contemporary Art. The works of the three finalists, Giulia Cenci, Tomaso De Luca and Renato Leotta, intense and evocative, reflect on today’s society and explore the future. It will be a pleasure to have them at MAXXI and a privilege to have alongside us Bvlgari, a company that has contributed so much to Italian and international creativity, further evidence of the importance of a strategic rather than ephemeral cultural alliance between public and private.”

Jean-Christophe Babin, Bvlgari CEO, thus commented: “Once again, the MAXXI BVLGARI Prize is an exceptional platform for the most promising talents in the contemporary art scene. The multiple languages adopted by artists stimulate a reflection on today's complex social and cultural situation, triggering a different perception of reality, and of the values that inspire it. The constant tension towards experimentation and the commitment to promoting young artists are the common ground of BVLGARI and MAXXI: I am sure that this new edition of the award will mark an important moment in international artistic research.”

Hou Hanru, remarks that “This year’s selection of the candidates reflects a significant generation turn with artists born in the 1980s. They share a new sense of critique facing an increasingly uncertain world in imminent crisis — political, economical, ecological and psychological. They represent a new tendency of the young artists who are deeply concerned about the danger of the destruction of our living environments, both physical and virtual, and manage to develop plastic languages to cope with such a momentum, by reintroducing materiality, in fluid but intense change, tainted with anxiety. This implies a certain obsession with the exploration of a new global Zeitgeist. Again, the Premio MAXXI-Bvlgari plays its role as a leader to demonstrate the upcoming future in the Italian and international art scene by putting forwards these individual but organically bound destinies of creative minds”.