ROME.- The Fondazione Pastificio Cerere of Rome announce that Adelita Husni-Bey ( Milan , 1985) and Elisa Strinna ( Padua , 1982) are the winners of 6artista 2011, the residency program directed toward young talented artists (under 30) living in Italy . The project is promoted by the Associazione Civita and the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere thanks to the contribution of Allianz, in collaboration with the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome and Incontri Internazionali d'Arte.

The two young winners will have the opportunity to spend six months in residence at the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere in Rome and three months in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris . By the end of 2011, at the conclusion of the nine months of residency, MACRO will present the works that were produced by the artists during the period of residence at Pastificio Cerere.

More than ninety applications arrived from all over Italy and were evaluated by a scientific committee composed of Luca Massimo Barbero, Director of MACRO; Mario Codognato, Head Curator of the Museo MADRE, Naples; Vincenzo De Bellis, Director of Peep-Hole Project Space, Milan; Ginevra Elkann, Vice President of the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin; Graziella Lonardi Buontempo, Secretary General of Incontri Internazionali d’Arte, Rome (whose recent passing has deprived the art world of an exemplary supporter); Nunzio, artist; and Marcello Smarrelli, Artistic Director of the Fondazione Ermanno Casoli, Fabriano and of the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere.

The committee awarded the prizes to the two artists "For the rigor of their artistic research and for the complexity of the research projects that they intend to carry out during the residency period."

Specifically, the jury's motivations for selecting Adelita Husni-Bey are “For her aptitude in utilizing diverse artistic media in a transversal manner and the powerful contextual inclination of the project to be realized in Rome and Paris , which will involve the educational institutions of both cities.” Elisa Strinna was selected "For her capacity to make use of the expressive function of video utilizing a poetic and visionary approach and for the acute social and political analysis of the research project."

Adelita Husni-Bey lives and works in London , where she first studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and then at Goldsmiths College-University of London , where she recently completed an MA in Photography & Urban Cultures. In her work, Husni-Bey addresses themes such as the relation between history and personal biography, the relation between private life and collective experience, and the narrative power of images and their capacity to contain or develop a story. Her artistic practice develops through diverse expressive means, ranging from drawing to painting, from video to photography and from sculpture to installation, although all of her work betrays a painterly approach and sensibility, revealing her strong and natural propensity for the use of this visual language. Adelita Husni-Bey has participated in numerous group shows in Italy and abroad. Included among these are: Give and Take, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan (2010), (TITOLO), Where’s really?, Wallywoods Gallery , Berlin (2009), and that of the Treehouse Gallery, London (2009). In 2005 she presented her work at the Prague Biennial in the section "Expanded Paintings"; in 2006 she won the Elizabeth Pye Award and in 2008 the British Council Grant for Artists Abroad. In 2010 she participated in the Corso Superiore di Arti Visive of the Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como , with the artist Hans Haacke.

Elisa Strinna lives and works between Rome and Venice where she studied Design and Production of the Visual Arts at the IUAV. Her artistic research spans formally and conceptually diverse environments, not preferring any single technique but rather experimenting with different languages including video, photography, and installation. The most prevalent theme in her work is Time: the transitory nature of existence, memory, and traces.

Elisa Strinna has participated in diverse group shows including: Give and Take, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan (2010), Hide & Seek, Atelier Bevilacqua la Masa , Palazzo Carminati, Venice (2009), Disagi. Immagini dal Manicomio di San Servolo, Galleria San Marco, Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa , Venice (2009), and Iuav al MAXXI, MAXXI, Rome (2008). In 2009 she participated in the workshop of the Fondazione Spinola Banna for the Art of Poirino (TO) with Peter Friedl and in 2010 took part in the Corso Superiore di Arti Visive of the Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como with the artist Hans Haacke.