(Finance) – The LX Venice Biennale this year is oriented towards the discovery of the latest artistic experiments with new technologies, in line with the ever-growing interest in digital art. Among the most cutting-edge players in this sector, capable of looking to the future with enthusiasm, Var Group arrives in Venice for the first time as main partner of the exhibition event “SOLMI – Ship of Fools” by Federico Solmi. The exhibition is curated by Dorothy Kosinski, Director Emeritus of the Phillips Collection, co-curated by Renato Miracco and is created in partnership with VDA by Var Groupwith the collaboration of two of the most important American realities dedicated to contemporary art: Phillips Collection (Washington DC) and Thoma Foundation (Chicago – Santa Fe).
Grotesque, irreverent, subversive: awarded by the Guggenheim Foundation in New York, protagonist with his works in Times Square, the pioneer of media art returns to Italy with an exhibition/immersion in his artistic research. 20 years of production, between eclectic and hybrid languages told through 10 video works, 10 paintings, a work in VR, ceramic sculptures, an unprecedented holographic sculpture developed in collaboration with Var Group – the first of its kind – and a work world premiere: Ship of Fools.
Forerunner of the digital world with innovative solutions for businesses (related to art and beyond) that want to be competitive, but at the same time sustainable and technologically maturethe reality of VDA by Var Group has thus chosen to land in the lagoon, adding another important piece to its core business.
Var Digital Art is in fact at the forefront of digitalization process in Italy and acts like cultural and multidisciplinary hub between artistic and digital production to convey ideas and innovation in line with the values promoted by Var Group. With his projects he aims to bring out the relationship between Art, Digital and Business giving rise to contaminations between disciplines and professionals and thus creating a bridge between the worlds of industry, education and art.
In this sense the action carried out by Var Digital Art by Var Group is more essential than ever and is part of an always greater demand for highly specialized technical-artistic figures.
As emerges from the Nomisma research “ART, the value of industry in Italy”, carried out for the Apollo Group and with the collaboration of Intesa San Paolo, in Italy there are 32 academies and institutes of excellence, 2,200 students graduated every year and register 7.3 million euros of investments in schools and universities for the expansion of skills in the artistic field.
Typical professions involved in the art market are auction house operators, gallery owners, antique dealers, art dealers, restorers, but profound evolution of this sector thanks to the digital and technological revolution that we have been witnessing in recent years makes it natural the emergence of new artistic professions of the futurefunctional to the acquisition of a smart, broader and clearly hyper-connected audience target.
From the cultural manager to the data scientist, passing through the expert in Blockchain, AI, Virtual and Augmented Reality, and even the art producer, the art strategist, the fundraiser for art and culture, the content creator and the art advisor or digital curator: these figures will drive art into the third millennium and they need to be consciously trained in the technological and digital fields.
On the other hand, the art market is extremely dynamic and not updating itself risks being a fatal choice for the players operating within the sector: the use of digital it is the most impactful voice to date. Suffice it to say – again from the Nomisma survey – that in 2015 only for 1 in 10 companies the revenues from online sales affected the turnover by more than 10%, while in 2021 they are almost 7 in 10.
“SOLMI – Ship of Fools” is accompanied by an English-language catalog published by Gangemi Editore. The project is guided by the curatorial insights of art historians Dorothy Kosinski, Director Emeritus of the Phillips Collection, and Renato Miracco. In addition to the texts by Kosinski and Miracco, the catalog contributions by Larry Ossei-Mensah, Serena Tabacchi and Davide Sarchioni explore the relationship and impact of technology on contemporary art. The exhibition is co-organized in partnership with Var Digital Art by Var Group – which also makes use of the contribution of APC by Schneider Eletric – in collaboration with the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation which generously contributed to the construction of this project, while the support museum comes from the Phillips Collection, an outpost of contemporary art in the United States, where Federico Solmi is present with several works in the collection. The communication strategy of the exhibition is entrusted to HF4 by Marco del Bene.