Past Residents Alessandro Facente
Alessandro Facente (Anzio, Italy, 1982) is an art critic and independent curator. Facente holds an M.A. in Art History and Contemporary Art from La Sapienza University in Rome. His research focuses on the crossover and interplay of art criticism and curatorship by following the artist’s practice from the concept to the final creation of the piece of art. Since 2011, he has been curating the artist residency program Atla(s)now in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. Facente has curated solo and group exhibitions in unconventional and non-profit spaces, foundations, galleries and museums. These include the 5th Marrakech Biennale, Casa Bossi in Novara, Residency Unlimited and Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space/Artists Alliance in New York. Between 2014 and 2015 Facente was the curator of the 10th edition of the Furla Art Award, Special Projects Curator at NARS Foundation in New York and curatorial committee for the Peekskill Project6 by HVCCA (Hudson Valley Contemporary Art Center) in Peekskill, NY. His articles, interviews and essays have appeared in art magazines such as Artribune, DROME magazine, Exibart, LaDifferenza and DOMUS.
CURATORIAL APPROACH
Alessandro Facente’s research is focused on the crossover and interplay of art criticism and curatorship by following the artist’s practice from the concept to the final creation of the piece of art. Currently Facente is shaping this mechanism of artist-curator relationship and dynamic through a concept that he named CURATICISM, an ongoing attitude of curating in which the curator’s role is played as observer and witness to the artist’s way of making a piece of art. CURATICISM identifies several activities that, although shaped each time in different forms, have the goal to explore the current status of the embedded curator, a long-form voice deep seated in the artist’s practice.
THE SUOMENLINNA EPISODE – The GAM#5 [curaticism]
During his stay at HIAP, Alessandro Facente will be pursuing his research The GAM [curaticism] by actively engaging with both local and the HIAP artists in residence, following their practices closely. The outcomes of his residency will manifest in the form of daily studio visits, writing, interviews, seminars, and conversations with artists, as well as with HIAP curator Jenni Nurmenniemi.
In addition to these, 1 Spoken Words Exhibition (panel discussion) named The Suomenlinna episode – The GAM#5 [curaticism] between Facente, selected local artists and curator Jenni Nurmenniemi will be organized and opened to the public at the HIAP exhibition space in the Suomenlinna island towards the end of his residency.
The Suomenlinna episode – The GAM#5 [curaticism] is the fifth chapter of this series but the very first curated in Europe. It will focus on the identity of Finland in general and Helsinki in particular through an observation of the local art production both artistic and curatorial, with the aim to debate how this production is enriching the local scenario, its spaces and communities.
THE GAM [curaticism]
Borrowing the title from the 53rd chapter of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick – in which GAM is meant as “A social meeting of two whale-ships” – The GAM is a series of Spoken Words Exhibitions about the artist’s role in shifting and sharing concepts between different places, with the aim to analyze and debate how their practice enriches the vision and knowledge of a given scenario. This series of spoken words exhibitions are structured in such a way as to ask the artists to dig deep about ways their ideas are born and solidified, putting their experiences, as artists who come from different countries, into words for an audience.
Different curators are involved each time as external points of view on issues addressed by the artists during these public sessions.
The GAM is part of the large-scale project CURATICISM, an ongoing attitude of curating in which the curator’s role is played as observer and witness of the artist’s way of making a piece of art, i.e. from the concept to the final creation. Born and developed in New York in 2014 by the curator Alessandro Facente, CURATICISM identifies several activities that, although shaped each time in different forms, have the goal to explore the current status of the embedded curator, a long-form voice deep seated in the artist’s practice, whose work is deeply linked to the artist’s gesture and its evolution over time.
THE SUOMENLINNA EPISODE – The GAM#5 [curaticism] is supported by HIAP Programme and GAI/DE.MO./Movin’Up
http://www.narsfoundation.org/2014events/2015/8/27/curaticism-the-gam-1
http://www.narsfoundation.org/past-events-2015/2015/7/7/curaticism-the-gam-2
http://www.narsfoundation.org/past-events-2015/2015/7/6/curaticism-the-gam-3
http://www.narsfoundation.org/upcoming/2015/9/11/curaticism-the-gam-4
Con il sostegno del progetto DE.MO./MOVIN’UP II sessione 2015 A CURA DI Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo
Direzione Generale Arte e Architettura Contemporanee e Periferie Urbane Direzione Generale Spettacolo
E GAI – Associazione per il Circuito dei Giovani Artisti Italiani
Withe the support of the project DE.MO./MOVIN’UP II session 2015 promoted by Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism
General Directorate for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Suburbs
General Directorate for Performing Arts
And GAI – Association for the Circuit of the YoungItalian Artists