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Young Curators Residency Programme
Every year since 2007 Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo promotes the Young Curators Residency Programme Torino. The project aims to support emerging curatorial practice while spreading knowledge of the Italian art scene on an international level.
Young Curators Residency Programme 2015 Coordinated by Lorenzo Balbi
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy September 10 – October 11, 2015
The man who sat on himself
Since you were a child you’ve been constructing your own reality. You collected fragments of the world, built castles from sand and played out the stories from your imagination.
The older you got, the weaker your grip on fantasy became, and the tiny thread that tethered your dreams to your hands became frail and perhaps disappeared.
Today you are reminded of the concrete reality of life at every impasse. You see it most clearly in the built environment, in infrastructure, in habitations, and in the chairs in which you sit. The physical world coerces and corrals. By touch and instruction, it teaches you how to be in the world, how to act, and what shape to take. It is the fodder of fantasy but also the structure to which your reality is anchored. Each of the artists in this exhibition have found ways to circumvent the iron pillars of reality, by becoming the architects of their own mythologies.
Riccardo Arena traces the epic journey of a mystery enigma across the landscape of his metaphysical environment, while Matilde Cassani pulls the ceiling down to the floor in tendrils and tendons that conceal and connect. Throughout the space Tomaso De Luca’s choreographed arrangement of panels play with the absence of a single protagonist.
In remembrance, a flickering light bulb speaks of the inventions and misadventures of Riccardo Giacconi’s great-grandfather. As a means of interpreting and reconfiguring the artists’ ideas, Matteo Stocco re-imagines the exhibition through visualising alternative spectres of space, creating a potentially infinite sequence of digital possibilities.
Curators
Zsuzsanna Stánitz
Zsuzsanna Stánitz (Hungary, 1988) is a curator with extensive experience across contemporary art, photography, architecture, science and technology. She holds an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London, and an MA in Communication and Media Theory from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Her expertise encompasses exhibition-making, public programming, artist commissions, residencies, provenance research, collection management and digital humanities. She has worked on interdisciplinary projects with institutions including Ludwig Museum Budapest, Calvert 22 London, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Turin, Kranich Museum and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). She is currently Curator and Gallery Manager at Leica Gallery Heidelberg, where she develops photography exhibitions and hosts a podcast with guests from the international photography scene. Alongside her curatorial practice, she is pursuing a research project examining how European art institutions engage with AI, focusing on its integration into programming and institutional policy, and on the cultural and social responsibilities emerging from these developments. A particular area of interest in her practice is the role of arts exposure in early childhood development, and how meaningful encounters with art can foster curiosity, creativity, critical thinking and social awareness from an early age.
Kate Strain
Kate Strain (Dublin, 1983) pursues a curatorial practice through event and exhibition making. Currently Acting Curator at Project Arts Centre, Dublin (Ireland), Strain has worked both independently and in an institutional capacity in Ireland and internationally. In 2014 she completed de Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam. Strain holds an MA in Visual Arts Practice from IADT Dun Laoghaire, and a BA in History, and the History of Art and Architecture from Trinity College Dublin. Recent exhibitions include The Centre For Dying On Stage #1, a group exhibition and expanded public programme at Project Arts Centre, Dublin; Father, Can’t You See I’m Burning? co-curated by participants of de Appel Curatorial Programme, de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam; and Tonight, you can call me Trish, co-curated with Rachael Gilbourne under the aegis of their joint curatorial practice RGKSKSRG, at the LAB, Dublin (as part of Dublin City Council Emerging Curator Award 2014). On-going and upcoming projects include On Curating Histories – a research-based generative lecture series supported by an Arts Council Project Award, the first public iteration of which will unfold in 2015 at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin (as part of MA Art in the Contemporary World); Performance as Process – a short curatorial residency at Delfina Foundation, London; and a 9-month residency at studio 468 (Common Ground, Dublin) set to culminate in a solo exhibition with Irish artist Emma Haugh at NCAD Gallery (curated by RGKSKSRG).
Angelica Sule
Angelica Sule (UK, 1984) is a curator based in London, whose practice focuses the use of performance and sound as object in exhibition making. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2014, and she has previously worked at the University of the Arts London and Gallery Primo Alonso, London. Her recent projects include: Nail’d It (Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK, 2014); ECHO Radio (RCA, London, 2014); … all silent but for the buzzing … (RCA, London, 2014); A Limited Engagement: Performance Series (UAL, London, 2012; A Thousand Years: Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil (UAL, London, 2014).
Coordinator
Lorenzo Balbi
Lorenzo Balbi (Turin, 1982) is the current Director of the Verona Museums. He graduated from Ca’ Foscari University, Venice with a BA in Fine Arts and Preservation of Cultural Heritage and from the University of Turin with an MA in Contemporary Art History. He was artistic director at Verso Artecontemporanea Gallery, Turin, an exhibition space devoted to research on emerging artists from South-East Asia. He was part of the board of Nesxt, Independent Art Festival, curator of the Live Program for DAMA, the new experimental fair for emerging international galleries, and curator of the Pomilio Blumm Prize, a prize for contemporary artists promoted in collaboration with Magnolia and Sky Arte HD. From 2006 to 2017 at the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in Turin, he taught Curatorial Methodology at CAMPO, a course for curators, and was involved in the organization and development of exhibition projects in the institution’s spaces in Turin and Guarene d’Alba, as well as the exhibition programs of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection abroad. He followed the project Residency for Young Foreign Curators as assistant curator in 2009 (coordinator Ilaria Bonacossa), in 2011 and 2012 (coordinator Stefano Collicelli Cagol), until becoming the coordinator for three editions from 2015 to 2017. In 2018, he assumed the artistic direction of ART CITY Bologna, a series of exhibition events in the city promoted on the occasion of Arte Fiera. Professor of Art Systems at the DAMS of the University of Bologna, he is a member of the board of directors of AMACI – Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums and of the coordination of the Italian Contemporary Art Forum. From 2017 to 2026, he was the artistic director of MAMbo – Museum of Modern Art of Bologna and he took on the role of Head of the Modern and Contemporary Art Department of the Bologna Museums Institution, to which he is attached, in addition to MAMbo, Villa delle Rose, Museo Morandi, Casa Morandi, Museo per la Memoria di Ustica and Residenza per artisti Sandra Natali. His texts and articles were published by several publications and magazines, including: Il Giornale dell’Arte, Inside Art, Artribune, Mousse, La Stampa, Exibart, ATP Diary, Il Giornale dell’Architettura.
Artists
- Riccardo Arena
Riccardo Arena is an artist, teacher, and researcher. His practice is dedicated to crafting evocative environments that, by combining conceptual and visual research, are conceived as cultural devices for imaginative knowledge. Installations, films, narratives, and workshops intertwine in a constellation of expressive languages aimed at contemplating, within the accidental, the universal components that bind stories, cultures, and myths from distant times and geographies. After developing projects in China (Four Times a Tree, 2006– 2008), in Argentina (Ellero’s Dual Death and the Visual Ecosystem, 2009–2012), in Russia (Vavilon, 2013–2017), and LuDD! – Topography of Light (2017–2020), based on the novel of the same name written by the artist following a series of journeys through Iran, Armenia, and Ethiopia, since 2022 he has been engaged in the project Geranos. The latter is the outcome of a research collaboration with Monte Verità, the Eranos Foundation, the Anthropological Museum of Mexico City, and the Warburg Institute in London. Since 2025, he is currently a PhD researcher at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts.
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VAVILON, 2015
Video
Courtesy of Maurizio Elia - Matilde Cassani
Matilde Cassani, founder of Matilde Cassani Studio, operates in the space between architecture, installation, and event design. Her work stems from the spatial implications of cultural pluralism and everyday rituals. Her projects have been exhibited at numerous institutions and events, including the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Oslo Triennale, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Manifesta 12, and the Triennale di Milano, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Cassani has taught at various European universities, including the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam, Syracuse Architecture in Florence, and the Architectural Association (AA) in London. She is currently an associate professor at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. Her work is held in the collections of several museums, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, MAXXI, and the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. She recenlty designed the exhibition display for Collection as Kosmos, featuring the permanent collection of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (2026).
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WELCOME, 2015
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of Maurizio Elia - Tomaso De Luca
Tomaso De Luca (1988), lives and works in Berlin. His work has been exhibited in multiple international institutions, such as Künstlerhaus Bremen; Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro; CAC Vilnius; SongEun Art Space, Seoul; Pori Art Museum; IIC Paris; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; and MAXXI, Rome. Screenings of his video works were held at IIC Oslo; MAAT, Lisbon; e-flux, New York; Palazzo Grassi, Venice; Cinemateca MAM, Rio de Janeiro; Istituto Svizzero, Rome. He was a guest lecturer at La Sapienza University, Rome; Scuola Normale di Pisa; Universität Stuttgart; and Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam. He took part in Fantasmagoriana, LIAF 2022, the Lofoten Biennial, Norway; and FUORI!, Quadriennale di Roma 2020. In 2017 he was Cy Twombly Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and the Spring 2026 resident at Amant Studio & Research Residency Program in New York. In 2020 his work A Week’s Notice was the recipient of the prestigious MAXXI Bulgari Prize.
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Behind the Curtain, I am the Curtain, 2015
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of Maurizio Elia - Riccardo Giacconi
Riccardo Giacconi was born in 1985, San Severino Marche, Macerata, Italy. Giacconi studied fine arts at IUAV University in Venice and earned a PhD from Leiden University. His work has been exhibited in various institutions, such as Grazer Kunstverein (Graz), ar/ge kunst (Bolzano), MAC (Belfast), WUK Kunsthalle Exnergasse (Vienna), FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (Reims), tranzitdisplay (Prague), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin). He was artist-in-residence at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne, Switzerland), Centre international d’art et du paysage (Vassivière, France), lugar a dudas (Cali, Colombia), MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome and Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen (Innsbruck, Austria). He presented his films at several festivals, including the New York Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Visions du Réel and FID Marseille, where he won the Grand Prix of the International Competition in 2015. He co-founded the collective listening festival Helicotrema and the audio storytelling studio Botafuego. From 2024 to 2027, he is a fellow at the Film Study Center at Harvard University. He is Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston.
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Controvena, 2015
Courtesy of Maurizio Elia - Matteo Stocco
Matteo Stocco was born in 1986 in Venezia, Italy, where he lives and works.
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Showthesizer, 2015
Website design: splash screen
Jury
Stefan Kalmár
Stefan Kalmár (1970) is the current director and curator of Artists Space, New York, where he has also been the executive director since 2009. He has held previous positions as director of Kunstverein München, director of the Institute of Visual Culture, Cambridge (UK) and curator of Cubitt Gallery, London. He took part as member of jury at the Turner Prize 2014. Exhibitions he has curated include The Secret Public, The last days of the British Underground 1978-1988, Institute for Contemporary Art, London (2007); Oh Girl It Is a Boy, Kunstverein München (2007); Tranzit, Bratislava (2007); I Really Should…, Lisson Gallery, London (2005); and Cognition Control: From the Archive of Stephen Willats, Institute of Visual Culture, Cambridge (2002). He is also co-editor of Be Nice, Share Everything, Have Fun (Verlag der Buchhanlung Walter König, Köln, 2009 ) which is a survey of the four previous years of exhibitions at the Kunstverein Munich.
Beatrix Ruf
Beatrix Ruf (Germany, 1960) is currently the Artistic Director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and she was appointed Director/Curator of the Kunsthalle Zürich in 2001. Previously, she had been Director/Curator of the Kunsthaus Glarus, and curator at the Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Warth (Switzerland) between 1994 and 1998. Since 1995 she has been Curator of the Ringier Collection. She has organised exhibitions, written essays and published catalogues on artists such as Jenny Holzer, Marina Abramovic, Peter Land, Liam Gillick, Urs Fischer, Emmanuelle Antille, Angela Bulloch, Ugo Rondinone, Richard Prince, Keith Tyson, Elmgreen & Dragset, Monica Bonvicini, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Pierre Huyghe/Philippe Parreno: No Ghost just a Shell, Rodney Graham, Isa Genzken, Doug Aitken, Wilhelm Sasnal, de Rijke/de Rooij, Rebecca Warren, Carol Bove, Oliver Payne & Nick Relph, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Sean Landers and many others. Among her last exhibitions, she curated the solo show Avery Singer, Pictures Punish Words, at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino (Italy) in 2015.
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