The eleventh edition of the COMBAT PRIZE ended on Saturday, 31 October when the judges announced the winners. The international contemporary art competition was created by the Blob Art cultural association with the City of Livorno, and is made possible thanks to a grant from the Fondazione Livorno and the support of the publisher, Sillabe.
The judging panel - Andrea Bruciati, CAMPOBASE, Francesca Baboni, Kiki Mazzucchelli, Lorenzo Balbi, and Stefano Taddei – selected Davide Serpetti’s “The Pure and the Damned” as the winner in the Painting Section. The motivation for their decision reads: for having developed a painting technique with a fluidity that, in some ways, recalls Matisse’s compositional qualities, adding to it and successfully blending line and colour.
Honourable Mention to Francis Offman.
The winner in the Photography Section is Thilo Seidel with "DSC9910 REGARDS SANS LIMITES", for his ability to study the concept of space through a sophisticated use of photography, highlighting the contradictions between within and without, presence and absence of human activities while, at the same time questioning the perceptions of the viewers who, even when facing a known environment, find themselves experiencing a desolate and unusual context that is suspended in time.
Honourable Mention to Roberta Segata.
Stefan Milosavljevic is the winner in the Drawing Section with "Interrupted Rainbow" for having questioned the axial arrangements of drawing that are the basis of the colour band through an action that is private, intrusive, curiously organic and, for this reason, perhaps corrosive.
Honourable Mention to Giulia Dall’Olio.
The judges declared Paolo Bufalini with “Senza Titolo” as the winner of the Sculpture/Installation Section for having summarized the tensions of the relations between the human and animal worlds – a topic that is present and debated in today’s world - in a direct, ironic, and striking sculpture.
Honourable Mention to Paolo Peroni.
For the Video Section, the panel decided that the prize be shared by Giovanni Chiamenti for "Overlaid Symbiosis" and Valentino Russo with “Videograms of a revolution rip mark fisher”. The motivations as follows: to Giovanni Chiamenti for his ability to combine experimentation on format and means of viewing with reflections on human agency in an ecological perspective developing a complex, multi-focal approach that brings out the osmotic relationships among the materialities dealt with in the video. To Valentino Russo for the questions raised about capitalism: the lack of happiness only triggers a continuous desire to acquire and possess. Beauty shifts to objects that giving them an appeal that is irresistible to most. From the parlours of expensive homes, the artist presents the battle to grab the super-gadgets. Wealth and poverty become the children of the same human wretchedness.
Honourable Mention to Iocose.
As to the special awards, the “SAC spazio arte contemporanea”prize, for the creation of a site-specific project and a dedicated publication in the forthcoming 2021 SAC programme, went to Luisa Me for her markedly personal way of painting and her attention to sharp, disturbing depiction that is free of all compromises.
The under-35 winner of the ART TRACKER prize that gives the artist the opportunity to participate in the Lucca Art Fair 2020 with a new curatorial project is Agnese Spolverini, for her ability to create multisensory settings characterized by an imaginary permeated with fluidity and hybridizations that work on different levels at once to trigger ambiguous feelings.
Finally, the Poliart Award, went to Giulia Maiorano, for her innate ability to create conceptual short circuits between the object depicted and its defining meaning; for innovative creativity that makes her work intriguing, for her ease in going beyond the boundary between objectivity and metaphorical vision, and for her use of materials that render the apparently invisible visible. Poliart, the leading makers of polystyrene foam will support the production of a new work by the artist.
The “targa Paolo Ristori” award, in memory of the late member of the Associazione Culturale Blob Art, went to Marco Dolfi for “Fiori” for the coherence of his research, study of the drawing medium and for constantly having questioned his way of creating art throughout his career, thus embodying the true spirit of the Combat Prize.
Announced the 80 artists who have been shortlisted for the eleventh edition of PREMIO COMBAT PRIZE and the recommended artists list who will be published on the catalogue.
Selection held by: Kiki Mazzucchelli (independent curator, London - São Paulo), Lorenzo Balbi (director of MAMbo, Bologna), Francesca Baboni (independent curator), Andrea Bruciati (director of Villa Adriana e Villa d’Este, Tivoli), CampoBase (curatorial collective composed by Irene Angenica, Bianca Buccioli, Emanuele Carlenzi, Gabriella Dal Lago, Ginevra Ludovici, Federica Torgano, Stefano Volpato), Stefano Taddei (independent curator)
Afra17, Nicolò Bruno, Gian Marco Capraro, Francesco Casati, Giulia Coda, Oscar Isaias Contreras Rojas, Leonardo Dalla Torre, Jingge Dong, Noemi Durighello, Greta Maria Gerosa, Cesare Giuffredi, Tommaso Giusti, Arvin Golrokh, Heikedine Günther, Mirjam Hinn, Ashleigh Holmes, Kazuhiro Kita, Luca Migliorino, Luisa Me, Marco Mastropieri, Elena Monzo, Francis Offman, Silvia Paci, Laura Pedizzi, Nazzarena Poli Maramotti, Eleonora Rinaldi, Gregorio Samsa, Ersilia Sarrecchia, Davide Serpetti, Alina Vergnano
Elena Arzuffi, Giovanni Chiamenti, Margherita Citi, Iocose, Mahnaz Khanpour Motazedi, Leoni _ Mastrangelo, Christina Maj Lundqvist, Aronne Pleuteri, Regina José Galindo, Valentino Russo
PAINTING CATEGORY: Marco Abbamondi, Stefano Abbiati, Ludivine Allegue, Andy Mcfly, Luca Arbocco’, Ayuna, Gaia Bellini, Boom, Kevin Brazzi, Simone Cametti, Alessandro Casetti, Luigi Consolandi, Marco Demis, Pietro Dente, Daniela Di Lullo, Jacopo Dimastrogiovanni, Dominique Delefortrie, Bruno Florio, Vincenzo Frattini, Sofia Fresia, Federika Fumarola, Andrea Gallo, Roberto Goldoni, Raluca Illin, Jara Marzulli, Sonja Kalb, Marco La Rocca, Yannick Lambelet, Leo Ragno, Max Bi, Moritz Moll, Anafe Nemenzo, Nicsarte, Eric Pasino, Enrico Pierotti, Pl _ Pier Lanzillotta, Errika Pontevichi, Zoran Poposki, Giulia Querin, Carlo Alberto Rastelli, Filippo Rizzonelli, Chris Rocchegiani, Michael Rotondi, Charlotte Royle, Virginia Russolo, Ana Schmidt, Tina Sgro, Elena Shaposhnikova, Jerusa Simone, Lucia Simone, Michele Stagni, Tomas Tichy, Lorenzo Tonda, Ira Upin, Alessio Vaccari, Victor Vergauwen, Cveto Vidovic, Joshua Deomampo Villena, Sophie Westerlind
DRAWING CATEGORY: Michele Amato, Angelo Maisto, Gianluca Biasi, Anna Botticini, Antonella Cinelli, Carlo Colli, Marco Dolfi, Elisa Fey, Cristina Iotti, Noela Lotti, Lucas, Marco Poma, Michelangelo Setola, Luciano Sozio, Hana Usui
PHOTOGRAPHY CATEGORY: Fuad Ahmadvand, Gianluca Arienti, Alessandra Baldoni, Monica Carrera, Monica Cattani, Claudia Corrent, Alessia De Montis, Francesca Dondoglio, Carlo D’orta, Fabrizio Ceccardi, Massimiliano Gatti, Maddalena Granziera, Giacomo Infantino, Marco Lombardo, Edson Luli, Valentina Lupi, Marilisa Cosello, Silvia Noferi, Jessica Raimondi, Andrea Rapezzi, Beatrice Taponecco
SCULPTURE/INSTALLATION CATEGORY: Angelo Demitri Morandini, App, Gianluca Brando, Carmela De Falco, Guillermina De Gennaro, Antonella De Nisco, Antonella De Sarno, Gianni Depaoli, Giuseppe Di Liberto, Giovanni Gurioli, G_ Olmo Stuppia, Luca Morino E Massimo Ricciardo, Jacopo Naccarato, Stefano Comensoli_nicolo_ Colciago
VIDEO CATEGORY: Angela D’urso, Gianna T, Lupo, Tommaso Mauriello, Alia Simoncini, Flavia Tritto
