With the announcement of the winners, the fourteenth edition of the PREMIO COMBAT, an international contemporary art competition conceived by the Cultural Association Blob Art ETS, in co-partnership with the City of Livorno, with the support of the Fondazione di Livorno and the publishing house Sillabe together with partner Opera Laboratori, as well as Poliart, a company a leading manufacturer of expanded polystyrene, ended on Saturday, July 8.
The jury, composed of Ilaria Gianni, Francesca Baboni, Lorenzo Balbi, Andrea Bruciati, Davide Ferri, Stefano Taddei, chose as the winner of the Combat Prize, worth ten thousand euros, Giovanni Chiamenti with the work Πλαστιλεῖμμα, with the following motivation: "The confrontation on interspecism and the need for an ecological and sustainable turn animate the global debate. For having been able to condense in a work of great aesthetic impact and formal finesse even in the choice of the elegant exhibition display, contemporary and urgent issues such as sustainability, the disposal of microplastics, marine ecosystems, and research on these important materials, making a technically complex and daring sculpture."
For the Painting section, the jury awarded the prize to Giulia Mangoni with the work Garigliano sogna Ecuador, with the following motivation:" Giulia Mangoni's painting is emblematic of a research on the place that the artist has been developing for some time, a place that she reinvents by bringing together in a single image distant and distant landscapes and giving life to a score of flat backgrounds and marks, vaguely Matisse-like, that cancels depths and distances, of tones and colors that recall a dimension of lush exoticism."
Special mention of the jury to Simone Rutigliano.
For the Photography section, the jury declared Vaste Programme the winner with the work Le nostre radici, with the following motivation: "Our roots" is a project that listens to and interprets in an ironic-critical way an urgency of the 21st century, constructing a narrative on the theme of climate change. The work is an example of how photography, breaking out of its formal limitations, grafting itself with different visual systems, signs, and symbols, manages to become a body of experience that embraces relationships, spaces, and senses, acting on our civic and political awareness."
Special mention of the jury to Jacopo Valentini.
For the Graphics section, the jury awarded Marco Mandorlini with the work Bruciare la Mosca with the following motivation: "Constructing a different visual narrative in an iconosphere now immersed in the technological is in itself a noteworthy operation, but to add in the work something with an ancient flavor, expressed through a craft technique with poor materials but high density poetic is something that deserves then extreme attention."
Special mention of the jury to Michele Savino.
The jury declared winner for the Sculpture/Installation section, Alexsandar Petkov, with the work 200x35 cm, with the following motivation: "Aleksander Petkov's work stands out for its presence seemingly composed and resigned, but capable of intensely evoking the processuality that generated it, in which the design of the form arises from the encounter of materials that are activated and relaunch each other. The work seems to be traversed by a force that pushes it upward, toward an ideal height that coincides with that of his studio - two meters and thirty-five centimeters."
Special mention of the jury to Francesca Bertazzoni.
Finally, for the Video section, the jury awarded the prize to Sabrina Zanolini with the work Job Interview (Waiting room / Wall sit session), with the following motivation: "For the ability to catalyze in a few minutes and in a virtuous way the attention on the relationship between body, space and time. Taking the pretext of a physical relaxation exercise to play on the logic of conditioning, the artist manages to engulf a tension that helps demystify the emotional impact of waiting.
Special mention of the jury to Luca Granato.
The awarding of the Gallery Prize, a special prize born from the new collaboration with the following six leading contemporary galleries and the independent space SAC spazio arte contemporary art in Livorno, consists of the realization of an exhibition project in their spaces in the 2023/4 season, thus giving continuity to the confrontation opened during the participation in the Prize: A+B gallery in Brescia has selected as its winners Francesca Bertazzoni e Simone Rutigliano
The Romanian gallery IAGA Contemporary Art, based in Cluj, awarded Michele Savino Studio G7 gallery in Bologna has awarded the prize to James Hillman·
Borgo Lunetta 11 gallery in Cuneo, Italy, named Giulia Mangoni the winner For the Magazzeno gallery in Ravenna, the winner is Giovanni Chiamenti Venetian gallery Marina Bastianello Gallery awarded the prize to Sabrina Zanolini Finally, the independent SAC contemporary art space in Livorno Silvia Gelli Gelli as the winner. Poliart prize is awarded to James Hillman. The Poliart company, a leader in polystyrene foam, will support the production of a new work by the artist.
Finally, the Popular Jury Prize, awarded based on the preferences expressed by the participating public participants, is awarded to Gemma Mazzotti with the work Burning stars - have fun.