Funding for Isola

Fundraising for a publishing project devoted to the visions and experience of the Isola Art Center in Milan: this is the objective of “Funding for Isola”, the fourth stage of “Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration”, curated by Julia Draganović and Federica Patti, atGalleria Bianconi in Milan (20 September 2012 – 12 January 2013). Much more than just an exhibition, “Funding for Isola” introduces an innovative experimental formula, which starts out from the concept of collaboration – the underlying theme of “Click or Clash?” – in order to investigate new forms of cultural, social and economic sustainability.

The idea comes from an encounter between the LaRete Art Projectscuratorial collective and Isola Art Center, which has made contemporary-culture history in Milan, investigating and creating art in relation to the urban-planning, political and social needs of city space.

This is the reason for the involvement of Galleria Bianconi, which is putting ever greater effort into this experimental challenge. The project comes on the heels of its artistic and curatorial collaboration in the first three episodes of the first “Click or Clash? Strategie di collaborazione” cycle curated by Julia Draganović, which came to an end in the spring of 2012.

Starting out from a not-for-profit project, from a curatorial collectiveand from the gallery itself, the joint venture has expanded out to a vast group of Italian and international artists, who are involved in donating the works on show, and to the public, who are called upon to play an active role in various ways to achieve a shared objective. With the proceeds from the sale of the works on show and by setting up a huge fundraising network, they will work together to issue a publication that, through words and images, will relate the socio-cultural and urban-planning ideas of the members and of those who have worked on the Isola Art Center project, while also keeping track of the history of the Isola. The initiative complements the partnership between institutions supporting the publishing project. These include the Casino Luxembourg, the Fonds culturel national in Luxembourg, the Foundation for Arts Initiatives in New York, Frigoriferi Milanesi, Mamco in Geneva, Mudam in Luxembourg and the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven. Without confusing their roles but making them interact in an innovative manner, “Funding for Isola” thus involves a varied group of players who are experimenting with new forms of sustainability, bringing about responsible participation in order to achieve a collective result.

Visitors to the exhibition can see and purchase not only an initial corpus of works donated to Isola by artists who have personally been part of the project, but also works donated by international artists who are already responding with great determination to the call from “Funding for Isola”. 

The works will be shown on a rotating basis, in a series of displays that will change over time in the central area of the Gallery, while the other rooms will tell a documentary story and act as an authentic “deposit” area, where the works collected will remain on view throughout the entire exhibition period.

As well as a series of fundraising initiatives, including performances, presentations and special events, which will be put on during the entire course of the exhibition, participation will also continue online with international crowdfunding strategies, made possible by the Kickstarter platform.

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PERIOD: 20th September 2012 – 13th January 2013

CITY: Milan

NATION: IT

ADDRESS: Bianconi Gallery, via Lecco 20

WEB:

www.galleriabianconi.com