Internatioanl Art Grant 2017

Queens Museum / Stephanie Berger

This year, for the second time the Foundation of Arts & Music for Dresden awards the „International Art Grant“. An independent jury chose Marinella Senatore, who was born in Cava de‘Tirreni, Italy, in 1977 and is currently living in Paris, from among five submitted artist proposals. Marinella Senatore works with diverse media, such as performance, film, video, photography, sound, installation, drawing, and collage. Her art focuses on the process of formation, following a strictly participatory approach. She deliberately breaks with the traditional differentiation of artist and observer and her works often involve many people with diverse backgrounds. She is mainly interested in the interaction during the process of art production, less so in the final art work. Thus, she challenges the very idea of a single, original artist. In collaboration, she seeks to foster new dynamics for movements and emotions, thoughts and ideas that may generate a different kind of social consciousness and override long established hierarchical structures.

Marinella Senatore realized such participatory and internationally acknowledged productions for example in Madrid (Speak Easy, 2009), Enna, Italy (Nui Simu, 2010), Berlin, Derby and Madrid (Rosas, 2012) and Modica, Italy (Modica Street Musical, 2016). In 2013, she founded the "School of Narrative Dance", joining people in different countries through informal education, non-hierarchical learning, and story-telling in order to foster active social power.

„We firmly believe that Marinella Senatore will pose provocative questions and new challenging artistic views, especially in a traditional art city like Dresden “, asserts Prof. Dr. Christoph Grunenberg, chairman of the jury. „With Marinella Senatore, we invite an internationally active, prominent young artist to live and work in Dresden. We hope that our grant can thus help to initiate some truly moving artistic processes in Dresden.“

Marinella Senatore is looking foward to her residency in Dresden: “Trained in music, fine arts and film, my practice is characterized by public participation, rethinking the role of the artist as author and the public as recipient, merging learning theatre, oral histories, vernacular forms, public ceremonies, reflecting on the political nature of collective formations and their impact on the social history of places and communities. My performances, paintings, installations and videos are focused on “social themes and urban issues” such as emancipation and equality, social structures, systems of aggregation, always working collaboratively and creating new possibilities for public involvement. Due to the very site-specific component of my practice, for the residence period in Dresden it will be crucial to meet the local community, investigating possibilities of engagement: definitely a great opportunity for sharing and improving.”

Starting in August 2017, Marinella Senatore will live and work in Dresden for a period of six months. The foundation awards a monthly stipend, an apartment, and a free work space in the art studio „geh8“. Thus, the artist will be able to be part of the lively local art scene. The grant includes a public presentation of the art works created during the residency. The presentation will be realized in cooperation between the foundation, the artist, and partners such as museums, galleries, and/or other initiatives in Dresden.

The yearly alternating art grants of the foundation, one for music and one for fine arts, seek to invite independet artistic perspectives and to promote the international outreach of Dresden as a city of contemporary art. Biyearly, the foundation addresses artists whose work has already been noted on an international scale to apply for the International Art Grant. The grant is dedicated to fostering creative processes and to developing new, innovative ideas and artwork in Dresden. In 2015, the first International Art Grant invited the Spanish artist Fernando Sánchez Castillo to Dresden. In 2016, Maximilian Schnaus, a composer and organist from Berlin, came to Dresden with the International Music Grant.

The non-profit Foundation of Arts and Music for Dresden was established by the city of Dresden in 2012 in order to serve the common good as a non-partisan supporter of music, artistic and cultural education as well as contemporary arts. Its objective is to strengthen Dresden’s international recognition as a hub of arts and culture. The foundation pools active citizenship and is home to an international network supporting arts and music in Dresden. 

The jury for the International Art Grant 2017:

  • Prof. Dr. Marion Ackermann, General Director of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (State Art Collections Dresden)

  • Dr. Hedda im Brahm-Droege, Member of the executive board of the Association of Friends of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V.

  • Prof. Dr. Christoph Grunenberg, Director of Kunsthalle Bremen (Chairman of the jury)

  • Ralf Lehmann, gallery owner, Dresden

  • Martin Rieckmann, Chairman of the board of trustees of the foundation

https://marinella-senatore.com/

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