AlbumArte
AlbumArte

AlbumArte is an independent cultural and artistic production centre, non-profit Association, based in Rome, active in Italy and abroad since 2011, founded and directed by Cristina Cobianchi. In its research it favours young and emerging artists, often presenting foreign artists in Italy for the first time and Italian artists abroad. It realised the first artist residencies at Italian Cultural Institutes abroad.

After the first 10 years recounted in the publication ALL BOOM ARTE Italian Artists at AlbumArte 2011- 2020 (Quodlibet editore, 2021 – double Italian-English version), winner of the eighth edition of the Italian Council (2020), AlbumArte feels the need to combine its video art, painting, photography, sculpture, performance, sound art and digital art projects with new experiments in multimedia installations and performance dance, as well as to restart its itinerant projects, such as the first ones in Istanbul carried out from 2011 to 2014.

It has collaborated with institutions in Italy and abroad, including: The National Gallery, the MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, the Madre Museum (Naples), Il Polo del ‘900 (Turin), Palazzo Ducale (Genoa), the Galata Rum Okulu (Istanbul), the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, the Institut Français, the Lithuanian Culture Institute, the Real Academia de España, the Italian Cultural Institutes in Istanbul and Prague, the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the Mondriaan Fonds, the IILA International Italo-Latin American Organisation, the Lithuanian Council for Culture, the Istanbul Biennial, the Son Biennial (Valais Switzerland), the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Slovak Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Affairs Office of the City of Paris, the Cultural Department of Roma Capitale, the Cultural Department of the City of Rome, Fondazione Morra (Naples), the Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale (Norway), the Festivals: Torino Danza 2023, Festival Interplay 2022, Electopark 2022 and 2023.

AlbumArte first presented Lina Lapelytė in Italy in 2017, with Yes. Really! (live performance, 2015) one of the three artists of the Lithuania Pavilion, winner of the Golden Lion at the 58th Venice Biennale and the video The Column by Adrian Paci. At AlbumArte also worked Driant Zeneli in 2016 (the only artist Albania Pavilion 58th Venice Biennale) and, in 2018, AlbumArte realised an encounter – debate with Teresa Margolles, special mention at the 58th Venice Biennale. It participated with the project BARCODE by Sonia Andresano in ARKAD Manifesta 13 – Les Parallèles du Sud. Shubigi Rao, shown at AlbumArte in 2018, represented Singapore at the Venice Art Biennale in 2022. Eglė Budvytytė, shown for the first time in Italy at AlbumArte in 2017with a solo exhibition and performance at the MAXXI Museum, is present at the 59th Venice International Art Biennale entitled Il latte dei sogni, curated by Cecilia Alemani. It also presented Elisa Strinna and Sergio Racanati, the only Italian artists present at documenta 15 in Kassel (2022).

Artworks produced in its projects have entered prominent collections such as Istanbul City Hills-On the Natural History of Dispersion and States of Aggregation (2013) by Margherita Moscardini (in the MAXXI permanent collection) and Archivio (Tappeto) (2014) by Flavio Favelli in the Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Fondation collection. The film Khroniky (2015) by Lucia Nimcová and Sholto Dobie participated in numerous international festivals.

In 2014 it participated in the cultural twinning Tandem Paris-Rome; since 2015 it is part of The Independent, Museo MAXXI; in 2016, with three exhibitions, in the programme Fuori Quadriennale – 16th Quadriennale d’arte Altri tempi, altri miti; in 2017 it is invited as the only Italian entity to the European conferences of Artists at Risk in Berlin and in 2018 in Malmö. In 2019 it is included in Le organizzazioni private dell’Arte contemporanea in Italia realised by the Comitato Fondazioni Arte Contemporanea, Associazione Civita and Intesa San Paolo and from 2020 it is part of the Google Art & Culture platform.

Among the bids won are: Tandem Paris Rome -Institut Français Municipality of Rome Assessorato Cultura and Mairie de Paris (2014) Mondriaan Fonds (2017), Slovak Art Council (2015, 2017, 2018, 2021) National Arts Council Singapore (2018), i-Portunus | Creative Europe programme (2017), Italian Council (VIII edition 2020), Acción Cultural Española – AC/E (2020, 2021), Etxepare Euskal Institutua (2020), Regione Lazio (2021), Lazio Crea / Regione Lazio (2021), Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation (2021 and 2022).

AlbumArte produces videos and documentaries and carries out a programme of debates and confrontations on major issues in culture, art and contemporary society, such as Donne (non più) anonime – Confronto sul femminicidio (since 2016), with which it drafted the first Code of Ethics of the Art Community against Violence against Women (25 March 2023).

AlbumArte is also involved in training by involving trainees from among the students of major universities and art academies, to whom it provides training credits, with the aim of forging links with the professionals of tomorrow, educating them and being rewarded with enthusiasm and new insights.

AlbumArte has published books and catalogues and served on commissions for international prizes and competitions.

All AlbumArte projects are open to the public for free.