On November 2, 2024, on the occasion of Artissima 31st edition, the Tosetti Value Photography Award has been assigned to Rossella Biscotti.
Artissima reconfirms itself among the most significant international events for contemporary art. The 31st edition, the 3rd directed by Luigi Fassi, ended with an attendance of 34,200 and brought to Turin an art proposal and a system of international relations of excellence.
The fifth edition of the Tosetti Value Prize for Photography, supported by Tosetti Value – The Family office and established in 2020, to investigate the relationship between art and economics by expanding the current comprehension of reality, took place in this atmosphere of great enthusiasm. The jury, composed by Lucrezia Cippitelli, Co-Director contemporary art programme, Kunst Meran, Merano; Walter Guadagnini, Director, Camera – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Torino; Lorenzo Vitturi, Artist, identified in Rossella Biscotti, presented by Mor Charpentier in Paris, the winner of the 2024 edition.
“The piece unanimously selected by the jury is the only existing image of the culminating moment of the project The Journey, on which the artist has worked over a long time span. The Journey stems from the prize received in 2010 at the International Carrara Biennale, consisting of a large block of marble taken from the Cava Michelangelo, the quarry utilized in the Renaissance, while the artist was working on the Mediterranean as a cultural, geopolitical and physical space, starting from her research at Lampedusa.
Over the years, continuing her focus on the Mediterranean, Rossella Biscotti decided to program a performative action in which a ship would travel the sea to find the perfect spot at which to allow the block of stone to slide into the water and settle on the seabed. The image captures the moment in which after months of navigation the 20-ton block was released, slipping off the deck of the ship at the point in which the African tectonic plate touches that of Europe. The artist has made The Journey by weaving a complex web of stories, relationships, alliances and geopolitical meanings, taking form in a series of multidisciplinary elements producing a sound installation, images, sculptures, an experimental film and performance. The work presented at Artissima, the only shot of this culminating moment, impressed the jurors with its intensity, the stratification of political, economic and historical viewpoints, and the capacity to prompt viewers to make their own critical assessment. The Mediterranean, from its geological physicality to its reality as a territory crossed by routes of migration, repression, as well as exploitation of marine resources, is the theatre of a poetic gesture in which the image politically encounters the performative dimension”.
The Award is in close relationship with “Perspectives. The Economy of Images,” a platform focused on contemporary photography established in 2014 and curated by Tosetti Value for Art with the aim of promoting debates and reflections on our globalized world through exhibitions and talks in synergy with the Family office’s macroeconomic research. The winning artist, in addition to a cash award, has the opportunity to develop a project in collaboration with Tosetti Value. The project leads to the acquisition of a work for the Family office Corporate Collection.
The first edition of the Tosetti Value Photography Award was assigned to Raed Yassin, presented by the gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai; the second was won by Fatma Bucak, presented by the gallery Peola Simondi, Turin; Oroma Elewa, presented by the gallery In Situ – Fabienne Leclerc, Paris, is the winner of the third edition; Kiluanji Kia Henda, presented by gallery Fonti, Naples, is the winner of the fourth edition.
Photo courtesy: © Perottino-Piva-Peirone / Artissima
