VI EDITION
FRANCO CUOMO INTERNATIONAL AWARD
AWARDED IN THE ARTS SECTION 2019 Michelangelo Galliani
THE CEREMONY WILL TAKE PLACE ON DECEMBER THE 4TH AT PALAZZO GIUSTINIANI IN ROME
Michelangelo Galliani, holder of the chair of Marble Techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts of Urbino, is the winner of the Franco Cuomo International Award 2019.
Michelangelo Galliani treats sculpture almost like a design project and he works in a unique way by shaping shapes of extraordinary modernity from marble and lead. His creative experience refers, first of all, to an artistic-aesthetic ideal that incorporates the relationship with the art of the past, source of continuous inspiration, but also the anthropological, historical and existential sense of the presence of man and his destiny in the world.
His artistic and vital energy is expressed, therefore, in an art form based on a plastic-symbolic dynamic, of a figural structure, which projects itself on the side of metamorphosis and of organic transformation, caught in its angles, foreshortenings and visual bias: all expressions of his sensitivity toward the modern world and its problems, the result of the stratifications of time and history.
"It is an honor - says Michelangelo Galliani - to receive the Franco Cuomo International Award. An artist is always torn between the desire to receive recognition for his work and the conviction that, however, the awards do not constitute a point of arrival, but the stimulus for new researches. And then, the discomfort of never really considering yourself up to par. Until now, until this award that arrives so unexpected, but that I consider really important. He arrived thanks to a nomination of which I was not aware, which passed the tests - even difficult ones - of such intense competition. And therefore, a strange feeling: pride, but also the conviction of having to do so much more to deserve it ... ».
The award ceremony will be held on Wednesday the 4th of December 2019 in Palazzo Giustiniani in Rome. The Senator Assuntela Messina, Secretary of the 13th Standing Committee (Territory, environment, environmental assets) and member of the Extraordinary Commission for the protection and promotion of human rights, will be the introductory speaker. The event will be presented by the journalist Giampiero Marrazzo.
Another prize in the Arts section was awarded to the painter Tito Rossini. Two Career Awards have been awarded to the writer Dacia Maraini for Literature and to Giuseppe Marra, editor of the GMC Adnkronos Group, for Journalism, and a special international award to the former UNESCO General Director Federico Mayor Zaragoza. And additional awards to other important intellectuals, who represent excellence in the fields of journalism and non-fiction, literature and art: the deputy director of the Corriere della Sera and director of Magazine 7, Barbara Stefanelli, the writer Chiara Gamberale, the entrepreneur Brunello Cucinelli, the historians Andrea Graziosi and Giovanni Mario Ceci, the actor and director Corrado D'Elia, the actor Felice Panico, the orchestra conductor Gianna Fratta. A special award to the artist Luca Maria Patella. Giuseppe Ricci, Eni Chief Refining & Marketing Officer for the environmental sustainability activities carried out by the ENI group, the missionary and doctor Fra Fiorenzo Priuli, the Carano 4 Children Foundation committed to helping children in need and Claudio Manzo for his solidarity initiative in support of the families of the small children hospitalized at the Bambino Gesù Hospital.
Born in Montecchio Emilia (RE) in 1975, Michelangelo Galliani graduated from the Carrara Academy of Fine Arts. In the second half of the Nineties he inaugurated an intense exhibition activity that led him to present his works in Italy and abroad. Among the recent solo exhibitions we highlight: "Marmo solo vol. 2 "(Giovanni Bonelli Gallery, Milan, 2015)," La Matrice dell'Inganno "(Roomberg project space, Latina, 2016)," Di luce d'oro "(Galerie Isabelle Lesmeister, Regensburg, 2017)," Icons "( Galleria Il Pomo from DaMo, Imola, 2017), "The Stone Age" (Contini artUK Gallery, London, 2017), "Tree" (Roma Tre University, Rome, 2018, works on permanent display), "Rebvs vitae" (Green house , La Versiliana, Pietrasanta, 2018), "La Via D'Oro" (Contemporary Art Gallery, Palazzo Ducale, Pavullo nel Frignano, 2019), "Sensitive Surfaces" (Contini Contemporary, London, 2019). Since 2017 he is represented by the Contini Contemporary Gallery in London. Since 2008 he has held the chair of Marble Techniques and Hard Stone at the Urbino Academy of Fine Arts.
The Franco Cuomo International Award, born in 2014 and chaired by Velia Iacovino and Alberto Cuomo, is the prize named after the writer, journalist and playwright who died in 2007; a recognition that aims to enhance new forms of cultural, social and human expression in the sign of Cuomo's work, a sensitive and refined intellectual who knew how to analyze human action and the world from multiple points of view and who told his time through the chronicle, the history, his novels and his theater plays. The initiative, which has the patronage of the ECPD, the European Center for Peace and Development-UN Peace University, aims to stimulate national and international debate on major social issues, rewarding those who are among the protagonists of our time and they have distinguished themselves in literature, journalism and non-fiction, in theater and arts, but also in other important sections of our society. The main sponsor of the 'Franco Cuomo International Award' is "Il Meglio della Puglia", the first Association of Capitanata (Province of Foggia) which aims to enhance and spread the excellence of the territory. The award is made up of a prestigious international jury, led by the Hispanic and art critic Otello Lottini, and which includes Paolo Acanfora, professor of contemporary history at the Iulm in Milan Samir; Al Qaryouti, journalist, dean of the foreign press, columnist for France24; Emilia Costantini, journalist of the Corriere della Sera, theater critic and writer; Maria Pia Fiorentino, journalist and director of the Eternal Ulysses; Piero Gambale, PhD in comparative public law and parliamentary official; Piotr Salwa, director of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Rome, former professor of Italian literature at the University of Warsaw; Maurizio Scaparro, film director.
Biographical notes Franco Cuomo
«... I wanted to write intensely; I was a journalist but it wasn't enough»
From the theatrical beginnings with Carmelo Bene, to the saga of Gunther d'Amalfi, Knight Templar with whom he was a finalist twice at the Premio Strega, at "I Dieci", the essay that pierced the veil of silence on the Italian scientists who elaborated the Manifesto of race: the story is the thin red thread that binds the entire production of Franco Cuomo, journalist and writer, who died in Rome on July 23, 2007, among the most interesting contemporary, multifaceted and original Italian authors. Whether it was the distant Middle Ages or the present, Cuomo loved to investigate the folds and mysteries that mark the course of human affairs. Among his most famous plays are "Caterina delle Misericordie", "Giovanna d'Arco and Gilles de Rais", "Nerone", "A Night of Casanova", "Farewell Love" which reconstructs the tragedy of Beatrice Cenci, a famous translation of the "Cyrano" of Edmond Rostand and of the "Caligula" of Camus. Among the novels, the last was the "Betrayal of the Templar", published in 2008 by Baldini Castaldi Dalai; "The novel of Charlemagne" in 5 volumes (Newton Compton 1998-2000), "The Lord of the Mirrors" (Newton Compton 1991), "" Scroll "(Solfanelli 1990), dedicated to Shakespeare," I Semidei "(Rusconi 1995 ) which recounts the years and the protagonists of Tangentopoli, "The underground of the sky" (Baldini Castaldi Dalai 2001), "The Tattoo" (Baldini Castaldi Dalai 2002), "Anime Perdute" (Baldini Castaldi Dalai 2007). Among the essays by Cuomo, translated also abroad, great success was achieved by "I Dieci": "The praise of the Libertino", "The knightly orders in myth and history", republished in two volumes with the title " La cavalleria ”and“ L'altra cavalleria ”by Tipheret publishing house," Le Grandi Profezie "," History and epic of the Cavalry "," Santa Rita degli Impossibili ".
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