CONNEXXION-Widespread Contemporary Art Festival 25 November 2023/ 27 April 2024

CONNEXXION
Diffuse Festival of Contemporary Art
…to be free. Between identity and memory
Curated by Livia Savorelli
Various venues in the city of Savona
25 November 2023 – 27 April 2024
Within the Arteam Cup 2023
Official presentation
Saturday 25 November, 16.00
Sala della Sibilla, Priamàr Fortress
Open day:
Saturday 25 November, 4-7.30 p.m.

Back in Savona, from 25 November 2023 to 27 April 2024, CONNEXXION. Festival Diffuso di Arte Contemporanea, an event that aims to shed new light on the most significant places in the city of Savona, reinterpreting its historical and artistic heritage and interweaving it with the visions of artists of the present.
Realised with the contribution and patronage of the Municipality of Savona, the contribution of the Region of Liguria and the Agostino De Mari Foundation, the second edition of the Festival will be completely renewed in its structure, with two important moments of development, which will coincide with the opening and closing of the event, and exhibitions that will be open for five months on the Priamàr Fortress. The first focus will concern two of the city’s museums – the Civic Archaeological Museum and the Sandro Pertini and Renata Cuneo Museum – in conjunction with the Arteam Cup 2023 finalists’ exhibition, scheduled from 25 November 2023 to 6 January 2024 inside the Palazzo del Commissario, also on the Priamàr Fortress (www.arteamcup.it).
Curated by Livia Savorelli, the Festival entitled …to be free. Tra identità e memoria (Between identity and memory) avails itself of the collaboration of important partners, involved by Arteam in the spirit of the event: ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’Italia Comitato Provinciale di Savona), ANED (Associazione Nazionale degli Ex Deportati nei campi nazisti Sezione Savona-Imperia), ISREC (Istituto Storico della Resistenza e dell’Età Contemporanea della provincia di Savona), Museo Casa Natale di Sandro Pertini di Stella San Giovanni (SV), Società Savonese di Storia Patria, Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri. The collaboration with the Ceramics Museum, partner in the realisation of the workshops developed around the themes of the Festival, has been renewed.
‘With the second edition, entitled …to be free. Between Identity and Memory,’ explains Livia Savorelli, ’the Festival aims to stimulate a wide-ranging reflection on the concept of freedom, in a world increasingly moved by nationalism, authoritarian drifts, wars and upheavals on a planetary level, and by an accentuated drive towards radicalism and extremism.

Accompanying us on this journey around freedom will be a figure much loved by the Italian people and the people of Savona in particular, Sandro Pertini, to whom a special tribute will be paid with the exhibition Dialogues around Freedom, which will be held in the rooms of the Sandro Pertini and Renata Cuneo Museum. The title of this edition is inspired, in particular, by a phrase by Pertini: ‘…to be free, men must be freed from the nightmare of need… it is in solidarity with other members of the community that the personality of the individual is elevated…’. A vision declined in the plural by Pertini, with an eye always turned to the new generations – those for whom, through struggle and a youth spent safeguarding their democratic ideals, he worked to ensure a future of freedom – so that young people would be persuaded of this: ‘dictatorship is darkness, democracy is light; dictatorship is silence, democracy is reasoning’’.
The second edition of CONNEXXION will be officially presented to the public on Saturday 25 November, at 4 p.m., in the Sala della Sibilla on the Priamàr Fortress, preceded by the presentation of the CONNEXXION 2022 video-documentation and the dedicated volume (Vanillaedizioni, 2023).

New for the 2023 edition is the presence of a Guest Curator, Matteo Galbiati, who will accompany the curator at some key moments of the Festival and who will co-curate the exhibition at the Civico Museo Archeologico.
Two exhibitions will open the second edition of CONNEXXION: Fragments. Acts of preservation for a future of freedom, curated by Livia Savorelli and Matteo Galbiati at the Civico Museo Archeologico with works by Roberto Ghezzi, Alberto Gianfreda, Laura Pugno, Attilio Tono and Ivano Troisi; Dialogues around freedom, curated by Livia Savorelli at the Museo Sandro Pertini and Renata Cuneo with works by Elena Bellantoni, Davide Dormino, Rocco Dubbini, Armida Gandini, Gianni Moretti.
‘The second edition of CONNEXXION,’ emphasises Nicoletta Negro, Councillor for Culture and Tourism District Policies, ’is characterised by a new territorial synergy that passes through the Associations that deal with historical memory and anti-fascism, as well as reconfirming the collaborations of the museums in the city such as our Civic Archaeological Museum and the Sandro Pertini and Renata Cuneo Museum. It will be the theme of Freedom that will guide performances, installations, and exhibitions, also thanks to the figure of Sandro Pertini and the collection set up in the Museum dedicated to him on the Priamàr. This is an important reflection, in addition to the ritual torchlight procession, which will allow art to guide us and intercept an unprecedented audience. It will be an important challenge, which will not spare surprises and deep reflections that are sadly still needed today’.
A further moment of development of the Festival is planned from 20 to 27 April 2024, inside the former Sant’Agostino Prison, the great novelty of this edition, which for a week will be animated by site-specific installations, performances, talks and moments of discussion. This place, closed for years, located in the centre of the city of Savona, was strongly desired by the curator as the location for the Festival – immediately supported by Mayor Russo, the Councillor for Culture and Tourism Policies Nicoletta Negro, and the Councillor for Urban Regeneration Ilaria Becco – as a space from which to transit for a concluding reflection on the concept of freedom, memory and identity, in order to implement a regeneration that from individual can become collective, accompanied by a planning based on culture that can, over the years, return this asset to the city with renewed functionality. In the months connecting the two main moments of the Festival, there will be workshops, guided tours, and opportunities for in-depth study based on the themes of the Festival. One of the first artists invited to develop a talk dedicated to his research is Roberto Ghezzi, present in the exhibition Frammenti. Acts of preservation for a future of freedom. On Wednesday 29 November at 4 p.m., the meeting entitled Blue Tears. Naturografie e altre storie sul cambiamento climatico (Blue Tears. Naturographies and other stories on climate change), which will be attended by Roberto Ghezzi and Monica Mazzolini (a Biology graduate with a PhD in Neurobiology who has been working exclusively on Art and Photography for several years). The talk will revolve around the question: how do different artistic media manage to influence public opinion, to shake consciences with respect to the urgencies of our contemporary times, such as climate change and global warming?

As with the first edition of CONNEXXION, the partnership with the Museum of Ceramics has been renewed for the development of the workshops that the artists have devised around the themes of the Festival. It should also be noted that until 26 February 2024, the Museum presents At Table with Rochester Square, a project curated by Alessio Cotena, Marco Isaia and Daniele Panucci in collaboration with Francesca Anfossi, and Diario, a solo exhibition by Tommaso Corvi Mora curated by Daniele Panucci with critical contributions by Irene Biolchini and Luca Bochicchio.
Parallel to CONNEXXION, inside the Palazzo del Commissario, also on the Priamàr Fortress, is the exhibition of the finalists of the Arteam Cup 2023 national art competition, curated by Livia Savorelli and Matteo Galbiati. The exhibition, promoted by the Arteam Cultural Association with the patronage of the Municipality of Savona, is open to the public until 6 January 2024, when the category winners (Painting, Sculpture, Photography) and, among them, the overall winner will be announced. For information: www.arteamcup.it.
All information about the events promoted as part of CONNEXXION can be found at www.connexxion.it. For information: T. +39 019 4500744, info@arteam.eu, info@connexxion.it.

EXHIBITIONS 2023:
Fragments. Acts of preservation for a future of freedom
Works by Roberto Ghezzi, Alberto Gianfreda, Laura Pugno, Attilio Tono and Ivano Troisi
Curated by Livia Savorelli and Matteo Galbiati
Civico Museo Archeologico, Palazzo della Loggia, Priamàr Fortress
Corso Mazzini 1, 17100 Savona
Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday 10am-4pm; Saturday and Sunday 10.30am-3.30pm (closed on Mondays) Ticket: full price € 5.00, reduced € 3.00; free entrance for under 18s, disabled visitors with an accompanying person, members of the Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, teachers with classes and tour guides with group
https://www.museoarcheosavona.it/contatti/ http://musa.savona.it/civico-museo-archeologico-e-della-citta-2/
Dialogues around Freedom
Works by Elena Bellantoni, Davide Dormino, Rocco Dubbini, Armida Gandini, Gianni Moretti
Curated by Livia Savorelli
Sandro Pertini and Renata Cuneo Museum, Palazzo della Loggia, Priamàr Fortress
Corso Mazzini 1, 17100 Savona
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 9.30-13.30, Saturday 15.00-18.00
Admission: full price € 2.50, reduced € 1.50; free admission up to 18 years of age, university students, ICOM, Abbonamento Musei Piemonte Valle d’Aosta holders, Abbonamento Musei Lombardia Valle d’Aosta holders, AUSER association, tourist guides, teachers visiting with a class, journalists, disabled visitors with accompanying person

Museo Sandro Pertini e Renata Cuneo

PROGRAMME (in progress)
www.connexxion.it
INFORMATION:
Arteam Cultural Association
Via Traversa dei Ceramisti, 8/bis – 17012 Albissola Marina (SV)
T. +39 019 4500744 | info@arteam.eu | www.arteam.eu | info@connexxion.it | www.connexxion.it
www.facebook.com/asso.arteam | www.instagram.com/arteam.associazione/
WITH THE PATRONAGE AND CONTRIBUTION OF:
Municipality of Savona
WITH THE CONTRIBUTION OF:
Liguria Region
De Mari Foundation
CATALOGUE:
Vanillaedizioni – www.vanillaedizioni.com
MEDIA PARTNERS:
Espoarte – www.espoarte.net
Segno – https://segnonline.it/
PRESS OFFICE:
CSArt – Communication for Art
Via Emilia Santo Stefano 54, 42121 Reggio Emilia
T. +39 0522 1715142 | M. +39 3487025100 | info@csart.it | www.csart.it