The “Artisti per Frescobaldi” Award goes to “Cattività”, an environmental installation by Gian Maria

“Gian Maria Tosatti dealt with the theme of the Project by bringing it closer to the natural environment, we admire the ability to generate complex and resonant associations with minimalistic but at the same time poetic means. His site-specific environmental installation subtly activates hidden meanings of domestic architecture and historical furniture (his flowery Art Nouveau wall paintings) to generate an opportunity to discover it for the viewer. The project encourages thoughtful reflection on the possibilities of collaboration between humanity and nature, as playfully suggested by the captive wind that gently moving the painted curtains in a room where all the windows are closed. The meditative mise en scene that Tosatti staged in the Montalcino house evocatively captures the link between human beings and their environment. The subtle amplification of minimal gestures and frugal materials seems to release latent energy and hidden epiphanies in both objects and space”. Here are the words of the jury, dedicated to “Captivity”, the work by Gian Maria Tosatti that has been awarded the fifth edition of “Artisti per Frescobaldi”, the biennial contemporary art award conceived by Tiziana Frescobaldi, artistic director and president of the Compagnia de’ Frescobaldi, and curated by the art critic Ludovico Pratesi, in the wake of the centuries-old tradition of cultural patronage of the historical Italian wine family, Frescobaldi.

A centuries-old union for the Frescobaldi family, who have been in wine for more than 700 years, and now opens a new chapter in the ancient tradition of patronage handed down through no less than 30 generations, dating back to the Renaissance. Today, it is attentive to contemporary art trends, to the different languages of expression, and close to the artists of the new millennium, as it once was to Brunelleschi, Donatello, Artemisia Gentileschi and many others. And that invited the artists to create a work of art inspired by CastelGiocondo, the Estate in Montalcino where they were guests, to interpret its spirit, history and terroir. Each artist also created a drawing that recalls their work for the label of a limited and numbered edition of 333 Magnums, 111 per artist, of CastelGiocondo Brunello 2015, a great vintage dedicated to the project.

In addition to Gian Maria Tosatti, the Prize was also attended by the American artist Erica Mahinay and the Canadian artist Andrew Dadson, who respectively created “Test Site (just think how we are constantly engaged with earthy heavens when we walk, how in fact everything we do with our limbs is connected with the Earth)” and “Ginestra ( Cysisus scoparius) Violet e Rye-Grass ( festuca perennis) Blue”, and which, together with “Cattività”, embellish CastelGiocondo’s increasingly rich collection of site-specific contemporary artworks https: //www. artistiperfrescobaldi.it/, making it one of the most important in Italy.
“Set up in CastelGiocondo together with the other 12 works of past editions, the installations interact with the spaces in a precise and evocative way. A collection of works of art that will strength and enrich the spaces of the cellar in an increasingly consolidated and successful combination of art and wine”, explains Tiziana Frescobaldi. “The “Artisti per Frescobaldi” project was created with the specific intention of commissioning artists of the latest generations to create artworks inspired by the Frescobaldi family’s estates, and more generally by the world and culture of wine in Italy - underlines Ludovico Pratesi - the choice of guests was made by the artistic director, together with the curator, towards artists interested in these themes, who have been able to interpret them over the years different languages and methods, always respecting the “genius loci” linked to the territory, defined by Marc Augè as an anthropological place”.
The Prize, delayed due to Covid, features three young international artists at each edition. A country is chosen in rotation, and two artists come from the indicated country, the third is Italian. Once they have visited CastelGiocondo, the artists are free to choose the expressive medium that best allows them to interpret the estate, based on its history, the territory and the world of wine in the broadest sense, in order to create both the site-specific installation and the sketch of a label for the limited and numbered edition of CastelGiocondo bottles. The first edition in 2013 involved three Italian artists, Elisa Sighicelli, Ra di Martino and Giovanni Ozzola. Then, in the second edition, two German artists, Michael Sailstorfer and Jorinde Voight, and the Italian artist Yuri Ancarani took part. The third edition saw the participation of two Americans, Eric Wesley and Matthew Brannon, together with Patrizio Di Massimo. In the fourth edition, two Swiss artists, Claudia Comte and Sonia Kacem, and the Italian artist Francesco Arena. The prize-winning works were judged by a prestigious jury composed of Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, President of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Ralph Rugoff, director of the Hayward Gallery in London, and Rina Carvajal, director and curator of the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College.