Rome, November 29th, 2011 Enel Contemporanea comes back as a main feature of the MACRO Museo dArte Contemporanea Roma-s exhibition schedule in the autumn with one of the most important international artists today: Carsten Höller, the winner of the 2011 edition.
Enel Contemporanea Award is the prize promoted by Enel within its programme entitled Enel Contemporanea, currently at its fifth edition, which calls for the annual production of original artworks by international artists on the theme of energy (www.enelcontemporanea.com).
The winning work Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes will be on display from December 2nd, 2011 to February 26th, 2012 in free access at the MACRO, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. The artwork, consisting of a double merry-go-round, is located in the space of the Enel Room on the ground floor, which is one of the biggest exhibition halls in Europe.
The public will be also able to interact with the two moving merry-go-rounds created by the artist. Turning slowly and in opposite directions, the merry-go-rounds allow the public to get on and off easily, as if they were enormous mills or grindstones, where the people, sitting on top, come closer together and move further apart in constant rotation.
Around the merry-go-rounds, criss-crossing lines (the Zöllner Stripes) create a terrific visual effect, where in spatial perception is deformed, creating a slowed-down vision of reality.
Still within Enel Contemporanea, in order to further highlight the theme of double and disorientation, the artist has also created a video with more than 30 couples of homozygous twins on the two moving merry-go-rounds. The video will be on display at the MACRO Museum alongside the installation.
The Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes artwork was selected by the international jury, which met on June 2nd in Venice at the 54th International Art Exhibition, of which Enel is the main sponsor. The jury chose the laureate among 3 internationally recognised artists invited to participate in the competition, each presenting an original artwork,by the Artistic Director of the Award, Francesco Bonami.
The jury, presided by Gianluca Comin, Enel Group Director of External Relations, was made up of representatives of some of the most prestigious international arts institutions: Joseph Backstein (Commissioner of the Moscow Art Biennial), Luca Massimo Barbero (Associate Curator Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice), Iwona Blazwick (Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London), Massimiliano Gioni (Artistic Director of the Nicola Trussardi Foundation, Milan), Ivo Mesquita (Chief Commissioner of the Sao Paolo National Gallery), Jack Persekian (Director of the Al-Mamal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem).
Born in Brussels in 1961 (to German parents), Carsten Höller a graduate in agricultural sciences with a specialization in plant pathology and a Masters thesis on olfactory communication between insects, uses art as a cognitive tool in probing objective reality and perception. Disorientation is a key feature in most of his works from the rotating mushrooms suspended from the ceiling of the Prada Foundation in 2000 to the five steel Test Site slides in Turbine Hall at Londons Tate Modern in 2006, as part of the Unilever Series, to his recent exhibition, Soma, at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin. Carsten Höller has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in such prestigious international institutions as the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam and the Bregenz Kunsthaus. He represented Sweden at the Venice Biennial 51st International Art Exhibition (with Miriam Bäckström) and has participated in numerous editions of Documenta and the São Paolo Biennial. The New Museum in New York is currently featuring his solo show entitled Carsten Höller: Experience. He lives and works in Stockholm.
With the launch of the fifth edition of Enel Contemporanea and the decision to become the main sponsor of the Venice Biennial 54th and 55th International Art Exhibitions (June 4th - November 27th, 2011 and 2013), Enel confirms its commitment to supporting art and culture in all its different forms and expressions, by working alongside important institutions in order to benefit society.
For the past number of years, Enel has focused on contemporary art due to its ability to express and transmit values of innovation, attention to the environment and an openness to the world. Today, these values constitute the three fundamental axes pertaining to the creation of a sustainable future and also reflect the evolution of a company like Enel.
Enel Contemporanea calls for the production of an original artwork every year based on the theme of energy, a challenge open to artists of all nationalities (www.enelcontemporanea.com). It is an initiative, today at its fifth edition, that attempts to explore the concept of energy through the universal language of art. Since 2010, Enel Contemporanea has come up with a new, even more international concept: The Enel Contemporanea Award, a prize for international artists, by invitation, with a panel of experts called upon to select the winning piece.
The previous editions of Enel Contemporanea have presented the works of eight international artists: in 2010 Dutch duo Bik Van der Pols Butterfly House inaugurated the new MACRO Rome Contemporary Art Museum. In 2009, there was the open-air installation by American Doug Aitken on the tip of the Tiber Island in Rome. In 2008, an eco-sustainable waiting room was created by the American Jeffrey Inaba (a permanent artwork, installed at the Policlinico Umberto I Hospital in Rome); a playful series of images, neon lights and video projections was shown by assume vivid astro focus in the middle of the Largo Argentina ruins in Rome and a hidden garden was created by the A12 group in the Venice lagoon as part of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennial. In 2007, there was the great work in progress at the Piazza del Popolo, Rome by Italian artist Patrick Tuttofuoco, an interactive water fountain by the Danish Jeppe Hein in the Garbatella district and a suggestive lunar eclipse by the English Angela Bulloch above the Ara Pacis in Rome.
Enel is Italys largest power company, the leading European utility in terms of EBITDA, and Europes second utility in terms of installed capacity. It is a diversified group active in the sectors of electricity and gas. Today Enel operates in 40 countries worldwide, has around 95,000 MW of net installed capacity, and sells electricity and gas to more than 61 million customers.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
ENEL CONTEMPORANEA 2011
Carsten Höller
Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes
MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome
Opening days: December 2nd, 2011 to February 26th, 2012 (free entry to Enel Contemporanea)
Opening hours: Tuesday-Sunday: 11.00 am - 10.00 pm. Last admission 1 hour before closing time. Closed Monday, January 1st, May 1, December 25th.
December 24th and 31st: 11.00 am - 2.00 pm
The museum is also open every Saturday evening, from October 22nd, 2011 to January 7th, 2012 (excluding Saturday 24th and Saturday, December 31st), until 1.00 am (last admission 0.00 am).
Inauguration by invitation only on December 1st, 2011
Web site: www.enelcontemporanea.com
Information: enelcontemporanea@enelaward.com
MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome
Entry: Via Nizza 138, Rome
Info: +39 060608 06 671070400
www.macro.roma.museum
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ENEL CONTEMPORANEA PRESS RELATIONS
United Kingdom and United States: Heymann, Renoult Associées
Agnès Renoult, Marika Bekier / m.bekier@heymann-renoult.com / t. 0144617676
Italy and international:
Alessandra de Antonellis / +39 339 3637.388 /alessandra@hfilms.net
Enel Media Relations: +39 06 8305.5699 / ufficiostampa@enel.com
MACRO press office, Massimiliano Moschetta, Nicolò Scialanga / +39 06 6710.70443 / stampa.macro@comune.roma.it