To be going to

The fifth edition of Opentour, a unique initiative in Italy invented and organized by Accademia delle Belle Arti di Bologna in collaboration with a number of the city’s leading art galleries, Confcommercio Ascom and Fondazione Zucchelli, sets out to offer a sizeable selection of young students at the academy an opportunity to present their work in exhibitions held in galleries and other spaces. As also happened last year, the program is coordinated with Art Up | Critics’ and Collectors’ Prize, created thanks to collaboration between Fondazione Zucchelli and the association of art galleries that are members of Confcommercio Ascom, with the economic support of Banca di Bologna, a partner in the initiative and co-promoter of the award, along with a group of private collectors. Art Up assigns two prizes of 1500 euros each to two deserving works indicated by a commission composed of Lorenzo Balbi (Curator and Artistic Director of MAMbo), Simone Menegoi (Curator and Artistic Director of Arte Fiera) and Paola Giovanardi (representative of the collectors and Fondazione Zucchelli). The announcement of the winners will take place on Saturday 22 June in the auditorium of Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna at 19.00. The title of the exhibition, To be going to, refers to a grammar feature of the English language, a form of the future continuous and its possible ambiguities (especially for people for whom English is an acquired language). This “intentional” future seems to be suspended between two meanings: the intent, referring to a decision already taken, imminent, and the unavoidability of something that is about to happen, something the speaker cannot help but undergo. Precisely due to its apparent contradictions — wavering between intention and submission — and due to the idea of circular movement implied by the repetition of to at the start and finish of the phrase, the title triggers reflections on the status of the invited artists: all students at the academy, all in a state of formation/ becoming, they are all “going to” translate their intentions into poetics, while at the same time coming to grips with an exhibition that may also seem like an abrupt, unavoidable acceleration of their progress. The exhibition includes works by eight artists and has the intention of widening a phrase — “to be going to” — expanding it, making it resonate inside the exhibition space through the indications suggested by the artists in the wake of shared reflections: intention and inevitability, will and uncertainty, becoming and undergoing are the terms that have emerged from these ponderings, and are translated in the exhibition as movements (or interruptions that can correspond to inevitable choices), and as hypotheses of meeting among works that delve into different languages: painting, drawing, sculpture and photography.