Brunswick Arts works with many of the world’s great art institutions and festivals. Here we highlight a project that transformed several public spaces in Venice and Rome.
Enel Contemporanea is a series of cutting-edge, site-specific, public art installations in Rome and Venice. It features leading contemporary artists and is promoted by Enel, Italy’s largest energy company. Enel Contemporanea 2008 included installations by the Franco-Brazilian artist collective assume vivid astro focus (avaf) in Rome’s archaeological site of Largo Argentina, an eco-sustainable art itinerary by the LA-based artist Jeffrey Inaba in the Policlinico Umberto I, Rome’s largest hospital, and a ‘hidden garden’ submerged in the Venetian lagoon by the Milan-based architectural group A12. All are featured in this four page spread, as well as an image from Enel Contemporanea 2007 of Patrick Tuttofuoco’s installation Future City in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo.
Location is a key element of the Enel Contemporanea program. The site for each installation is chosen first and the artists are later selected on the basis of their ability to create a dialogue with the urban context. Hence the avaf installation, with its psychedelic colours and playful motifs, aimed to instil new life in a neglected archaeological site in the centre of the Italian capital. Jeffrey Inaba’s “Waiting Room”, located in Rome’s main hospital, represents the idea that replacing dreary hospital surroundings with bright and cheerful art installations can have a positive effect on the patient’s healing process. Finally the A12 project, a reflective structure floating on the Venetian lagoon with a tree growing from its center, was a poignant expression of man’s ability to build in improbable places. http://www.enel.it/ext/enelcontemporanea2009