JURY OF THE 14TH ARTE LAGUNA PRIZE

Igor Zanti was born in 1973 in Milan. He graduated in modern literature at the University of Milan with a thesis on the Medieval and Modern Art History about painting in fifteenth century in Lombardia.
For several years he carries out different activities as a critic and curator of contemporary art and applied arts exhibitions, in collaboration with private galleries, institutional spaces in Italy and abroad. Since 2006 is curator and head of the jury of interational Arte Laguna Prize.
Artist consultant for Undergallery cultural association in Daverio (Varese) and for the International Art Club in Lugano. In 2008 he was the artistic director of the Brolo Museum – Art and Culture Centre in Mogliano Veneto (Treviso). In early 2008, he conceived the project New Art for defining and promoting the New Pop movement in Italy. He was the curator of 2009 and 2010 editions of Ceres for Art prize. In 2010 he was the co-curator of the international fair AAM supported by Arte Ispe Dixit of Como and Geneva. At the beginning of 2011, on behalf of MAE, of the Italian Embassy in India and the Italian Cultural Institute in New Delhi he was the curator of the Dadaumpop, a retrospective of italian neo pop, exhibited in Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi. He works on promotional project of Indian art and Italian art in collaboration with Kanchi Metha, curator of the Indian Pavillion at th Prague Biennale.He teaches Visual Communication and Contemporary Art Phenomenology at the IED College of Milan. He writes on Espoarte magazine, on Lobodilattice webzine and collaborates with InsideArt Magazine. Since 2013 he is the IED Venezia director.

Iwona Blazwick has been Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London since 2001 and is a curator, critic and lecturer.
She was formerly at Tate Modern and London’s ICA; and has worked as an independent curator in Europe, the US and Japan. Blazwick has curated solo shows and new commissions from some of the most significant living artists in the world; and has conceived thematic exhibitions that have shaped new art histories including A Short History of Performance. Blazwick established the Artists Film International global consortium; and has set new precedents for the animation of collections and archives. She is series editor of Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Documents of Contemporary Art; has written about numerous contemporary artists, and on themes and movements in modern and contemporary art, exhibition histories and art institutions.

Karel Boonzaaijer was born in 1948 in Utrecht, Netherlands. He graduated in architectural design on the Academy of Art in Utrecht.
SIMPLICITY CREATES SPACE FOR IMAGINATION …His lifelong search for the core, simplicity with right to exist, characterizes his designs. Making a design so simple, so clear and accessible that it gives the user space for their own imagination.
Karel Boonzaaijer started his career as a furniture maker at the age of 15. He wondered if the work he was doing, could not be better, more beautiful, more simple, more original. After his daily work, he studied at the academy of visual arts.
He started his own architectural and design studio together with Pierre Mazairac in 1980. They have won many international design prizes.
Begin of 2000 he was together with Dick Spierenburg founder of designstudio KBDS. Karel Boonzaaijer is working as a conceptual designer for a lot of international brands like, Arco – Artifort – Castelijn – Gelderland – Metaform – Montis – Minotti Italia – Moroso Italia – Pastoe – Eikelenboom Light & form – WK Wohnen.
Several international prizes were won with the designs. Well-known design is the Vision furniture concept for Pastoe in 1983, The first handle-less cupboard in the world, designed together with Pierre Mazairac and has been internationally successful for more than 35 years.
In 2000 he acquired a chair at the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen. As a professor of conceptual design, he has given many international guest lessons / workshops in addition to lectures there. In 2014 he won the honorable Lehrpreis of the city of Aachen. In addition to product design, Karel Boonzaaijer has realized several architectural projects, shopping and exhibition concepts. In addition, his work has been exhibited in many museums, including the Palais du Tokyo – Paris, De Kunsthal in Rotterdam, Singer Museum Laren and Central Museum in Utrecht.
From 2010 onwards, besides design, he has increasingly immersed himself in the visual arts, fascinating the creation of forms without an ergonomic function. There are, among other things, stair objects realized in St. Tropez France (6.50 m) and in Axel Netherlands (7.20 m) The theme is “La Scala per L’Ignoto” Stair to the unknown.
Karel Boonzaaijer and Pierre Mazairac are currently working as a designer for internationally renowned manufacturers in Italy and the Netherlands. Karel Boonzaaijer is now also working with Marijke de Goey on a design for the Dutch pavilion on the Architecture Bienale of Venice 2022.

Scholar, curator of contemporary art. Specialized in analyzing the relationship of artists with new technologies and with the media. As a curator, he is the director of the Art section of Maker Faire – The European Edition, Europe’s largest fair of creativity and innovation.
He was founder and artistic director of the Media Art Festival of Rome (MAXXI Museum) and coordinator of the Art programs of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale. Valentino is also the curator of the Kunstraum Goethe (Art Space) for the Goethe Institut in Rome. He is a member of the Hyphen Hub Community in New York.
On these subjects he is a research at the University of Roma Tre, he was a Part-Time Post Doc Research Fellow at the same University. He has carried out research in important centers such as the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the Tate Modern, the University of Dundee participating in international conferences and writing several essays in books and specialized magazines (see, academia.edu).
He is the author of Media Art. Prospettive delle arti verso il XXI secolo. Storie, teorie, preservazione (Mimesis, 2016) and Art as Inventor (Rowman & Littlefield, Londra 2019). He is also a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Lecce.
He has curated exhibitions in major museums and international institutions including: Minnesota Street Project (San Francisco), Ermitage (St. Petersburg), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome), MAXXI (Rome), Museo Riso (Palermo), Media Center (New York ), Stelline (Milan), Istituto Italiano di Cultura Nuova Dheli (India), Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), Ca ‘Foscari (Venice), Centrale Idrodinamica (Trieste), Museo Centrale Montemartini (Rome).

Aldo Cibic, founder of Cibicworkshop, was born in Vicenza, Italy, in 1955.
In 1981, as a partner in Sottsass Associati, he was a founding member of Memphis.
His projects, such as “Microrealities” (2004) and “Rethinking Happiness” (2010), have been presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
With Cibicworkshop, a multidisciplinary research centre, he began to focus more heavily on alternative sustainable project types aimed at enhancing whole local areas and defining new cultural, emotional and environmental awarenesses of public space.
Aldo Cibic is professor of practice at the Tongji University, Shanghai.
In 2019 he has been selected as High-End Foreign Expert by SAFEA, the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China.
Aldo Cibic has been included in the “100+ best architecture firms 2019” distinguished for cultural innovation by the worldwide known architecture magazine Domus.

Erin Dziedzic is director of curatorial affairs at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri (USA).
She is curator of Angela Dufresne: Making a Scene, Adam Cvijanovic: American Montage, Xaviera Simmons: Number 16, A Whisper of Where It Came From, Siah Armajani: Bridge Builder, Rashid Johnson: Hail We Now Sing Joy, Worlds Otherwise Hidden, and co-curator of Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction 1960s to Today, and more at the Kemper Museum. She has also had written contributions in publication with the Savannah College of Art and Design, Kemper Museum, Island Press, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition and was guest editor for ARTPAPERS (May/June 2013).

Zhao Li graduated from the Department of Art History at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) of Beijing where he is currently teaching.
He is Deputy Dean of the School of Art Management and Education, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Doctor of Art History, Researcher of National Gallery Academy of Fine Art, Visiting Professor of Creative Design Management Doctoral Program, Taiwan Shih Chien University, Candidate of Trans-century Talents Program by Ministry of Education, Expert of Ministry of Culture and Beijing Cultural Industry Expert Base, Consultant of CCB International China Cultural Industry Fund, Chief Art Consultant of Ping An Bank Culture, Tourism, and Health Business Division, Co-founder of Art Beijing, Founder of Art Nova 100, AMRC Artwork Market Research Center, China Modern and Contemporary Art Literature Research Center, and AAC Artwork Appraisal Center and other institutions. His research mainly focuses on art history and theory, Chinese paintings and calligraphy appraisal, contemporary art criticism, art economy research, curation and promotion, among others.
Projects he has been engaged in include: The Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Italy (2009), The 20th Century China Art Founder Series Exhibition, New China Art Pioneers Series Exhibition, Global Artwork Collection Summit Forum, Art Economy Summit Forum, Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference Art Salon, China Contemporary Collectors Annual Meeting, Shanghai International Collection Forum, Art Patronage Award, etc.

Nato a Vercelli nel 1957, Riccardo Passoni è stato Conservatore della Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Torino, Direttore della Collezione d’Arte Moderna, per poi ricoprire la carica di Vicedirettore della GAM, per la quale ha curato numerose mostre e cataloghi dedicati ad artisti nazionali e internazionali.
È Direttore della Biblioteca d’Arte e dell’Archivio Fotografico della Fondazione Torino Musei. Da fine dicembre 2015 a marzo 2018 è stato anche Direttore del Borgo Medievale di Torino. Ha più volte fatto parte della commissione artistica della Fondazione De Fornaris, curandone pubblicazioni e mostre. È inoltre membro del Comitato Scientifico della Fondazione CRT per l’Arte Contemporanea. Per la Città di Torino ha curato, tra gli altri, Luci d’Artista, ManifesTO, PAPuM (vincitore del Federculture Award 2008). Ha insegnato Storia dell’Arte all’Accademia Albertina di Torino. È stato membro del Consiglio di Amministrazione di AMACI, network che riunisce 24 tra i più importanti musei d’arte contemporanea italiani, ricoprendo anche la carica di Vice Presidente, con responsabilità per i rapporti con ICOM.

Vasili Tsereteli è nato nel 1978 a Tbilisi, in Georgia. Dopo essersi diplomata alla United Nations International School di New York nel 1996, Tsereteli ha studiato alla New York School of Visual Art e poi alla Parsons School of Design. Nel 2002, Tsereteli è stato nominato direttore esecutivo di MMOMA. Successivamente, nel 2007, 2009, ha lavorato come commissario del Padiglione Russo alla Biennale di Venezia.
Vasili Tsereteli è Vice Presidente dell’Accademia Russa delle Arti, membro del Presidium dell’ICOM, membro della giuria del Premio Kandinsky e della giuria del Premio Sergei Kuryokhin, membro del comitato organizzatore della Biennale Internazionale di Mosca per la Giovane Arte. Nel 2012 Tsereteli è stata insignita della Croce dell’Ordine del Re di Spagna “Per i servizi civili”. È stato nominato Cavaliere dell’Ordine Francese delle Arti e delle Lettere (2015), Ufficiale dell’Ordine di Isabella la Cattolica (2016). Nel 2018, Tsereteli è stata insignita della Medaglia dell’Ordine “Per Merito alla Patria” II classe.