Rethinking Antiquity through Contemporary Art
Acacia. Marco Maria Zanin at the Museo Gaetano Chierici di Paletnologia

The Fondazione Luigi Rovati hosts a conversation between Giovanna Forlanelli, President of Fondazione Luigi Rovati, and Alessandro Gazzotti and Giada Pellegrini, curators of the Civic Museums of Reggio Emilia, exploring the intersections and contaminations between antiquity and contemporary art.

On this occasion, the catalogue of the winning project of PAC2024 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea (Plan for Contemporary Art), promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture, will be presented. Acacia is the artistic intervention by Marco Maria Zanin (Padua, 1983), the result of a complex research process intertwining contemporary art, archaeology, and memory.

The project stems from a personal story in the artist’s life: the loss of his twin sister before birth, whom he affectionately named Acacia. Through a visual language combining sculpture, photography, ceramics, bronze, glass, and weaving, the artist creates a contemporary funerary assemblage in which the works — produced in collaboration with master artisans selected together with the Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte — enter into dialogue with the archaeological artefacts of the collection.

Through critical essays, an extensive iconographic section, and contributions by internationally renowned scholars, the volume — whose graphic design was curated by Giulia Boccarossa — presents a journey in which art becomes a collective act of reinterpreting the past and shaping the future, highlighting Zanin’s methodology, grounded in the encounter between art, anthropology, and artisanal practices.

During the event, the artist will also be joined in conversation by curator Irene Biolchini and art critic and curator Marco Scotini.

The event is free of charge, booking is recommended. The ticket for the conference does not include admission to the Art Museum.

A video of the event will be published on Fondazione's YouTube channel.