The duo Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, composed of Francesco Ragazzi and Francesco Urbano, has been awarded the first edition of the Italian Fellowship for Curatorial Research, a residency for curators promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and the American Academy in Rome. The fellowship supports research aimed at the international promotion of Italian contemporary art and its ecosystem.

The duo thus begins their residency, which will take place until May 23, 2025, at the American Academy in Rome. At the conclusion of the residency, a presentation of the research will be held both in Rome and, in the fall of 2025, in New York, with the aim of fostering future collaboration opportunities. The project’s objectives are to support excellence in Italian curatorial and critical research and practice from an international perspective, to promote awareness of Italian art and its ecosystem worldwide—particularly in the United States—and to highlight the opportunities that the Ministry of Culture, through the Directorate- General for Contemporary Creativity, offers to international institutions interested in investing in projects dedicated to Italian art.

In a world where globalization seems to give way to rising nationalist extremisms, it is urgent to ask: What is the meaning and value of exhibitions promoting national artistic identity? How can we articulate a discourse on a territory’s creative distinctiveness while fostering the intercultural dialogue essential to contemporary democracies? – These are the pressing issues at the core of the duo’s research project, titled Altérité Italienne.

Starting from Carla Lonzi’s last text – a short essay published in the catalog of Identité Italienne (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1981), in which the feminist philosopher distances herself from the system represented by Germano Celant’s exhibition – the research will contextualize Lonzi’s art criticism within the broader framework of her philosophy, also focusing on her archive preserved in Rome. Inspired by her dialogical method, the duo will critically examine the role of national exhibitions in contemporary Italy, collaborating with a group of artists either from or based in the country: Monia Ben Hamouda, Ludovica Carbotta, Liryc Dela Cruz, Tomaso De Luca, Michele Gabriele, Beatrice Gibson, Invernomuto, Muna Mussie, and Natália Trejbalová. Some of them are also part of the American Academy community, such as Monia Ben Hamouda, one of the winners of the new Affiliated Fellowship Bvlgari AAR in collaboration with MAXXI and the Whitney Museum, or Tomaso De Luca and Invernomuto, who previously completed their residency as Italian Fellows.

The American Academy in Rome, the oldest American cultural center in Italy and a promoter of interdisciplinary exchange between the two countries, will serve as a bridge for cultural dialogue, offering a space to articulate responses to how an Altérité Italienne can be conceived, also through moments of interaction with its community of fellows and other partners within its network.

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