Italian Emerging Futures is a catalog that delves deeply into the production of new young Italian artists, offering a structured snapshot of the under 35 landscape.
What is Italian Emerging Futures and how did the project originate?
Italian Emerging Futures is the volume that documents the work of 101 artists under 35, selected for a traveling exhibition hosted in the branches and offices of the Gruppo BCC Iccrea throughout Italy.
Published by Ecra – Edizioni del Credito Cooperativo, the catalog accompanies and relaunches a broad project dedicated to the youngest Italian art scene, active between traditional languages and experimentation.
How were the artists selected?
The initiative is curated by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi with the support of a scientific committee composed of Mario Bronzino, Simone Ceschin, Anna Mostardi, and Matteo Scabeni. The selection is the result of two years of field study.
During this biennium, visits to studios, portfolio reviews, and systematic analyses of exhibitions dedicated to new generations took place. This results in an editorial and exhibition mapping that identifies trends, geographical nodes, and emerging lines of research.
What languages and artistic practices are represented?
The panorama emerging from the catalog is explicitly heterogeneous, in terms of training, expressive tools, and positioning. From drawing to painting, from sculpture to design, to complex installations, video art, photography, performance, and neo-muralism.
Moreover, great space is given to practices that engage with the most recent technologies, between digital languages and hybrid experiments, testifying to the complexity of the present and the plurality of poetics in Italy.
Some exemplary works present in the path
Among the documented works is Dario Picariello with Sono le ferite del sentimento (2023), a contact photographic print on silk with book pages and gilded aluminum, size 300 x 150 cm, a work that intertwines memory, material, and narrative.
The project also includes Valentina Artone with No name (2024), oil on board measuring 45 x 20 cm, which focuses attention on the intimate dimension of the image. In parallel, Guendalina Cerruti presents Mannequins of the High street (2024), colored pencil drawing and inkjet print on cotton paper with wooden supports and anti-reflective glass.
In the exhibition path, there is also space for Rachele Frison with La profezia della strega (2025), oil on canvas measuring 90 x 120 cm. This is accompanied by the installation Drollery: Vinciola (2023) by Jacopo Belloni, presented at the Swiss Art Awards in Basel.
Belloni’s work combines hand-painted and folded silk leaves, alcohol dyes, papier-mâché, custom-made wool garments, cotton shirts, silk ribbons, lycra zentai suits, bamboo stockings, leather shoes, PVC mannequins, and fiberglass with movable wooden, aluminum, and steel arms, for a complex ensemble of 50 x 180 x 40 cm.
How does the traveling exhibition develop across the territory?
The exhibition path started in February 2024 and will continue until October 2026, crossing the entire national territory, including the smaller islands, with widespread stops in the Group’s locations.
The works are set up in unexpected places for contemporary art, such as branches and offices of the Banche di Credito Cooperativo. However, this format allows for direct dialogue with communities often distant from traditional exhibition spaces.
Each stop relates the artists’ works to the local context, the genius loci, the memories, and traditions of the towns and cities of origin. The evolution of the project can be consulted on the official portal BCC Arte&Cultura.
What is the role of widespread infrastructures in the cultural system?
The exhibition and the volume are part of a broader reflection on the role of territorial infrastructures in building a cultural ecosystem. In this context, the network of BCC becomes a tool for bringing artistic research closer to citizenship.
As emphasized by Giuseppe Maino, president of the Gruppo BCC Iccrea, through the work of these young people, the deepest and most unpredictable questions of our time are intercepted, enhancing local cultures and the attractiveness of territories.
Particular attention is paid to the internal areas, which together with the metropolises become visible and visitable nodes of a widespread cultural map. In contrast to the sole central museum poles, here the banking fabric transforms into a public platform.
How do banks become spaces for contemporary art?
Mauro Pastore, general director of the Group, highlights how Italian Emerging Futures has brought many local talents back to their places of origin, thanks to the hospitality offered by the Banche di Credito Cooperativo.
The branches, for a few weeks, transform into small but precious contemporary art galleries, especially in geographical areas lacking dedicated institutional venues. Moreover, this model highlights the daily and rigorous work of the artists involved.
Overall, the project builds a network of relationships between young authors, communities, and territory, proposing a form of cultural support that integrates the banking system, artistic production, and public enjoyment, in line with other European experiences of widespread art available on platforms like Cultuurbeleven or in studies on the relationship between art and territory of the OCLC program.
Italian Emerging Futures thus configures itself as a privileged observatory on the new Italian under 35 scene, capable of reflecting the complexity of ongoing research and experimenting with new ways of meeting between art and the public.
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
She is also a marketing teacher at Digital Coach in Milan and she published a book about NFTs for the Italian publishing house Mondadori, while she is also helping artists and company to entering in the sector. As advisor, Amelia is also involved in metaverse-related project such as The Nemesis and OVER.
