Antonio Della Guardia on quarantine, digital art communication, and the need for critical support

During lockdown, digital initiatives like Radio GAMeC, MAMbo's '2 minuti', and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo's 'I Speak Contemporary' exemplified effective art communication. However, the pandemic also exposed the superficiality of social media-driven curation, prioritizing followers over critical discourse. Artist Antonio Della Guardia (Salerno, 1990) spent quarantine developing 'tecniche di evasioni' based on William Horatio Bates' motor operations, aiming to reclaim long-distance vision from digital strain. His project, originally scheduled for a solo show at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Stockholm curated by Vasco Forconi, is postponed. Della Guardia's research began in 2019 in Kiev during 'The corrosion of character, l'uomo flessibile' at Fondazione Izolyatsia, curated by Alessandra Troncone and Kateryna Filyuk. He notes that the pandemic revealed the precarious status of art workers in Italy, leading to collective mobilization like Art Workers Italia (AWI). He hopes the crisis fosters collective responsibility rather than individual goals. The interview is part of Artribune's series on young artists in quarantine by Giuseppe Amedeo Arnesano.