Bridging Academia and Contemporary Art in Italy

In an interview at the Turin conference "Museums at the Post-Digital Turn," Lorenzo Giusti noted that Italian academia, with some exceptions, remains indifferent to urgent topics such as the role of museums and art history in the post-digital era, changes in authorship in contemporary art, and the creation of digital platforms. The author, Gabriella De Marco, argues that the humanities must engage with new technologies, as culture is not static. She laments the lack of dialogue between university research and the broader art system—foundations, museums, galleries, social media, and press—which hinders networking. De Marco stresses the need to reaffirm contemporary art's place within humanistic culture, especially in a society dominated by utilitarian views. She warns that without a broader project, the art world risks generating only entropic noise. De Marco is a full professor of contemporary art history at the University of Palermo.