Grazia Toderi Receives Premio Presidente della Repubblica from Accademia di San Luca

On October 4, 2025, Italian President Sergio Mattarella awarded the Premio Presidente della Repubblica to artist Grazia Toderi in the 'painting class' at the Quirinale Palace, on nomination by the Accademia di San Luca. The prize, established in 1478, traditionally recognizes only painting, sculpture, and architecture, despite Toderi's practice being primarily video-based. Accademia president Francesco Cellini's motivation praised her visual and sonic art for eliminating painterly materiality in favor of light projections in three-dimensional space. Toderi described the award as the culmination of her relationship with the Accademia, which began with her 2022 exhibition 'Marco (I Mark We Mark)' curated by Marco Tirelli. She noted the prize's lack of monetary reward, publication, or exhibition compared to international awards like the Turner Prize, but emphasized the importance of the Accademia as a free and independent community of artists. Reflecting on her 1999 Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for the Italian Pavilion alongside Luisa Lambri, Bruna Esposito, Monica Bonvicini, and Paola Pivi, Toderi recalled pleading with curator Harald Szeemann to include men to avoid controversy, which he refused. She criticized Italian institutions for insufficient support of artists even after major awards.