Life Beyond Plastic: Three Italian Artists Win Public Art Commission

Riccardo Buonafede, Matteo Vettorello, and Valentina Furian have been selected as winners of the Life Beyond Plastic call for young artists, a competition for three site-specific public art installations on environmental sustainability. The initiative is part of the Life Beyond Plastic project funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, aimed at reducing plastic pollution in the seas. Buonafede (born 1984, Comacchio) will create a wall intervention and a sculpture pavilion at the Aquarium of Genoa. Vettorello (born 1986, Venice) will present an interactive sculpture in Piazza XXIV Maggio, Milan. Furian (born 1989, Venice) will produce a site-specific installation for the Piccolo Vuoto space at MUSE – Museo delle Scienze in Trento. The jury, led by artist Maria Cristina Finucci as artistic director and architect Stefano Boeri as president, included two jurors per city from scientific and cultural backgrounds. The winning artists will realize their works and participate in an artistic residency. The installations will be publicly displayed: in Milan for two weeks starting early June 2020, in Trento for three months from February 2020, and in Genoa for five months from February 2020.