An artist can only be someone who has his own religion, an original intuition of the infinite”
Friedrich Schlegel
from Critical Fragments and Writings of Aesthetics (1797)
Aluminium is the only metal that can be 100% recycled without losing the technical properties that characterize it such as conductivity, malleability, and luster. This process can be repeated an infinite number of times, without losing any of its peculiarities; every time ready to face new cycles, to give life to new products.
The theme of the COMEL 2022 Award, Endless Aluminium, underlines precisely this characteristic: the possibility of this material to live infinite lives while always remaining the same; to change form and use without ever changing its composition; to ignore time and be reborn indefinitely, always starting new paths, seizing new opportunities.
In this ninth edition, artists are asked to create works that therefore recall the concept of infinity, new beginnings, and rebirth. The works eligible to participate will only be those in which aluminium, even if used together with other materials, is visibly the predominant material.
THE JURY
GIORGIO AGNISOLA
Art critic, writer and professor, Jury President
Giorgio Agnisola has worked for a long time as a consultant for Modern and Contemporary Art in the context of international agreements for cultural exchanges. Since 1983 he has been called on official missions by the French-speaking countries of Europe for studies and research on contemporary Art. He has collaborated since 1990 with the newspaper “Avvenire” and in particular on the ‘Art’ page. He is a sociétaire member of the International Art Critics Association and he has been the scientific curator of exhibitions of international relevance, such as “Symbolism in Belgium” (1985), at the Royal Palace of Caserta, in collaboration with the Belgian government; “Italy-Luxembourg, Confrontations” (2002), in collaboration with the Embassy of Luxembourg in Italy; “Alberto Magnelli, works 1915-1970” (2012) and “Alberto Burri, Unico e multiplo/ Unique and multiple” (2014), both at the Municipal Art Gallery in Gaeta. He is a consultant of the CEI for Contemporary Sacred Art. He is an Emeritus Professor of Sacred Art and Cultural Heritage of the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Southern Italy. He has obtained two international awards for his activity as an art critic: Chevalier de l ‘Ordre de Leopold II in Belgium and Officier de l’ Ordre de Mérite in Luxembourg. He has written many books. The latest: The look and the beyond (2018), Art and dialogue in the Mediterranean (edited by) (2020), Transparent Matter (2021).
CLAUDIA PALMA
Director of the Bioiconographic Archive of the National Gallery of Modern Art
She has been director of the Bioiconographic Archive and Historical Funds of the National Gallery of Modern Art since 2000, where she is in charge of all the procedures related to donations, testamentary legacies, and free loans from the Archives that arrive in the Gallery. She has been the internal commissioner of the Gallery for numerous exhibitions and has participated as a speaker at numerous conferences on Archives, Photographic Archives, Fashion Archives, and Copyright, publishing articles on the subject. She oversaw the preparation of the didactic photographic exhibition dedicated to Irene Brin at the Costume and Fashion Academy of Rome and of her house museum in Sasso di Bordighera, as well as the organization of two editions of the “Art in the garden” Prize held there and the publication of the unpublished book by Brin herself “L’Italia esplode”. She is part of the board of directors of the AITART association (Italian association of artists’ archives) for which she is responsible for the National Gallery of Modern Art of the Roman edition of the Course for curators of artist archives.
MARILENA VITA
Art critic, curator, director, essayist, artist
Former consulting professor of History of Contemporary Art at the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Catania, with particular attention to the History of Photography, Performance, and Video Art. Lecturer at the Masters: “The recycling project: architecture, visual arts, design“, and ”Integration of Architecture into the landscape“, at the University of Catania SDS Architettura, Syracuse. General Secretary of Nuova AICA Italia. She collaborates with Fynpaper, an international socio-cultural magazine based in Milan. She wrote and published books and essays on Contemporary Art. In 2019 she curated a global event on Joseph Beuys at Palazzo Vermexio, and at the Urban Center in Syracuse. She have exhibited her art in solo exhibitions at museums and art galleries around the world: New York, Berlin, Paris, Prague, and Cape Town, to name a few. Her works are part of public and private collections. She works between Syracuse, Milan, and Amsterdam.
MICHELANGELO GIOVINALE
Professor of art history, freelance curator, art critic
Trained as a set designer, he directs his interest to the study of visual arts and contemporary languages. He starts collaborations with public and private entities for the management and organization of cultural models. He is visiting professor at the University of Salerno (2010) on the creative Urban theme. At the University of Siena (2011) he spoke on the theme Urban scenography, ephemeral conversation on the form. He starts in 2017 the extensive project for the regeneration of Palazzo Delle Arti. Where he curates in 2018 the first nucleus of works of art for the permanent collection. He undersigns the project for the creation of the first contemporary digital archive of art in Campania. He oversees the exhibition and programming activities of public and private galleries. He directs the Mosaico series for Gutenberg Edizioni, a collection of art notebooks dedicated to contemporary artists working in southern Italy. He has been the editorial director of Mosaicomonografie since 2022.
MARIA GABRIELLA MAZZOLA
Aluminium Sector Manager
Running the company COMEL Industrie with her brother Adriano and sister Luisa, she combines technical-business preparation with organizational and coordination skills, bringing the company new guidelines such as attention to communication, innovation and marketing. She has always supported, personally and with the company, cultural activities in favour of the territory and animal protection. In December 2012 Maria Gabriella received an award for entrepreneurial merits from the “Nuova Immagine Latina Cultural Association”. She is president of the “VANNA MIGLIORIN Cultural Association” which promotes contemporary intellectual and artistic works to the public, in all their forms and expressions. Among the various activities of the association, the promotion of the COMEL Award and the organization of monographic exhibitions dedicated to artists of international fame.
THE 13 FINALISTS
THE WINNERS
COMEL AWARD VANNA MIGLIORIN 2022
MINUTES OF THE JURY
On Nov. 19, at 11 a.m., at the Spazio Comel in Latina, Via Neghelli, the jury for the ninth edition of the Comel-Vanna Migliorin Award met. Attending were Michelangelo Giovinale, Gabriella Mazzola, Claudia Palma, Marilena Vita as members and Giorgio Agnisola, chairman. After greetings and thanks from Ms. Mazzola, on behalf of the Comel company, promoter of the award, and after recalling the terms of the call for entries, the works of the thirteen finalists exhibited in the Space are examined. An initial and personal selection of five works is made, followed by a discussion of the choices made and an exchange of views. After a subsequent tallying of preferences, made after a collegial re-reading of the works, unanimously the decision is made to award two special mentions to the works:
“In Taras Halaburda’s work The Good Morning of Things, the cure as a ritual of physical relief acquires in the orderly and evocative display of four aluminium blister packs something sacral, at once mysterious and disturbing.”
Verso l’infinito e oltre di Sonia Scaccabarozzi, con la seguente motivazione:
“In its essential visual score, the work “Verso l’infinito e oltre”, by Sonia Scaccabarozzi , evokes, beyond any naturalistic reference, an intimist sense of pushing upward, toward the beyond: a dream of free and happy migrations into the depths of life.”
Finally, the jury, after wide and calm discussion, decided to award the Comel Prize 2022 to the work Betulle (Birches), by Chiara A.Colombo with the following motivation:
“With an intense and visionary sign, the work Betulle by Chiara A. Colombo evokes, thanks also to the surprising tonal effects of the metal surface engraved with pictorial and expressive finesse, a mysterious winter landscape in which the beauty and charm of nature and the drama and pain of war seem to represent themselves in a vivid psychological and emotional counterpoint.”
The Audience Award goes to Claudio Marinone for the work Nasce una Musa (Birth of a Muse).
In Claudio Marinone’s work Nasce una musa (Birth of a Muse), the inspired profile of a female face is interpreted, with fine and expert metalwork, with a fresh and sentimental psychological reflection in which the form seems to poetically accompany the expression.
Finally, the jury, expressing its satisfaction with the success of the award, expresses its warmest good wishes to the organizers.
Read and signed, Latina, November 19, 2022.
PHOTO GALLERY
The setting of the exibition
Inauguration of the COMEL Award 2022
Award Ceremony
