Despite the health emergency, which has strongly conditioned the creative industry, RUFA-Rome University of Fine Arts chooses to walk the path of continuity, proceeding with the organization of the 2020 edition of the RUFA Contest. All this is taking place while waiting to know the reference regulatory scenario that will allow to plan, with dates and times, all the initiatives related to the event.
The internal Commission, chaired by the Director of the Academy arch. Fabio Mongelli and RUFA Contest artistic director Emanuele Cappelli, made use of the analysis provided by the teachers Anne Ritte Ciccone, Emiliano Coletta, Fabrizio Dell’Arno, Genny Di Bert, Guido Lombardo, Meltem Eti Proto, Antonio Pace, Raffaele Simongini and Caterina Tomeo. Each of them evaluated all 127 projects presented by the students, admitting 54 of them to the next phase. Among these, a further skimming will be carried out which will determine the 25 ideas admitted to the final. These steps, of course, will be defined when it will be possible to schedule the various appointments.
“Oh, my Earth!”: this is the theme of the RUFA Contest which, as usual for five years, invites the students of the Academy of Fine Arts legally recognized by the Miur, to confront each other in the sign of creativity to decline ideation, ingenuity and research.
“I am your gem,
I was born from your daughter.
I breathe you, I drink you, I eat you.
By touching you, I learn to recognize myself.
Irreplaceable, inspiring muse, cradle of evolution.
You make me feel like a guest. You make me feel part of it.
I’m free with you,
by you I vibrate with emotion
and I can forget you, Mother.
So infinite and unrepeatable, Earth.”
This is the literal synthesis that the artistic director of RUFA Contest, Emanuele Cappelli, has defined for the 2020 edition. The theme aims to express a return to the origins. “We all have the same Mother,” explains Emanuele Cappelli, “human, animal and vegetable. We are living matter of a single ecosystem, the Earth, the supreme source of our evolution.
The history of humankind, its research, have always been animated within this complete, organic, perfect system, but in its extremely simple pivotal principle. A system of which we are a link to the future. Nature, supreme inspiration for art and engineering, has made us desire its emulation and so, guided by our emotions and moods, we have reproduced shapes, colours, films, written words, evoked sounds. But if on the one hand the work or project tries to replicate what already exists, on the other hand they are an indispensable testimony that projects humans towards understanding, evolution.
Academic education aims to provide an answer to be an active part of the universal theme of Mother Earth. A response/project as powerful as an aurora borealis or as light as the beating of a butterfly’s wings.”
The kermesse aims to continue its vision: to raise the concepts of modernity, art and research. An approach confirmed by the personalities who have characterized the project in the five editions so far: Stefan Sagmeister in 2015, Karim Rashid in 2016, Francis Kéré in 2017, Shirin Neshat in 2018, David LaChapelle in 2019. For the winner among the winners, a prize of 2,500.00 euros and a return air ticket to spend a training period at the studio of the international guest who assumes the role of jury president of the final evening.
These are the projects admitted to the selection for the final phase: Riccardo Abate (Humanity), Maria Ahmed (Consonanza // Grado zero dell’esistenza), Claudia Auricchio – Valerio Mecozzi (Living stone), Debora Barile (N.O.W.), Sonia Bouslama (OHH MY TEAR), Emma Brunelli (HÝBRIS), Gianmatteo Buttiglione – Mirko Pelliccia (H(earth)Z), Valeria Cappabianca (Panacea), Laura Capriglia (TREEBUTE), Martina Carbone (Common denominator), Maria Cavinato (At all times of time), Nicolò Chioccia (eukaryota), Sabrina Coppola (Lifetime), Caterina Crescini (The eternal return of forms), Fabrizio Crollari (Delebĭlis), Elisa De Giovanni (Attimo eterno), Javier Soler De Mendoza (Compost), Giulia Di Franco (Cuma), Daniele Falchi (Life finds a way), Pietro Falcone (saudade), Edoardo Filippone – Carmine De Vita (Komorebi), Tijana Gavric (MOTHER, FORGIVE ME!), Alessio Gennaro (The Light side of the Earth), Maria Elisabetta Gentile (Mihrab), Sofia Giacinti (trace of pure souls), Martina Giuliani (Nature lays bare), Giuseppe Giusi Alfredo (MOON), Alessio Hong (Mommy Earth), Simone Liberati (Father Earth), Amedeo Longo – Silvia Bottero (“one day (again)”), Davide Luccini (Falso), Marco Luzzi (HOME, Borderline relationship), Lorenzo Mancini – Lorenzo Foresta – Marchese Fabio (Focus), Sofia Martini (TREES’ DEATH FOR NATURE’S BREATH), Lidia Matarazzo (Naturae matrix), Giovanni Benedetto Matteucci (Judith), Bogdan Melinte (Geoscapes), Davide Miceli (Ultima forma), Yeodit Pace (Metamorfosi – Guardare con altri occhi), Chiara Dina Palmitessa (Homo Orbis), Francesco Saverio Pasquarelli (Wildfire), Mariagrazia Pellegrini (And I can forget you Mother), Elisa Pelliccioni (IN EARTH WE TRUST), Francesco Piccolo (VII), Elisa Quadrini – Maria Gavrilova (Natural balance: it depends on you), Antonio Reda (DROP the DROP), Gianluca Ricco (Monstrum), Giulia Gaia Rossi (Eleven Years), Anija Salvato – Lorenzo Morelli (BEE-MEE), Sofia Sotto Corona (Bits of sky are the only certainty against these uncertain times), Simone Tecchia (CAGE), Xiang Wang Yu (“Fe + H2O2 → H2Fe + O2”), Annalisa Welzhofer (Grounding), Michal Zemel – Giorgia Pelagalli (Overcast traces).
