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On May 16th the student art association “ EXNOVO ” and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Foggia hosted a discussion for vessel project leaders Viviana Checchia and Andrea Vara, and visiting curators Arzu Yayintas of Istanbul and Pieter Vermeulen of Brussels. A diverse audience of students, members of EXNOVO, art professors and the academy director Pietro di Terlizzi attended the event. Audience members proved to be active participants in the ensuing discussion which was moderated by Checchia and enriched by the insights of Yayintas and Vermeulen.

The theme of the discussion was the curatorial approach to organizing exhibitions in small regions, and also included an investigation of the status and role of the academy in relation to individual artists and the art world at large. Checchia described vessel’s hopeful role in improving the circulation and communication of Apulia’s art scene. Asa whole, the curators believed there to be a lack of collaboration and communication between curator, artist and academy which results in general discord. The effect of an increasingly globalized culture on the art world, market and academy was cited as a challenge for both the modern artist and curator.

There was some debate among the team of curators and several professors in the audience in regard to the definition of “public” and the role of the academy in the training of young artists. Naturally, the opinion of the success of the academy in its instructive role was divided, and this further-evidenced the dissent which is brought about by differing viewpoints between professor and student, academy and art world, artist and curator.

Several speakers encouraged young artists were encouraged to take up their own cause and effectively promote themselves in an increasingly competitive art scene. Vermeulen spoke of the problem of “too much vs. not enough” in the art market, and the increase in sameness and loss of freedom for experimentation which results. Yayintas expressed a need for artists to be trained in the tools of promotion so that they might become an individual “company” in the art market and effectively manage their promotion: in short, as later refuted by Vermeulen, each artist could aspire to be their own curator. The responsibility of the curator lies in creating a sort of platform of promotion to aid artists in circulation and distribution.