Museion, the museum of modern and contemporary art in Bolzano, is pleased to announce its highly anticipated exhibition dedicated to the celebration of young contemporary artists from South Tyrol and Milan. RENAISSANCE highlights transdisciplinary artistic positions that share a commitment to a regenerative and critical examination of cultural heritage.

On the occasion of the awarding of one of the highest scholarships for emerging art in Europe, awarded by the Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation, Museion presents an exhibition with selected works by 15 young artists from northern Italy. Despite the diversity of their practices – including sculpture, installations, painting, drawing, video, photography and performance – they all share a regenerative and critical approach to their cultural heritage.

How does a young generation of artists process their own heavy cultural heritage, shaped by aesthetic and social "standards", values, models, icons or expectations about the figure of the artist? How do we build on the ruins of the past that still cast long shadows?

The 15 male and female artists on display use methods, images or materials to expose basic elements or ruins of dominant models of aesthetic and social representation, and found the new on them. While some investigate rituals, spiritual practices, migration stories, or passed-down family histories, others focus on the critical analysis and reevaluation of pervasive pop culture images, urban fictions, or stereotypical gender roles in literature, cinema, design , architecture or advertising. Several male and female artists then dedicate themselves to recycling waste products from the creative industry in which they sometimes operate, placing themselves at the intersection between figurative art and applied arts. In various transdisciplinary ways, each and every artist thematizes questions of belonging, affirming that cultural identity is something fluid, not at all set in stone. In this sense, the well-known regenerative concepts of "Renaissance" or "Arte Povera" are translated into the "here and now" and take on a new meaning.