White Night 2021
Soon, the night

Two years later the White Night of the French Academy returns to Rome. The initiative, scheduled for Thursday 4 November, is the first meeting point between the city of Rome and the scholars in residence at Villa Medici until summer 2022. The White Night sees the participation of the sixteen pensioners (scholarship holders) currently guests of the 'Academy: visual artists, art historians, composers, writers, architects, designers, videomakers are the protagonists of this moment dedicated to contemporary creation. The interventions of the fellows, scattered in different points of the Villa, will constitute an essay of their individual and multidisciplinary research. The retirees' proposals will take shape through visual works of art, performances, video projections, installations, sound interventions, conferences, creating a dynamic path that will touch the garden and the main building of the Villa, but also environments usually not accessible to the public. From this point of view, the White Night represents a unique opportunity to visit the Villa, in a condition - nocturnal, and with the contribution of the fellows - full of suggestions. The interventions of the pensioners will literally illuminate the rooms of the Villa: therefore ample space for video projections, as well as live performances, which will highlight the ephemeral and momentary nature of the initiative. The Notte Bianca is also distinguished by its laboratory dimension: not a real exhibition nor a traditional "open studio", but an evening in which fellows will have the opportunity to present themselves in Rome and its public, explore and familiarize themselves with the spaces of the Villa, showing attitudes and approaches. The title of this edition - Presto, la notte - refers on the one hand to the context in which the initiative takes place, between sunset and the early hours of the night; and, on the other hand, it can be interpreted as an exhortation, an incitement so that the night manifests itself rapidly, with all the load of suggestions and inspirations it brings with it. A condition, that of the night, suspended between darkness and illumination, loneliness and sharing, stillness and agitation; the Villa Medici event is an invitation to regain possession of the extreme hours of the day, on the sidelines of a period in which our relationship with them has been questioned during periods of confinement and curfew.