CURATOR
A vision of peace
and human dignity
A vision of peace and human dignity
Andrea Benetti is an Italian visual artist, born in Bologna in 1964, whose research is situated at the intersection of contemporary art, anthropological memory, and symbolic expression. His practice encompasses painting, photography, drawing, installations, and video art, developed through a vision that reinterprets the symbols of the origins of art in the light of the creative languages of the present.
In 2006 he conceived and authored the Neo-Cave Art Manifesto, presented at the 53rd International Art Exhibition of Venice. In it he proposes a conceptual bridge between the earliest forms of human communication and “contemporary artistic research,” restoring to the sign an ethical and anthropological value. His poetics are expressed through the use of archetypal forms and symbols, reworked through geometries, chromatic fields, and materials that evoke a “primordial” dimension.
Andrea Benetti’s works are held in major public and institutional collections, including those of the United Nations, the Vatican, the Quirinal Palace, and the Italian Chamber of Deputies, as well as in museums and international collections. His research is the subject of academic studies and projects at numerous universities in Italy and abroad, and is documented in leading encyclopedias and critical reference works.
Andrea Benetti’s works are held in major public and institutional collections, including those of the United Nations, the Vatican, the Quirinal Palace, and the Italian Chamber of Deputies, as well as in museums and international collections. His research is the subject of academic studies and projects at numerous universities in Italy and abroad, and is documented in leading encyclopedias and critical reference works.
Alongside his artistic activity, Benetti has developed a significant international curatorial practice. He is the founder of Atelier Quindici, an artistic initiative that brings together fifteen artists, all figures of high standing in contemporary art, from different parts of the world, within a shared space of dialogue and research. The project is based on the encounter between artists who did not know one another prior to Benetti’s selection and who, through his curatorial vision, were brought into relation in order to form a transnational creative nucleus, now oriented toward the development of joint initiatives on a global scale.
In 2009, on the occasion of the centenary of Futurism, Benetti also conceived and produced the editorial and artistic project Esplorazione inconsueta all’interno della velocità, a limited-edition collector’s book that approaches, in philosophical and visual terms, the theme of speed as a foundational category of modernity. The work is structured around twelve original artworks and includes fifteen essays by full professors and deans of faculties, as well as a contribution by the then Director of Johns Hopkins University, all invited to reflect on the influence of speed within their respective fields of study.
Art Stop War arises from this trajectory that unites creation, curatorship, and critical reflection. In continuity with his investigation into the anthropological value of image and sign, Andrea Benetti conceived the project as a neutral symbolic space in which artists from contexts of conflict can coexist and express themselves outside the logic of political and ideological confrontation. Here art returns to being a place of relation and cultural responsibility, capable of transforming the memory of pain into a shared vision: art as an antidote to war.
