A DIALOGUE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST IN THE NAME OF ART. FONDAZIONE ARIA OPENS IN ATRI THE 8TH EDITION OF STILLS OF PEACE ITALY AND SOUTH KOREA.

Stills of Peace festival kicks off in Cortile di Palazzo Acquaviva attended by Korean and Italian illustrious personalities. From July 4 to August 22, five exhibitions of contemporary Korean and Italian art are featured in historic old town Atri.

During the opening held on Monday, July 4, Atri’s mayor Piergiorgio Ferretti said the municipality is pleased with such an event that every year manages to lure international artists and guests into Atri, while assessor Mimma Centorame pointed out the longevity of the event and the collaboration between institutions and private sponsors. Ottorino La Rocca, President of Fondazione Aria, highlighted how Stills of Peace finds every year its vital energy in the intercultural dialogue between nations in the name of art and how the confrontation between cultures, that are only apparently distant from each other, can help discover analogies and differences. Lorenzo Sospiri, President of the Regional Council, expressed in his speech the wish for art to become more and more a vehicle of peace and friendship between nations; the Director of Korean Cultural Center in Rome, Choong Suk Oh, declared himself very pleased and grateful with the increasing interest in South Korean culture shown by Italian audience, interest that events like Stills of Peace are able to boost. In a video message, the Ambassador of Italy in Seoul, Federico Failla saluted the inauguration.

The director and organizer of the event with her staff from Delloiacono Comunica Agency, Giovanna Dello Iacono, has introduced the team of five curators that reunited, for this edition, fourteen featured artists, displaying five exhibitions hosted in three venues across Atri (Te): Cisterne di Palazzo Acquaviva will host Beyond the Diary from artist Jukhee Kwon and Diary of 365 figures by Andrea Fogli, both curated by Antonio Zimarino. The Museo Archeologico will host the pictures from Jungjin Lee’s Unnamed Road project, exposition curated by Paolo Dell’Elce, an enchanted eye on the territories between Israel and Palestine; the same venue will also host Per Fumum / Through the smoke curated by Eva Comuzzi (featured artists: Seo Young Chang, Yun Choi / Minhwi Lee, T-Yong Chung, Soko Hwang, Geumhyung Jeong, Eemyun Kang, Ohyou Kyeong, Young Joo Lee, Kim Myeongbeom), the space in which ten Korean artists will display their artworks ranging from sculpture to painting, to videoart. Palazzo Cardinal Cicada will host Barbara Uccelli’s exhibition Flaws / Vizi di forma, curated by Mariano Cipollini, a multidisciplinary path aiming at detecting and analysing faults and imperfections that underlie modern society; on the occasion of the opening, by virtue of the formal freedom that leads her research, the artist staged the live performance “Where is Barbara Uccelli?”, in cooperation with Florian Metateatro.

Every Monday starting from July, 5 at 09:00 p.m., Cortile di Palazzo Acquaviva hosts Cine Korea, a film festival curated by Pino Bruni, dedicated to Korean cinema o.v. with italian subtitles (tickets available on viviatri.it).

Stills of Peace, honoured this year with the Patronage of Italian Ministry of Culture and with all of ten official recognitions by the main international cultural institutions, is the central event of the Fondazione Aria activity’s 10th anniversary celebration. The foundation chaired by Ottorino La Rocca affirms its mission of perpetuation and innovation of the figure of the entrepreneur as a patron, the driving force of social progress and life improvement for everyone.