SUPERBLAST is a competition for the assignment of six residencies to six multidisciplinary artists who will develop artistic projects in full formal freedom and in dialogue with the spaces of Manifattura Tabacchi.

SUPERBLAST is aimed at individual artists or collectives under 40 years of age. It offers them a platform for action and expression, supports production and offers an ecosystem of relationships that focuses on the enhancement of artistic practice.

Each winning artist will receive:

• € 5.000 for the production of their work, a production studio and accommodation for the period of residence;
• a three-month residency at Manifattura Tabacchi, from May to July 2022, which will start with a workshop together with leading figures in the world of contemporary art and culture and will continue with studio visits, meetings and open studios;
• the possibility to exhibit their work in the final collective exhibition and a publication at the end of the residency;
• the support of an author, in order to create the editorial content for the editorial project.

The residencies will be part of a cultural program taking place at Manifattura Tabacchi – and open to the community – that will allow artists to establish a relationship of exchange with the city.

Andrea Lissoni, PhD, is Artistic Director, Haus der Kunst, Munchen since April 2020. Formerly Senior Curator, International Art (Film) at Tate Modern, London and previously curator at HangarBicocca Milan (2009-13), the co-founder of the independent artistic network Xing and co-director of the international festival Netmage in Bologna, in 2012 he co-founded Vdrome, an online screening programme for artists and filmmakers, which he co-curates since then.

At Tate Modern he launched a yearly Cinema Programme conceived as an exhibition unfolding throughout the year, he co-curated the display and the live programme at the opening of the new building in 2016, the 2017 and 2018 Live Exhibition, the 2016 Turbine Hall Commission by Philippe Parreno and the expanded exhibition Joan Jonas (2018). He was the co-curator of the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement The Sound of Screens imploding, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève/OGR Torino, 2018. In 2019 he contributed to the international launch of the CCA Tashkent, the first public contemporary art center in Uzbekistan, where he curated the solo show by Saodat Ismailova Qo’rg’on Chiroq. More recently he curated the exhibition Bruce Nauman, Tate Modern, London, (2020-2021, travelling to Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and PirelliHangarBicocca, Milan).
His research concerns liveness, cinematic aspects in time-based artworks, the perception of time and forms of transmitting, sharing and engaging in contemporary arts. He explores these through trans-disciplinary approaches to exhibition-making, focusing on artistic contexts across non-dominant cultures and subcultures, among which, music and sound in particular.

Elena Magini is the curator and coordinator of exhibitions and events for Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato since 2015. Previously she worked for a variety of public and private realities dedicated to the contemporary, including EX3 Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, CCC Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Galleria dell’Accademia, MAN Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, and Fondazione Biagiotti Progetto Arte. She has written contributions and critical texts for exhibition catalogues and specialist journals, and regularly collaborates with some sector journals, including “Flash Art”.
In 2020 she will teach Planning and Museum Management for the Master in Arts Management at IED Firenze.

Caterina Molteni is Assistant Curator at the MAMbo – Museum of Modern Art in Bologna.
From 2016 to 2019 she dealt with Public Programs and Digital Content at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art Rivoli-Turin. In 2015 he collaborated with the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Turin. In 2014 she co-founded Tile Project Space, a non-profit space dedicated to research on emerging Italian art and in 2016 she was one of the founders of Kabul Magazine, with which she collaborated until 2018. In 2019 she started the Bagni d’Aria self-training project.

Her texts have appeared in Flash Art, CURA, Nero Editions, Kabul Magazine while his most recent projects include: Perchè lo faccio perchè. La vita poetica di Giulia Niccolai (with Allison Donahue, MAMbo, 2022); Dear you (MAMbo, 2021); Nuovo Forno del Pane (con Lorenzo Balbi e Sabrina Samorì, MAMbo 2020); Per un rinnovamento immaginista del mondo (con Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Alba, 2019); Supercondominio (Castello di Rivoli, 2018-2019); String Figures. Narration Practices (Fondazione Baruchello, Roma 2018).

Art historian, Chiara Parisi was appointed Director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz on December 2019. From 2011, she has served during five years as Director of the Monnaie de Paris where she notably devoted an important monographic exhibition to the artist Marcel Broodthaers and organized milestone exhibitions, in particular on Maurizio Cattelan and also “Take Me (I’m yours)” with Christian Boltanski and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

From 2017 she has also been guest curator of exhibitions at the French Academy in Rome-Villa Medici where she presented the work of Anne and Patrick Poirier. She also conceived the group exhibition “Le Violon d’Ingres,” at the crossroads of art history and contemporary research and the exhibition “Ouvert la nuit,” with, among others, Rosa Barba, Christian Boltanski, Trisha Donnelly, Elmgreen & Dragset, and Felix González-Torres. With the series of exhibitions “Una”, she has presented the work of Annette Messager, Claire Tabouret and Yoko Ono, Elizabeth Peyton and Camille Claudel, Tatiana Trouvé and Katharina Grosse. From 2004 to 2011, she has been the Director of Centre international d’art et du paysage de L’ile de Vassivière.

The documents required for the application are:

• Updated portfolio as per 2022;
• Project containing both concept and execution methods;
• Curriculum Vitae and cover letter;
• Your bio, headshot, your passport or identity card.
• These documents need to be signed:
  – the application form which you can download here;
  – privacy policy which you can download here;
  – audio/video release form which you can download here.

*Each document has to be sent separately. 

You can send your application by filling out the form at the link below, by March 1st 2022.

The six winning artists of the competition will be announced on April 24th on Manifattura Tabacchi’s website and social channels.