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GIAN MARIA TOSATTI

Gian Maria Tosatti (Rome, 1980) is an Italian visual artist, journalist, and essayist.

His early training was rooted in performance, initially at the Centro per la Sperimentazione e la Ricerca Teatrale in Pontedera (Pisa), a centre for production, research, and international exchange that was particularly shaped by the legacy of Jerzy Grotowski, who in the 1980s had made it one of the key centres for his revolutionary concept of "poor theatre". Between 2009 and 2018, Tosatti lived in New York, before dividing his time between Kyiv and Odesa from 2019 to 2020. He subsequently returned to Europe and currently lives and works in Paris. His artistic practice is deeply rooted in the places and environments in which he works. Through site-specific environmental installations, he interweaves social and spiritual dimensions, transforming space into a collective and immersive experience while exploring the boundaries between architecture and the visual arts. His settings are often large urban or peripheral areas and buildings marked by the traces of memory. 

Berry Hem

This approach can be seen, for example, in cycles such as Devotioni (2005–2011), comprising ten monumental installations created in ten different buildings in Rome; Fondamenta (from 2011); and Seven Seasons of the Spirit (2013–2015). It has also informed itinerant projects such as Après la Jungle de Calais (2019) and Il mio cuore è vuoto come uno specchio, a kind of diary-novel recounting a journey through Catania, Riga, Cape Town, Odesa, and Istanbul, as well as the creative process that led the artist to conceive a work in each city. Gian Maria Tosatti's works are long-term investigations into themes related to the concept of identity, seeking to offer a direct experience of artistic practices that engage with the city and its social fabric. Visitors are invited to become active participants in the creative process, while the works simultaneously open up a dialogue on public art and the role of the artist in contemporary society. Alongside his artistic practice, Tosatti has also developed a significant career as a journalist and essayist. He served as director of the weekly La Differenza and has contributed as a columnist to a number of publications, including Artribune, Opera Viva, Corriere della Sera, and Il Sole 24 Ore. From 2021 to 2024, he was Artistic Director of the Quadriennale di Roma, where his work focused on supporting research and promoting Italian contemporary art internationally. In 2022, he was selected for the Italian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, curated by Eugenio Viola, becoming the first artist to represent Italy with a solo project. Storia della Notte e Destino delle Comete was conceived as a large-scale environmental installation occupying the spaces of the Tese delle Vergini and structured in two acts, through which Tosatti reflected on the complex relationship between humankind and nature. He has exhibited at numerous Italian and international institutions, including the Hessel Museum in New York (2014), MADRE in Naples (2016), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York (2011), La Galleria Nazionale in Rome (2017), the Petah Tikva Museum of Art (2017), the Museo Archeologico di Salerno (2014), the American Academy in Rome (2013), Museo Villa Croce in Genoa (2012), Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome (2008), the Chelsea Art Museum in New York (2009), Centrale Montemartini in Rome (2007), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes / Museo Wilfredo Lam in Havana (2015), Casa Testori in Milan (2014), MAAM in Rome, and Castel Sant'Elmo in Naples. His projects have also taken place in locations including the Tarlabaşı district in Istanbul (2021), Lake Kuyalnik in Odesa (2020), the A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town (2019), and Palazzo Biscari in Catania (2018).

Work
GIAN MARIA TOSATTI

Breath

Environmental installation