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STEFANO CAGOL
Stefano Cagol (Trento, 1969) graduated from the Accademia di Brera in Milan and received a post-doctoral fellowship at Ryerson University in Toronto. He lives and works in Revo’, Trentino, South Tyrol, Italy. Cagol’s artistic research confronts broad-ranging topics integral to our times, turning is prodigious practice into an interconnected reflection on climate change in the Anthropocene; the viral spread of images and ideas; and the notion of the border and its various manifestations: mental, physical, cultural, political, communicative, or between individuals and collectives. Cagol’s practice, often conceptual, stemming out of a work-in-progress methodology, is takes shape in various media, such as performances and actions, video, photography, sculpture, installation, and publications.
Cagol is the recipient of prestigious awards, including: the Italian Council Award (2019), the VISIT Award of the RWE Foundation, Innogy Stiftung (2014); and the Terna Prize (2009). Cagol has participated in many international biennales, including: the 14th Curitiba Biennial, Brazil (2019); the 2nd OFF Biennale, Cairo, Egypt (2018); Manifesta 11, Zurich, Switzerland (2016); the 2nd Xinjiang Biennale, China (2016); the 55th Venice Biennale in the Maldives National Pavilion (2013); the 54th Venice Biennale with a solo collateral event (2011); the 4th Berlin Biennale, Germany (2006); and the 1st Singapore Biennale (2006).
Stefano Cagol has undertaken 2 Artist Residencies at MOMENTUM. The first, in 2015, was part of Cagol’s project The Body of Energy (of the mind), for which he was the recipient of the VISIT Award from the RWE Foundation, Innogy Stiftung. Cagol developed this project as a year-long expedition spanning Europe’s northern-most to southern-most tips, on a search for signs of energy. Encompassing both physical and cultural energy, this project assumed many forms, triggering reflections on what is not visible, on resources, on relations. Cagol’s Artist Residency culminated in his first solo show in Berlin, presenting The Body of Energy (of the mind) at CLB Collaboratorium Berlin.
MORE INFO on Stefano Cagol’s 2015 Residency at MOMENTUM >>
Cagol’s second Artist Residency at MOMENTUM was undertaken in 2019-20, with the project THE TIME OF THE FLOOD. Beyond the Myth Through Climate Change, for which he won the 6th edition of the Italian Council Award (2019). Also a year-long research project, initiated in Berlin, and moving on to Tel Aviv & Jerusalem, Rome & Venice, to consider how the Biblical story of The Flood can be re-imagined in terms of climate change in the Anthropocene.
MORE INFO on Stefano Cagol’s 2019-20 Residency at MOMENTUM >>
Selected solo exhibitions and projects include: MA*GA Art Museum, Gallarate, Italy (2019); Stefano Cagol: The Consequences Of Vacua ,C+N Canepaneri, Milan, Italy (2017); in 2014-2015, his solo project “The Body of Energy (of the mind)” was presented at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, at Madre in Naples, at Maga in Gallarate, at Museion in Bolzano, at Kunsthalle St. Gallen, at ZKM in Karlsruhe and at Museum Folkwang in Essen; Westergasfabriek Cultuur park in Amsterdam (2012); Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdansk (2012); Museion in Bolzano (2012); ZKM in Karlsruhe (2012); 54th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, collateral event (2011); Manifesta 7, parallel event (2008); NADiff in Tokyo (2007); 4th Berlin Biennale, special project (2006); 1st Singapore Biennale, satellite event (2006); Platform in London (2005); Mart – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto (2000).
Selected group exhibitions include: ZKM, Karlsruhe (2019); C+N Canepaneri, Milan, Italy (2019); Riccardo Crespi Galleria, Milan, Italy (2016); WhiteBox, NY, USA (2016); Museion, Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bolzano, Italy (2015); WhiteBox, NY, USA (2014); Maldives Pavilion at 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia (2013); Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery in Moscow (2013); Kunstraum Innsbruck (2012); El Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires (2012); SUPEC – Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, Shanghai (2010); White Box, New York (2010); MARTa Herford (2009); HVCCA – Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill (2008); IKOB – Internationales Kunstzentrum Ostbelgien, Eupen (2003); Palazzo della Triennale in Milan (1997); Video Forum at ART 27’96 Basel (1996). Permanent public art commissions include Istituto Martino Martini in Mezzolombardo for Autonomous Province of Trento (2012); Trento sud gate for A22 Autostrada del Brennero SpA (2011); Parco Mignone for Council of Bolzano (2007); Beurschouwburg in Brussels (2007-2012). Artist in residence include Air Bergen (2014); Drake Arts Center in Kokkola (2013); VIR Viafarini-in-residence in Milan (2013); BAR International by Pikene på Broen in Kirkenes (2010); International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York (2010); Leube Group’s Art Program in Gartenau (2003); Künstlerhaus in Salzburg (1996). Awards include Terna Prize 02 for Contemporary Art (2009), Rome; Targetti Light Art prize, Florence (2008); Murri Public Art prize, Bologna (2008). Shortlists include Art & Ecology International Artists Residency by RSA – Royal Society for Arts, London (2008); MapXXL mobility program by Pépinières Européennes pour Jeunes Artistes, Paris (2005).
Stefano Cagol has participated in many artist residencies and received fellowships including: Cambridge Sustainability Residency; Air Bergen; Vir-Viafarini-in-Residence in Milan; BAR International in Kirkenes; International Studio and Curatorial Program ISCP in New York; International Center of Photography in New York.
NATIONAL PRIDE, 2009
Video, 2 min 02 sec
On loan for COVIDecameron, courtesy of the artist.
Stefano Cagol’s National Pride (2009) turns a clip from “Virus”, a 1980 apocalyptic sci-fi film, into an audiovisual parable for our times in the age of Corona. Transforming the filmic pandemic of the Italian Flu into a wider reflection on influenza, influence, and borders, this capricious work fits firmly into Cagol’s ongoing series of FLU projects; a body of work made particularly relevant today, and dating back to 1998 and the first Bird Flu outbreak in Asia in 1997.
Another manifestation of Cagol’s FLU projects includes his Power Station intervention at the Singapore Biennale (2006), and Bird Flu / Vogelgrippe (2006), taking place in Trento, Bolzano, Innsbruck, Munich, Nuremberg, Leipzig, and culminating at the Berlin Biennale. Cagol describes the latter as “A mental and physical trip into the center of Europe, between real and unreal fears, physical and mental influences. Bird Flu / Vogelgrippe is an acute febrile highly contagious viral disease, or a power to influence persons or events, especially power based on prestige.” Out of these initiatives arose the 5-year project FLU POWER FLU (2007-2012), taking the form of public interventions, highlighting contemporary influences, beliefs, pre/misconceptions and belonging. Power, in various forms extends its influence to our daily lives yet our notion of power and its extent of influence is often, perhaps deliberately, overlooked. Moving and interacting within/outside “centers of power” of past and present Europe, be it cultural, political or financial, FLU POWER FLU aptly questions their authority and invites reflexivity, yet inevitably becomes an accomplice in these power games.