Cultural and Arts Society ART STAYS was founded in 2005 by a group of individuals with the aim of developing and promoting visual art through activities and events aimed at the development of contemporary art in Ptuj and abroad.
Art Stays is one of the most interesting organisations in Slovenia today, hosting a programme of exhibitions in two exhibition centres, artist residencies and organising the Festival of Contemporary Art, which has been the main visual art event in the wider region since 2003.
The Art Stays Festival of Contemporary Art brings to Ptuj and its surroundings the top quality production of international and local artists, from the most promising young artists to the big names of contemporary art, such as Ai Weiwei, Yoko Ono, Monira Al Qadiri, Gilbert & George, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Edward Burtynsky, Ivan Navarro, Allora & Calzadilla, Robin Meier, Koen Vanmechelen, Hannah Collins, Ilona Nemeth, Jordi Alcaraz, IRWIN, Perino & Vele, Fernando Prats, Tiffany Chung, Gigi Scaria, Regina Jose Galindo, Michele Spanghero, Roberto Pugliese, Grace Weir, and many others. It is one of the most important presentations of contemporary, especially fine art in Slovenia and in this part of Europe, and has become a reference event for many international galleries, museums, foundations and, of course, artists.
Other than the annual summer Art Stays Festival, our association also strives to promote and develop contemporary art through other projects, such as exhibitions at home and abroad, open and free of charge lectures on contemporary art by artists and professionals, international contests, and other events.
As we believe in the education of new audiences from a young age, we also organize workshops for children and youth during the Art Stays festival and around the year.
SILENT LIMIT
Artists: Giancarlo Dell’Antonia, Franco Marrocco
Guest curator: Italo Bergantini (Romberg)
Guest curator: Italo Bergantini (Romberg)
A vision within the place, but also within itself, a silent limit.
Space as an indefinite growth of possible points.The possibility of the existence of each point depends on there being such an inside space that it loses its character of abstract generality.
The outside is made up of many points each with their own inner vision, a silent and reflective balance between inner and outer space. An idea of space, of an inside of space, the inside of the outside in a silent boundary, where all perceptions are grafted together following precepts, that is, images and appearances that are translated into figural thought. A reflection on the ambiguity of perception and the illusion of technocratic veracity, through a close confrontation between various attempts to detect a space, rendered abstract in this way, and the concreteness of a real space, the space that dwells around us as well as within us.
Digital processing, photography, drawing, painting are for Giancarlo Dell’Antonia, the basis of his complex research. A visual artist and designer, he is attentive in documenting the territory and landscape, its changes and transformations, with reflections on the perception of places through the influence of the media. Intolerant of the defacement of urban and natural spaces, he uses his means of expression to reflect and understand the contemporary landscape. His works have been exhibited in several national and international exhibitions, with the support of qualified galleries such as Galleria Alberta Pane in Paris, Galleria Biagiotti Arte Contemporanea in Florence, Galleria Romberg Arte Contemporanea in Rome, achieving appreciation and acclaim from the public and critics.
