Combat Prize 2020 Prize

As we planned the eleventh edition of the Combat Prize we certainly had not foreseen that an event as shocking, out of place and sudden as a pandemic could interrupt the usual flow of things. Beyond the countless

human tragedies, this powerful eruption of “true reality” into our daily lives showed the fragility of an art world made up of cultural workers, curators, and artists, levelled by financial insecurity, poorly supported by national institutions. They are risking irreversible disappearance and being relegated to the roles of characters in a uchronic novel.

All this should lead to important considerations on our ability to resist in the face of an imminent catastrophe. Do we turn our backs or start doing our part, believing in culture and art as tools for improving ourselves and society, giving them priority in the plan for restarting?

We know where we have to be and the Combat Prize’s 1402 registered entries by artists from forty-six countries are the best results since its inception; it is a recognition of the Combat Prize’s constant and authoritative cultural identity. Over the years, the possibility of accessing a network and achieving considerable visibility for the artists has created valid mobility within the system. It has made it possible to give voice to all those creative experiences that are not always represented by galleries and institutions and yet comprise the greater part of contemporary artistic output.

Paolo Batoni, President Associazione Culturale Blob ART