Artist Statement
Riccardo Arena is a visual artist, researcher, and teacher. His practice is dedicated to the creation of visual and narrative environments that, combining theoretical and formal research, are conceived as cultural devices of imaginative knowledge.

Exploring heterogeneous disciplinary territories, his work emerges from the intertwining of phenomena and events distant in time and space, woven into a network of correlations that form the basis for complex narratives formalized through multiple languages and expressive modes.

Driven by these tensions, over the years he has developed long-term projects in various countries, whose poetics, and contents are defined by a rhizomatic investigation constructed through travel experiences. These projects, consisting of layers of myths, scientific speculations, geographies, fictitious models, cosmogonies, and mirages of consciousness, open a field of vision where historical frameworks and cultural backgrounds dissolve, favoring an evocative dimension capable of revealing more intimate and universal components.

During this process, the oscillation between rational methodology and intuitive action generates a series of cognitive movements that crystallize into mental diagrams, abstract cartographies, and gestural atlases—tools of orientation that unveil the very substance of the mental laboratory and provide the foundation for the creation of figurative, verbal, and spatial works that constitute the corpus of each project.

Installations, films, visual reflections, narratives, seminars, workshops, and lectures configure an imaginative geography open to horizons in constant reformulation, contamination, and expansion, within the scope of a research endeavor aimed at experimenting with hybrid modes of expression and sharing across various contexts.

After developing projects in China (The Fourfold Tree, 2006–2008), in Argentina (Dual Death Ellero and Visual Ecosystem, 2009–2012), in Russia (Vavilon, 2013–2017), and LuDD! – Topography of Light (2017–2020), based on the eponymous novel written by the artist following a series of journeys through Iran, Armenia, and Ethiopia, since 2022 he has been engaged in the Geranos project. The latter is the result of a research collaboration with Monte Verità, the Eranos Foundation, the Anthropological Museum of Mexico City, and the Warburg Institute in London. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. program at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts.
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Riccardo Arena (1979) lives and works between Milan and La Spezia. He is currently a visiting professor at the National Film Academy of Amsterdam (AHK) and a Ph.D. candidate at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. His work has been recently exhibited at: ICA - The Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia; MUSEO ELISARION, Locarno; TRIESTE CONTEMPORANEA, Trieste; MONTE VERITÀ, Ascona; GALLERIA MILANO; MATERA EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2019; MAMBO, Bologna; IIC Addis Ababa; MERKUROV MUSEUM, Gyumri; MUSEO MAXXI, Rome; IMMA MUSEUM, Dublin; IIC London; CENTRO PECCI, Prato; QUADRIENNALE D’ARTE, Rome; FONDAZIONE SANDRETTO RE REBAUDENGO, Turin; VIAFARINI, Milan; FURLA PRIZE, Palazzo Reale, Milan; MART, Rovereto; MAGA, Gallarate; MUSEO DEL NOVECENTO, Milan; PALAIS DE GLACE, Buenos Aires; 1918 ARTSPACE, Shanghai. He was a finalist for the PREMIO MAXXI 2016, winner of the LONG PLAY National Award - XXIV at MA*GA, and recipient of the First Prize at MANUALMENTE, Villa Panza, Varese. He has conducted workshops, seminars, and readings at: FONDAZIONE FELTRINELLI, Milan; ECOMUSEO DI NIGUARDA, Milan; MATERA EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2019; MUSEO MAGA, Gallarate; P.I.A. Persistence Is All, Lecce; AAU - University of Fine Art and Design, Addis Ababa; TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, Yerevan; VIAFARINI/MIBACT, Milan. He has taught at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts.
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Portfolio
Recent News
​August 2024
EX TEMPORE - SUPERPOSITION THREE
Exhibition: Riccardo Arena / Emre Huner
Aug 6, 2024 – Sep 2, 202
ICA-Sofia Gallery, Bulgary

June 2024
QUADRANTIDI - Volcanic Attitude Festival
Site-Specific Installation
Volcano Island, Sicily

March 2024
GERANOS Planomenon Dance - Movement I​I
Solo Show
09/03 - 19/05/2024
Museo Elisarion, Minusio, Locarno CH

February 2024
ANTROPOLOGY DAY | ANTI-ARCHIVE
Workshop
Netherland Film Academy | Amsterdam

January 2024
THE FORM IS A STATEMENT
Workshop
Netherland Film Academy | Amsterdam

October 2023
ANATOMY OF A VISION
Workshop
Netherland Film Academy | Amsterdam

June 2023
VOLCANIC ATTITUDE
Residency
Vulcano Island, Sicily

December 2022
ANATOMY OF A VISION
Workshop
Netherland Film Academy | Amsterdam

November / December 2022
TEOMAMA
Artist Talk
Casa del Lago, UNAM, Mexico City

ERROR | espacio de reflexión
Residency / Exhibition
Mexico City

October 2022
MASTER CAMPUS THEATRE
Workshop
Dimitri School, Hochschule der Künste Bern (HKB), La Manufacture Lausanne, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHDK).
Blenio (CH)

Jan 2021
QW11 - Quarantine Workout   I   1a restituzione
Workshop in collaborazione con Standards e Mixitè
https://www.standardstudio.it/it/quarantine-workout​ 

May 2020
AUTOPROGETTAZIONE
Istruzioni d’artista  -  Galleria Milano
http://www.autoprogettazione.com/portfolio/riccardo-arena/

November 2019
THE ISLAND - NETHERLANDS FILM ACADEMY
Workshop on Philosophy of Images
​Amsterdam
25th September 2019, h 18.30
GALLERIA MILANO
Book Reading + Conferences
Speakers:   Lama Michel Tulku Rinpoche, Maria Tilde  Bettetini, Roberto Pinto, Claudia D’Alonzo Moderator: Bertram Niessen
In collaboration with: cheFare, Viafarini
Milan

​September / October 2022
EFFEMERIDI
Solo Exhibition
Trieste Contemporanee, Trieste, ITALY

May 2022
GERANOS. Choreography of a mental landscape - Movement I​
Solo Exhibition
Fondazione Monte Verità, Ascona

May 2022
HERE. BETWEEN NOT-YET AND NO-MORE​
Group Show
​Galleria Milano

April / October 2021
HYPHAE - Dove le cose cadono e non ritornano più a se stesse
Solo Exhibition + Public Program
​Galleria Milano

I PRIMI  A CROLLARE    >>>
Short Essay (Italiano)
cheFAre - Platform for cultural transformation

16th September 2019
NETHERLANDS FILM ACADEMY
Masterclass
in conversation with Federico Sande
Amsterdam

​29th June - 5th August  2019
INVISIBLE PAVILLIONS - HYPOGAEUM  WATER-CISTERNS OF VICECONTE PALACE
Exhibition
Matera Capital of Culture 2019

​From 8 of June 2019
FILATURA DELL’ALBEDO Vol. I   >>>
Workshop per lo sviluppo di un libro d’artista
​con Giulia Brivio  (Studio Boîte)
Niguarda, Milan

​​04th June 2019, h 18.30
LIBRERIA BODONI /  SPAZIO B
Book Reading 
In conversation with:  Massimo Minuti
Turin

​27th, 28th, 29th November 2019
THE ISLAND - NETHERLANDS FILM ACADEMY
Workshop on Philosophy of Images

22th May 2019, h 18.30
PAV -  Parco Arte Vivente
Book Reading + Conferences
Speakers:  Giulia Brivio,  Marco Enrico Giacomelli, Lorenzo De Rita, Davide Dal Sasso,
Turin

8th May 2019, h 14.00
BRERA FINE ARTS ACADEMY
Book Reading
In conversation with: Lucrezia Cippitelli
Milan

26th April 2019,  h 19.00
KUNPEN LAMA GANGCHEN
​Book reading
​In conversation with:  Lama Michel Rimpoche
Albagnano, VB
Interview
Contact