Are You Ready to Art Your Food?
Pure love by Honas.
What’s more Italian than food and art? Perhaps food and art mixed together! On November 4th, 2011 the 2nd Annual IMAF Festival Competition and Exhibition was launched worldwide with a press conference held at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, inviting artists with its clever slogan - ART YOUR FOOD.
The competition aims to bring light to international artists, who strive to connect culturally diverse countries using a common link, the comfort and richness of food. The theme of this year’s contest is “Food and Migration.” Artists are invited to submit entries under four categories: film, music, literature and visual arts.
The Attaché for Cultural Affairs, Art and Cinema of the Italian Cultural Institute, Simonetta Magnani welcomed all attendees of the conference and introduced the guest speakers. Subsequently, the Vice Consul General Lucia Pasqualini wished the organizers of the competition and the artists best of luck on a project she finds “innovative and extremely interesting.” She also declared New York as “the best place to host an event that speaks of food and migration because New York is a melting pot of cultures.”
Rosella Canevari and Elena Maria Manzini, the co-directors of IMAF introduced the rules and general structure of the competition as well as announced the addition of a new location for the final event of the festival, which excitingly will be held during the Olympic games in London, July 2012. Submissions for the art competition will be accepted online until April 15th, 2012, via http://www.imafestival.com/en/registration/.
45 finalists will be chosen by a combination of public votes and a panel of expert judges, and will have their work showcased in Milan, where a single winner of each of the four categories will be chosen. Furthermore, Stefano Berni, the administrative director of Grana Padano, one of the festival’s sponsors, revealed a Special Prize in the visual arts category to be awarded to an artist whose art submission will be inspired by Grana Padano products.
An accomplished Sardinian artist, Georgio Casu, then presented an entertaining example of such work on screen, creating a logo out of a picture of Grana Padano cheese. The Cesare Pavese Foundation will award a Special Prize in the category of literature and the Babel Channel will sponsor the prize in the film category. Also, one of the 45 finalists will be chosen as the recipient of the prestigious Audience Award, which will be based solely on public votes as all the contest entries will be visible on the IMAF website.
Ms. Manzini then introduced a new part of the festival, which is to be “an international showcase of contemporary and culinary art of Olympic proportions.” The SPORT YOUR FOOD EXHIBITION, created by Rosella Canevari and curated by Paolo Marchi – a renowned food critic, pairs five international chefs with five worldwide artists and requires them to collaboratively represent one of the five Olympic sports “in a creative fashion via a culinary recipe and an artistic interpretation.” The five chef-artist teams were announced during the press conference, and were represented by artists Gregg Lefevre and Shingeru Oyatani and chef Hooni Kim.
The press conference was followed by non other than a succulent tasting of cheese, wine, and olive oils provided by the festival’s sponsors. Among the supporters of this wonderful project are: Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Milan’s local and provincial government, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of Italy in New York, as well as the Italian Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles and many more.
For official rules and more information visit: http://www.imafestival.com/en/OFFICIAL-RULES/
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