The Premio Lorenzo Bonaldi per l’Arte – EnterPrize is the first international competition dedicated to young curators under the age of 30, conceived to commemorate Lorenzo Bonaldi’s passion for art and collecting.
Held on a biennial basis, it was organized by GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, and funded by the Bonaldi family for the first time in 2003.
It represents a unique sort of recognition, because it rewards the research of a young curator and his or her exhibition project.
The award regulation envisages participation on an invitation only basis: the competitors are nominated by advisors – artists, critics, curators, museum directors, collectors, representatives of curator training courses and schools, and art publishers from around the world – who each propose one candidate for one year only.
Each candidate submits a new and original exhibition project conceived for an exhibition space on the basis of an assigned budget.
An international jury, comprised of leading representatives of the international art world, is commissioned to awarded the Prize to the project recognized as the most innovative in terms of its elaboration of critical thought on the dynamics connected with the conception and realization of an exhibition, as well as the degree of feasibility and respect of the allocated budget. Their judgment takes into account a whole range of considerations: critical, theoretical, and thematic, as well as practical and economic. The jury will analyze the completeness and precision of the budgets submitted together with the exhibition projects.
Previous editions of the Award have seen the following projects staged over the years: Another Zero, curated by November Paynter (2004); No Manifesto, curated by Andrea Viliani (2005); Aesthetics / Dietetics, curated by Mizuki Endo (2006); Data Recovery, curated by Övül Durmusoglu (2008); L’ipotesi del cristallo, curated by Yoann Gourmel and Élodie Royer (2010); The Log-O-Rithmic, curated by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen (2012); Mississippi, curated by Sam Korman (2014); Soft Crash, curated by Xiaoyu Weng (2016); Enchanted Bodies / Fetish for Freedom, curated by Bernardo Mosqueira (2018); In The Forest, Even The Air Breathes, curated by Abhijan Toto (2020); Dancing Plague, curated by Panos Giannikopoulos (2022).
Through this award, GAMeC wishes to highlight the central role and significance assumed by curators on the international art scene, as well as in the broader context of contemporary cultural practice.
The prize also aims to encourage and support the talent of a young curator at an extremely critical time in his or her professional development.