CACTyou! PROJECT Fanzines #0-4, Activity guides 2011, CACT Edition #1
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As already announced previously, the 2012 season kicks off with two exhibitions. The first is devoted to the presence of the MACT Museum of Contemporary Art Ticino in the territory of the Canton. The second is more didactic in nature: curated by Pier Giorgio De Pinto and adopting the logo CACTyou! Project, it focuses on aspects of the cultural mediation undertaken by the CACT in the course of 2011 through its Internet media (websites and blogs), 5 artist fanzines, the CACT edition #1 and a statistical study of public attendance at our cultural activities.

The MACT showcases a selection of works loaned by private collections, whose purpose is to signify and bear witness to the presence of instances of cultural ferment in Canton Ticino, such as private collecting, as well as to stimulate and highlight the presence of such activities, whose private status by no means detracts from their cultural relevance as compared to the work of public institutions, bearing in mind that private collections play a particularly high-profile role in the art world, especially on the northern slopes of the Alps and further afield in northern Europe. The exhibition is divided into three thematic sections: a tribute to the late Katia Bassanini, the Ticino artist who passed away in 2010, a section focused on the topic of portraiture and a video room with an installation by the artist Shahryar Nashat.

The CACTyou! Project, curated by Pier Giorgio De Pinto, constitutes a reflection of the activity of cultural mediation undertaken by De Pinto at the Contemporary Art Centre in Canton Ticino in 2011. In particular, he focused on editing a series of five issues of the CACTyou! fanzine (which have already gone on show in Switzerland and France), each one dedicated to a single artist, the Activity guides and a study of how much and in what manner the public frequents and makes use of the CACT, drawing attention to the interesting realisation that modes of public interaction are liable to change as a function of changes in the communication media adopted from time to time. The project also presents the CACT Edition #1, a folder of four etchings in limited editions of seven copies each, created by Francesca Guffanti and printed by L’impressione of Locarno.

The section devoted to the CACTyou! Project is designed to put the public itself somehow under the spotlight, drawing attention to what it does on those occasions when it interacts with the agenda of exhibitions and events at the CACT.

Mario Casanova, 2011 (translation Pete Kercher)

Ph. Pier Giorgio De Pinto © PRO LITTERIS Zürich and MACT/CACT.