Artist Archive

The Library

The specialized library, with 25,000 volumes including monographs, catalogues, essays and periodicals, preserves the Viafarini, Careof and Giovanni Quadrio Curzio collections; digital catalogue searches are possible.

Cataloguing of Viafarini Fund and Giovanni Quadrio Curzio Fund

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Elena Radice, Dispersion of still life/natura morta, 2013-ongoing, foto di Davide Tremolada

Artist Archive

In order to offer information and dissemination tools on contemporary artistic research, the Archivio Viafarini collects essays and catalogues and organizes a service of vision and collection of portfolios of artists active in Italy, which flow into the Portfolio Archive. The material, which can be consulted by appointment, is available for research and in-depth analysis.

The Portfolio Archive is recognized as of particular historical interest by the Superintendence of Archives and Bibliography of Lombardy - Ministry MiBACT (decree n. 14/2016).

Italian Area, launched in 2000, is the online database that documents the Italian art scene from the late 1980s to the present day. It collects artists promoted by the most important Italian and foreign organizations and gives visibility to emerging generations.

The Portfolio Archive documents over 5,000 artists active in Italy;

The ArtBox database is a mapping of opportunities such as competitions, scholarships and facilities for artists and professionals, with direct links to the sites.

The Archive, as a creative incubator, is responsible for producing and promoting training, research and experimentation projects within the development guidelines of the Fabbrica del Vapore cultural project.
The shared objective is to develop the Archive for the visual arts and to characterize it as a place open to the public and interdisciplinary relations, developing, on the basis of the Archive's documentary resources and reports, new functions aimed at promoting young artists and creative enterprises in the reference market.

The Archive is the platform for collaborations with other creative incubators in art, music, theatre, performing arts, design and social sciences. The Archive, founded by Viafarini in 1991, represents the first non-profit archive for visual arts that for twenty-five years has supported the promotion of artistic research in Italy. The Archive is characterized as the first and only Archive conceived as a network and know-how, an engine to provide documentation services, consulting to artists, production, residency, training, communication and exhibition in a transdisciplinary perspective.

List of the artists who have materials in the Archive

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Archivio Viafarini, Fabbrica del Vapore

Italian Area

Italian Area started in 2000 as the first online database documenting the Italian artistic scene from the late eighties to the present.

Italian Area showcases the artists promoted by the most important Italian and foreign organisations, and also gives visibility to the younger generation of artists representing today’s art scene.