The Paris-based curator duo Francesco Urbano Ragazzi have been announced as the curators of the 2022 edition of the Lofoten International Art Festival, a biennial contemporary art festival located in the Lofoten archipelago off the coast of Norway. Commenting on their appointment, the duo said: ‘The Lofoten Islands are a peaceful yet extreme ecosystem in which humans have always faced isolation and sought balance between themselves and the environment. Drawing on the wisdom of these places and the communities that live here, LIAF 2022 will push the boundaries of reality by embracing the ghosts of our time.’
Francesco Urbano Ragazzi have been working together since 2008, investigating the narratives that inform the age of connectivity. After having organised two editions of the Internet Pavilion in the years 2011 and 2013, they launched The Internet Saga, a research platform and exhibition series that originated with a solo show by avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas at the 2015 Venice Biennale. This led to further collaboration with the late Mekas, curating shows, publications and screenings worldwide, including Again, Again It All Comes Back to Me in Brief Glimpses, the artist’s first retrospective exhibition in Asia (the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, 2018), his last solo exhibition (at Ásmundarsalur, Reykjavik International Film Festival, 2018), and the publishing project Transcript 04 44’ 14”: Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR (Humboldt Books, 2020). Since 2017 they have been in charge of directing the Church of Chiara Fumai, the archive and estate of the Italian feminist artist.
