Research question

The research question originates from the researcher’s own artistic practice, which is rooted in the language of painting: Is it possible to carry out a systemic investigation leading to a mapping of emerging Italian artists born around the turn of the 2000s who choose painting as their preferred medium? Specifically, this involves identifying those who question the meaning of painting light and its mystery, starting from a study of the periphery as a place of life, artistic research, and exhibition.

Methodology

The research combines theoretical study and empirical qualitative inquiry:

Theoretical Framework: Draws on recent contributions, such as the analysis of the state of national painting proposed by Gullì (2023), and the investigation into independent spaces and European artistic practices edited by Murphy and Cullen (2023).

Field Research: An exploratory inquiry based on multiple case studies (studio visits and interviews).

This aims to identify Gen Z artists who have chosen to establish their residence and studio in peripheral, rural, or depopulating contexts – moving away from major urban cultural centres – and who question the meaning of painting light as a concept of ‘mediation’ between reality, knowledge, and experience.

The methodology utilizes three distinct criteria for selection of artists:

Investigation of the Landscape: Focusing on marginal places at risk of demographic disappearance. In this context, extinction is not an end, but a condition for a future symbolic appearance through art.

Practice of Observation from Life: An exercise in visual reciprocity that deconstructs the subject/object duality; looking implies being looked at by the environment.

Processual Iteration and Resonance: A serial methodology based on the varied repetition of the same subject over a defined time cycle (one calendar year).

Case studies

The research will focus on a sample of collectives, studios, and research centres run by young artists and located in peripheral areas of the Italian territory. Completed: During the first months of research, two studio visits have already been conducted: at Wac – Collettivo per l’arte (TN) and Hugo Ciappi (FI). Upcoming: In the coming months, two additional research field trips are scheduled, at Le Fonticelle (IS) and Habitat (FC).

Data analysis and interpretation of results

The objective is to innovatively map artistic practices in the peripheries. This approach distinguishes itself from Olcuire and Attili (2024) who, while documenting the ferment within internal areas (In fermento), do not deepen the link between residential decentralization and aesthetic research on light. This study validates the hypothesis that younger generations adopt geographical decentralization not merely for financial reasons, but as an epistemological need: to seek an intimate connection with nature and a phenomenological study of light, in contrast to the hyper-productivity of capitalist metropolitan contexts. Light is not analysed in a physical-optical sense (wave/particle), but is conceptualized as the materialization of the image. In painting, it transcends the supersensitive dimension to make itself visible within reality, and thus becomes the very substance of the artwork.