Indoor Call closed!

Published in News
04 Feb 2020

Only few days left to apply the Outdoor call!

Published in News
10 Dec 2019

Visit the sculptures

Published in Pagine
13 Nov 2018

The edition is over, but there is still the chance to see some of the monumental cardboard sculptures present at the Outdoor exhibitions!

Here is a map of the sculptures you can still visit: "Mother" by Laurence Vallières; "Hoodie" by Michael Stutz;"Pyramid of Peace" by Heike Schaefer; "Via dal recinto" by No Dump; "U.E.C. 9000" by Labadanzky; "Silent Shell, Chaotic Shell" by Eu Tazè; "Paperman" by James Lake; "Liminal Space" by Manuela Granziol.

Call 2021

Published in Pagine
13 Nov 2018

Editions

Published in Pagine
13 Nov 2018

2018

2016

2014

2012

2010

2009

2007

2005

2004

2018 Edition

Published in Pagine
08 Nov 2018

The 9th edition of Lucca Biennale took place between the 4th August and 27th September. The theme of this edition was "Chaos and Silence": chaos intended as an atmosphere of eccessive stimuli and surplus of information, but which is also creativity; and silence intended as peace and clarity in response to the chaos, but which is also isolation and disconnection.

It was the biggest edition since the beginning of the Biennale, when it comes to the numerous presence of artists and visitors, and also for the wide range of events, works and projects presented. The 2018 edition saw the presence of 59 works of art thanks to 47 artists presents in the Indoor exhibitions (Palazzo Ducale and Mercato del Carmine), 7 monumental sculptures in the same number of squares for the Outdoor exhibition, and over 5 thousand visitors.

The Design & Architecture section featured the creation of a cardboard tent project, designed by Nicholas Bertoux, and for the architecture section a visitable cardboard structure was built, designed and built by the architecture department of Tongji University.

For the first time in the course of the Biennale, a special space was dedicated to performances: Martina Zena presented "Play Human", and Gianfranco Gentile performed "No People Boat", both using the medium of paper.

To further expand the programme of the Biennale, Network Days were also held: an occasion for conferences and networking, held over the course of two days, to encourage artists and professionists to meet and exchange knowledge. For children, Lucca Biennale created a diverse program of creative workshops: the Educational Labs, designed to accompany children in the discovery of paper art, inspired by the works exhibited.

During the 9th edition, Lucca Biennale hosted a guest country for the first time, creating an atmosphere of international cooperation and hosting a platform for China: the birth place of paper, chosen as the first country to inaugurate this section, dedicated to focusing on a country and its Paper Art, assisting in the creation of a specific project.

Click on the icons below to view a detailed description of each section.

OUTDOOR

INDOOR

ARCHITETTURA & DESIGN

PERFORMANCE

NETWORK DAYS

EDUCATIONAL LAB

The Festival

Published in Pagine
08 Nov 2018

Lucca Biennale is among the most important events dedicated to paper applied to art, design, architecture and creativity, as paper is also an ancient material locally produced in the area of Lucca. Here paper is the expressive medium that combines the paper heritage with the innvation of the artistic Avant-Garde.

It's one of a kind: every edition a theme tied to current events is chosen which the exhibition adheres to, to underline the connection between art and society. It gives the spectator food for thought, guided by the most innovative techniques of paper art. Lucca Biennale presents art exhibitions, projects, events, conferences and workshops.

Thanks to an international call for artists, the most innovative and prominent figures of the Paper Art world take part in the Biennale, exhibiting their works during the Indoor exhibition (inside a historical building) and Outdoor exhibition (in the open air), or in the other sections: Design & Architecture, and Performances.

Other than the artistic exhibitions, Lucca Biennale is also a place to meet and grow, through the Network Days (talks and events dedicated to networking, to encourage artists and professionals to engage and exchange knowledge) and Educational Labs (creative workshops designed to accompany children in the discovery of paper art, inspired by the works exhibited). For every edition, Lucca Biennale hosts a guest country, giving it a space and platform to showcase its traditional and innovative use of paper in the world of art.

Visit now

The tenth edition is upon us, but there is still the chance to relive some of the monumental works in cardboard made in the previeous edition that characterized the exhibition. Discover in the gallery below the sections and the events that within the Walls of Lucca has given life to the theme chaos and silence!

Monumental sculptures in cardboard, created during an artist residency following an international call for artists. The Outdoor artists are hosted in the city of Lucca for a month, with complete supply of material, equipment and assistance. The monumental works are then installed in key locations of the historical town centre.

The most contemporary artworks of the current Paper Art scene are showcased in one or more exhibitions of the historical town centre of Lucca. The works are chosen for their innovative technique and compliancy with the theme of the edition, selected through an international call for artists.

The potential of paper is explored through architecture and design projects, selected through an international call for artists.

Lucca Biennale becomes a stage for contemporary performances that use paper. The chosen projects are selected through an international call for artists.

An occasion for conferences and networking events, that unfold in the course of various days. The Network Days encourage artists and professionals to engage and exchange knowledge.

Lucca Biennale has created a diverse program of creative workshops: the Educational Labs, designed to accompany children in the discovery of paper art, inspired by the works exhibited.

For every edition, Lucca Biennale invites a guest country, creating an atmosphere of international cooperation and cultural value. The guest country receives a dedicated space and the chance to create its own specific project.

Topic 2018

Published in Edizione 2018
22 Apr 2017

CARTASIA 2018 | IX EDITION
INTERNATIONAL PAPER BIENNIAL

July - September 2018 | Lucca. Italy

TOPIC: Chaos & Silence

Today, an excess of stimuli, news, positive or negative notions, induce human beings into a state of numbness due to an information overload. This numbness makes us perceive all inputs equal to others: the enormous quantity of stress we are subjected to makes distinguishing the specific qualities of each stimulus difficult. The world around us becomes confusing and indecipherable. In this context the search for silence, clarity and peace, appears to be an essential need for contemporary society in response to this developing chaos. At the same time there is, in this chaotic and dense nebula, a continuous movement and contact with different particles: and this is where the origins of great creative possibilities are concealed and the sign of a body which is extremely alive, responsive, diverse and interlinked, as is today's society. In opposition to this, silence becomes synonymous with isolation, disconnection, and refusal of confrontation.

tema 5

We are so often deafened by waves of noise from our television, the web, news, and information platforms. This wave expands, comes out from the screen and enters into conversations, at dinner, at lunch, at the most unexpected hour. It becomes extraordinarily common to talk for hours on end about a murder, an attack and also a football match or an Oscar award, uttering, repeating, amplifying concepts, ideas, and images. We can live like this, with a systematic transformation of the brain into a sponge that absorbs anything and yields nothing. However, a nothingness that has volume, mass and takes up space. And so, submerged as we are, swimming in words, clichés, social dogmas, vessels of nothingness, we float towards a drift, overwhelmed by too much of everything. The volume is so high, the mass of information so great that the noise flattens everything and so distinguishing the boundaries and the importance of things seems - even if we wanted to make this effort - superhuman. We should look for the sources, and inform ourselves. But even this would not guarantee certainty. Even the sources may be misleading, false, inadequate.

So the only solution appears to be abstinence. Fed up, tired, discouraged by too much, our oars are thrown into the boat, looking for peace, silence. Sooner or later things will get better, the too much of everything will diminish and a defined horizon will reappear, a prospect - something - to dictate the route. Yet, if we look back, the sea has been murky for quite some time, and if we want to look beyond, all there is, is other information, other storms, an increasingly chaotic future. And yet. And yet progress is always there, pulsating, omnipresent. Chaos creates life, with no rules, anarchic, difficult to classify, categorize, but you can't say that it isn't life. We believe that the artist's task is not to die mentally, trying to photograph our era; In the Too Much of Everything don't pull your oars into the boat giving in to indifference, instead take a risk, be the speck that goes against the wind in the desert, make this effort. Shout. Believe in revolutions, make them happen everywhere, raise your head.

General Manager | Cartasia, Biennale della Carta

Emiliano Galigani

InDoor Exhibiton 2016

Published in Pagine
22 Apr 2017

An event in an event 2016 | InDoor exhibition "Borders and Perspectives"

When: from 31st July to the 4th September

Curated by: Emiliano Galigani and Giacomo Pecchia

The InDoor Exhibition has featured art pieces by some of the best artists in the contemporary paper art scene, about 100 works made with different materials and techniques, created using paper and cardboard.

The location of the entire exhibition was Palazzo Ducale, a historical building and one of the most important landmarks of the city of Lucca. An exhibition of international artists open to everyone, universally beautiful and comprehensible. The fascinating world of paper has a lot to give and express.

Silvia Beltrami
Born in Rome in 1974, she graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera, Milan. Her work is marked by an original use of materials and supports, such as paper and wood. She creates collages of paper from different sources applied on plaster, like a torn fresco.
Stefano Baroni
Born in Viareggio, his work is far from figurative and close to a symbolic represantation of reality through digital means. He has exhibited his work at the 54th Venice Biennale.

Gabriele Palandri
Born in Pistoia in 1970, his favourite tool is a ball pen, with which he is exploring new paths in the world of figurative arts, expressing a concept through an image in a deeper, wider way.

Carta Couture
Carta Couture is a visual arts project that combines art, fashion and craftmanship, conceived and directed by the photographer JERRY LEE INGRAM. The photographs portray a model, Isabella Vasen, dressed in replicas of iconic clothing items by stylists such as Valentino, Pierre Cardin or Dior, from the '50s to the '80s. The original clothes have been captured by legendary photographers such as Richard Avedon, Bert Stern and Giampaolo Barbieri, modelled by film stars and top models alike. Ingram has received the support of Blender studios to recreate the effect of the original fashion items using different kinds of paper and methods, studying the styling with the help of Allegra Montantelli. When it comes to clothing and accessory choices, the stylist Hylozoic took care of styling and organizing the shooting. In occasion of the famous stylist Alessandro Gaggio's exhibition, he's created an original fashion piece: a dress made of tissue paper.

Eszter Bornemisza
She lives in Bucarest, a source of continuous inspiration for her and her works – her research covers the history of civilization and experimentation of the artistic means.
Vassilis Perros
Born in Athens in 1981, his work was bought by private art collectors in Greece and throughout the world. He lives and works in Athens.
Consuelo Zatta
Born in Treviso, his brave sea creatures face life with tenacity, transmitting a sense of joy and hope. Compositions made of paper and cardboard, handmade using strips of paper and later applying colour.
Alice Steinmetz
A young French artist, her creative works explore the female figure using paper and light, along with a mixture of styles such as moulds and drawings.
Hans Meertens
Born in Holland in 1975, he graduated in Utrecht,and his art pieces focus on paper cut outs and can be seen in new York galleries, in Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Berlin. They're inspired by photographic portraits of war veterans.
Anastasia Zisi
Born in Athens, her pieces incolve a combined technique of hand made paper, felt and wire, to create figures of childhood and innocence.
Florence Mc Ewin
Born in Boston,USA, her pieces feature reality, interpretation and imagination which are metaphors that melt into one another, transforming it's contentinto something new.
Elisabetto Necchio
Born in 1972 in Como, she has a degree from the Fine Arts Academy in Brera, Milan. She's worked in fashion and interior design as a print and fabric designer. Her knowledge of hand made paper making has opened up new experimental paths for her, creating innovative artistic solutions.
Lucrezia Bieler
Born in Switzerland and a student at Zurich University, where she got a degree in Illustration Sciences. She then moved to America where she currently lives, dedicating her artistic career to the art of paper cutting.

CARTASIA STAFF

Direttore/Director - Emiliano Galigani
Direttore Artistico Outdoor/Outdoor artistic director - Bicolas Bertoux
Curatore/Indoor Curator - Giacomo Pecchia
Direttore Artistico Design/ Design artistic director - Claudio Cammarata
Referente Fun - Elena Bravi
Coordinatore/Project manager - Federica Moretti
Marketing and social media manager - Beatrice Attanasio & Angelita Privitera
Photo & Video - Alessandro Casalini
Direttore Tecnico/Tecnical manager - Emilia Rosi
Uffico stampa/Press - Ab Studio

Event organized thanks to:
Comune di Lucca; Fondazione Cassa di Risparimio Lucca; Ds Smith; Comieco; Funder35;
Sponsor tecnico
RemiGroup; Smurfit Kappa; LibertyRentals;
Patrocinio
Ministero dell'Ambiente e della tutela del territorio e del mare; Provincia di Lucca; Ordine degli architetti di Lucca; Camera di Commercio di Lucca;

OutDoor Exhibition 2016

Published in Pagine
22 Apr 2017

Six artists were chosen to create monumental sculptures at the 2016 edition: Laurence Vallières; Giulio Biazzi; Heike Schaefer; Michael Stutz; Mykl Wells; No Dump.

The theme of the VIII edition: Borders and Perspectives.

Open air exhibition of works of art in paper and cardboard, on display in the typical squares of the city of Lucca, in Tuscany. Following an international competition, a carefully selected group of international artists were asked to design sculptures from scratch, with a maximum size of 6 x 6 x 6 metres, made from local paper and cardboard. The artists chosen by the jury were invited to stay and work in Tuscany for a month, paid for by the organisation. During their stay, the artists brought their works to life in a dedicated space.

CARTASIA
International Paper Biennial – VIII EDITION
July 31st / September 10th 2016