Diploma of Honor – Anna Montanaro (Italy) 

On the occasion of the ARTE Award 2016, the artwork La Danza was selected among the 40 finalists, within a group of artists representing some of the most significant contemporary researches in each category.

The work was exhibited in the halls of Palazzo Reale as part of the Cairo Prize 2016, ARTE Award section, entering into dialogue with different visions of contemporary art.

Within this context, the Diploma of Honor was awarded by Michele Bonuomo, director of ARTE magazine.

La Danza

movement held in time 

La Danza is an image suspended between balance and tension, where movement never fully unfolds but remains restrained, like a breath held just before the gesture. The figures intertwine in a silent relationship, more mental than physical, while space becomes a field of forces, active memory, and inner rhythm.

It is not a dance that reveals itself: it is a dance that withholds itself.

Between memory, body, and dissolution, the work constructs a fragile and theatrical movement in which the figure seems to emerge and disappear at the same instant, like a memory that continues to move within the viewer.

La Danza also marks the artist's first official entry into the national exhibition scene: a deliberately awaited debut, matured over time, as if certain works must find their rightful moment before revealing themselves to the world.