We are thrilled to announce the results of the Open Call 2023 endorsed by Villa Filanda Antonini.

VFA Open Call received nearly five hundred applications from all over the world. This success lies, primarily, in the very high quality of the dossiers received. Due to that, the selection process was complex, and each application was carefully examined. A jury of international experts screened the delivered materials and assessed, on a case-by-case basis, their relevance to the theme of the residency program for the year 2023. Awards were given to artists that showed the ability to merge different disciplines.

The final decision is the result of a choral evaluation made by the following jurors:

Cristina Grajales, Gallerist and founder of Cristina Grajales Gallery

Francesca Astesani, Curator, writer and Co-founder of South into North

Marco Sammicheli, Curator and Director of the Museo del Design Italiano, Triennale Milano

Vera Sacchetti, Design critic and curator, Lecturer at ETH Zurich, and HEAD Geneva

Zack Tornaben, Marketing and communications director of New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA)

VFA, curatorial team

The multidisciplinary jury thus composed selected the following profiles:

Alessandro Cugola

Lucian Moriyama

Rosario Aninat and Simon Shim-Sutcliffe

Sunette L. Viljoen

Swilda Oelke

Theo Alexander

Our sincere thanks go to all the participants who invested time and trust in our initiative! The next ‘Open Call’ theme will be different, so there will be a new opportunity for your proposals!

Jurors  biographies

Cristina Grajales –Born in Colombia- came to the US as a student in the late 1970s. Following an early job at a SoHo art gallery, she spent a decade as director of 1950 Gallery, New York’s pre-eminent source for post-war European design, where she introduced a new generation of collectors to masterworks by Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, Serge Mouille and Pierre Jeanneret, among others. In 2001, Grajales opened her eponymous gallery and design advisory business, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.At a series of striking downtown locations, Grajales mounted early, career-defining shows for the artists José Parla and Mira Nakashima, among others, and invited reappraisal of long-established voices, including Sheila Hicks, Robert Wilson and Doug and Mike Starn. She has a particular passion for textiles and for metalwork, both of which she’s championed among curators and connoisseurs, maintaining the gallery and its artists at the forefront of the design conversation. Grajales continues to advise global collectors on acquisitions and sales. Beyond the gallery, Grajales sits on the board of the arts organization Creative Time and is founder of the ongoing “Dialogues with Design Legends” lecture series at the 92nd Street Y.

Francesca Astesani is a curator and a writer. In 2013, she co-founded contemporary art agency South into North, which focuses on art commissions in the public space. She has worked in the field of contemporary art since 2006, covering various roles in both the public and the private sector between London and Copenhagen. She has been a member of the Danish Arts Foundation’s special scheme of advisors for art in public spaces from 2019 – 2022. She holds an MA in philosophy from the University of Milan and one in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths College in London.

Marco Sammicheli is Curator of Design, Fashion, Crafts sector at Triennale Milano and Superintendent of Museo del Design Italiano. Since 2018 he’s been working as International Relations Chief Officer at Triennale Milano, where he’s supervising the International Exhibition program in collaboration with the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs. On the occasion of the 23rd International Exhibition he curated for the Italian pavilion the exhibition La tradizione del nuovo – A tradition of the new. In 2022 he was Guest Lecturer in Brasil, at the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA) and in Czech Republic at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design of Prague (UMPRUM).In 2020 and 2021 he’s been visiting lecturer at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Tel Aviv in. Between 2015 and 2019 he’s been Adjunct Professor of Design Narrative at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano. Member of the International Board of Valencia World Design Capital (2022), from 2017 he’s part of the Advisory Committee of Fondazione Cirulli in Bologna and from 2020 of Collezione Paolo VI in Brescia. In 2014 he participated to the Venice Biennale of Architecture with his research project Designing the Sacred (2005 – ongoing), and the resulting publication Disegnare il Sacro (Rubbettino Editore, 2016) has been acquired by the Vatican Museums Library in 2017.He curated exhibitions in Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, and essays on catalogs for cultural institutions, museums and private galleries in Europe and in the Middle East, with a particular focus on designers such as Zaha Hadid, Mario Bellini, Steven Holl, Bruno Munari, Carlo Mollino, Jaime Hayon, Ettore Sottsass, Angelo Mangiarotti. During the Salone Internazionale del Mobile he curated The Design City. Milano Città laboratorio, published by Forma Edizioni in 2018. Columnist for “Wallpaper*” and for “Il Sole 24 Ore”, he contributed to several international magazines. Marco Sammicheli, after graduating in Communication Science from the University of Siena and specializing in History of Design at the Bauhaus Universität in Weimar, in 2009 he earned a Doctorate in Design and Technology for the Development of Cultural Heritage at Politecnico di Milano and Pontificia Universidad Catòlica de Chile. 

Vera Sacchetti is a Basel-based design critic and curator. She specializes in contemporary design and architecture and serves in a variety of curatorial, research and editorial roles. She is currently program coordinator of the multidisciplinary research initiative Driving the Human: Seven Prototypes for Eco-social Renewal (2020-2023), which supports transdisciplinary research on sustainable futures; and co-initiator of the Design and Democracy platform (2020–), which maps the intersections and overlaps between design and democratic systems and practices. Sacchetti teaches at HEAD Geneva, and in 2020 joined the Federal Design Commission of Switzerland.

Zack Tornaben is a New York-based arts administrator and musician. Since 2013, he has worked at the nonprofit arts organization New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), where he is currently Marketing & Communications Director. As Golden Hallway Music, he has recently released two albums with the California-based record label Not Not Fun.