Laurea Triennale, Sapienza University of Rome, 2002
Laurea Specialistica, Sapienza University of Rome, 2005
M.F.A., Goldsmiths College, U.K., 2008
Professor Ilaria Gianni is an independent curator, art critic, and lecturer working on the intersection of time-based media, conceptual art and storytelling. Her interest lies in the study of semiotic-narrative structures in visual arts, with particular attention to the forms of research that dwell on the interstices within belief systems. Gianni’s curatorial practice attempts to construct new stages on which to rethink the concept of exhibition making as a form of redistribution of knowledge.
She is co-founder of IUNO, a research center for contemporary art, and of Magic Lantern Film Festival, a film program investigating the relationship between visual art and cinema. Over the past years, she has curated a number of exhibitions, and independent research-based projects in museums, project spaces, and art institutions, including: Palazzo delle Esposizioni, MACRO, MAXXI, Galleria Nazionale, FOROF, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Villa Medici (Rome); Radio GAMeC (Bergamo); Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce (Genoa); Fondazione del Monte (Bologna); Matadero (Madrid); MOA (Seoul); John Hansard Gallery (Southampton); Micamoca (Berlin); DRAF (London); Kadist (Paris); KORA (Catrignano de’Greci).
From 2016 to 2020, she was guest curator at the American Academy in Rome for “Cinque Mostre,” the annual exhibition of works by Rome Prize Fellows. Between 2009 and 2016, she was co-director and curator of Nomas Foundation. She has collaborated with contemporary art fairs, including ARCOmadrid, for which she curated the section “Present Future” (2019-2021), and between 2015 and 2017, she co-founded and curated the independent art fair Granpalazzo. She is currently the curator of the section “Pittura XXI” at Arte Fiera (Bologna).
She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at John Cabot University and teaches Curating and Contemporary Art courses at IED (Rome), RUFA (Rome), NABA (Milan). Over the years, she has contributed essays to numerous catalogs and magazines such as: Flash Art, artforum.com, Domus, Mousse, NERO, Cura, Arte e Critica.
