Naples, 06 July 2023

BEA BONAFINI WINNER OF THE ALA ART PRIZE 2023, THE THIRD EDITION OF ALA’S AWARD DEDICATED TO CONTEMPORARY ART

ALA For Art is pleased to announce that Bea Bonafini’s project Acque Amare (2023) is the winner of the third edition of the ALA Art Prize, awarded by ALA – a leading company in Italy and at a global level in advanced logistics and  distribution of precision mechanical components and smallware for the aerospace, aviation and high-tech industrial markets.

The work was selected by ALA For Art’s Scientific Committee, which again this year is formed by Giovanni Carmine, Director of the Kunst Halle in San Gallo and curator of Art Basel Unlimited, Eugenio Viola, Chief Curator of MAMBO in Bogotà and Alessia Volpe, independent curator and Director of the Ciaccia Levi Gallery in Paris. Bonafini was selected among a great number of Italian and foreign artists under 40 active across the Italian territory who participated in the Open Call.

Once again this year, ALA’s employees were involved in the selection process and voted for the artwork that would enrich the permanent collection exhibited in the corporate common areas. This enhances the relationship between the work, the artist and the people who live in the company spaces, stimulating a dialogue between art, business and contemporary creativity.

The theme of the third edition of the ALA Art Prize is Habitat, a multilevel concept and metaphor for an ideal physical and relational environment, to be investigated in its multiple articulations – natural and artificial – and in its social and cultural implications.

Bea Bonafini meets this indication with Acque Amare (2023), a project that blends figures and myths linked to the marine environment with stories drawn from the Neapolitan imagery on the one hand, and from the cross-fertilization of Mediterranean cultures on the other.

According to the Scientific Committee of the ALA Art Prize: «The Mediterranean Theatre inside Mostra d’Oltremare seems to be the ideal architectural context for the work of Bea Bonafini, adding a new chapter to the amazing iconography featured in the ALA headquarters. Indeed, the imagery evoked by the artist adapts marine themes to the aesthetic and philosophical ideals of the 21st century, suggesting, for example, the idea of ​​fluidity as the central pivot of our society.

In this work, Bonafini operates a twofold modernization: one linked to the ancient tapestry technique, the other combined with a long-term iconographic reflection, which, from the legacy of a mythological past, results in the current post-human present.

A Modern Penelope, Bea weaves stories of women and sea, mythologies of wars and loves, narrated and handed down orally for ages, which in her work become silk, bamboo and wool threads, to remind us that the Mediterranean has always been a place of exchange of techniques and knowledge.»

In the coming weeks, the artist will start producing the work, which will then be presented next September at ALA Headquarters inside Mostra d’Oltremare in Naples.

Acque Amare (2023) will become part of the ALA collection, together with Compianto sul Cristo morto by Giulia Piscitelli, an important work acquired this year through the ALA For Art Acquisition Program 2023, a project launched in 2022 designed to enrich the company collection,  along with the Prize.

The artists represented in the collection are: Alberto Tadiello (ALA Art Prize 2022), Mariangela Levita (ALA Art Prize 2021), Andrea Bolognino, Antonio Della Guardia and Giorgia Garzilli (ALA For Art Acquisition Program 2022), Giulia Piscitelli (ALA For Art Acquisition Program 2023).

Bea Bonafini (b. 1990, Bonn, Germany) lives and works between London and Barcelona. She received her MA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2016. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome (2022); Setareh, Berlin (2022); Bosse & Baum, London (2022); Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg (2022); LAAA, Mexico City (2022); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2021); Eduardo Secci, Florence (2021); Operativa, Rome (2019); Chloe Salgado, Paris (2018); Lychee One, London (2018); and Zabludowicz Collection, London (2017). Bonafini’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Palazzo Abatellis Museum, Palermo (2022); Fondazione per l’Arte, Rome (2022); Kristen Hjellegjerde, London (2022); The Artsy Vanguard Fourth Edition, Miami (2021); Fondazione Sandretto, Guarene (2020); The British School at Rome (2019, 2020); Palazzo Reale Milan, (2019); and The Italian Cultural Institute, London (2018). Large-scale commissions include site-specific works for Jonkoping Council, Sweden; Meta HQ, UK. La Berlugane-Maleki residence, France; and Maison Estelle, UK.

ALA S.p.A. (Euronext Growth Milan: ALA) is one of the main international supply chain partners for the Aerospace, Railway and High-Tech sectors. For over 35 years ALA has been the sole reference partner for the management and distribution of high-performance products, services and engineering solutions able to simplify and optimize the supply chain management operations of its customers.

With Headquarters in Naples, Italy, ALA – together with its subsidiary S.C.P. Sintersa – today counts on the talent of over 500 people and on the strength of a growing network of sales offices and operating centres in Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, France and Germany), Israel and North America. ALA supplies customers in 40 countries and manages more than 1300 providers worldwide.

www.alacorporation.com