The Taurisano Collection announces the winning work of the fifth edition of the Because of Many Suns Award, established in 2021 in collaboration with Art-o-rama Marseille, one of the most significant fairs on the international scene for its focus on emerging practices and the curatorial quality of its exhibition projects. The fair took place from August 29 to 31 2025 at La Friche la Belle de Mai in Marseille. The award (whose title was conceived by the transdisciplinary collective Apparatus 22) aims to support artistic practices capable of critically engaging with the present while opening up future perspectives. The winning work of this fifth edition is “Coda (II)” by Anna Irina Russell, represented by Bombon Projects gallery in Barcelona, which will become part of the Taurisano Collection, further consolidating the connection between the award and the identity of the collection. For the 2025 edition, the selection of the work was entrusted to curator Massimiliano Maglione, to whom we had the pleasure of addressing a few questions regarding the initiative.
Anna Irina Russell, “Coda (II)”, 2025, graphite, cotton fabric and synthetic cotton filling, courtesy of Bombon Projects
Andrea Guerrer: The Because of Many Suns Award aims to support “artistic practices capable of critically engaging with the present and opening up future perspectives”. What specific criteria did you use to identify the winning work among those presented at Art-o-rama? How did you balance the urgency of the artistic message with aesthetic quality?
Massimiliano Maglione: The selection of the winning work was the result of a layered and attentive gaze, guided more by relevance than by rigid parameters. I did not follow a single criterion but allowed myself to be led by a series of implicit questions: what conditions of meaning does the work activate? How does it inhabit its own time? What kind of friction does it create with the context it comes from or where it is placed? I was interested in verifying the coherence between intention and construction, between urgency and awareness. Some works strike with the strength of their content but get lost in uncertain formalization. Others excel aesthetically but remain self-referential. Instead, I sought those works in which form does not illustrate content but incorporates it and lets it breathe. When that happens, there is no need to balance. There is adherence, clarity, necessity.
Installation view of the Bombon Projects booth at Art-o-rama 2025, artworks by Natalia Suarez & Anna Irina Russell, photo by Margot Montigny, courtesy of Bombon Projects and Art-o-rama
What impression did you have of the artistic landscape presented at Art-o-rama 2025? What themes or methodological approaches stood out among the participating galleries? Did you notice any significant differences compared to previous editions of the fair?
I was quite impressed by the overall quality of the proposals, but also by the courage with which many galleries chose to expose themselves, to take a stand, not to play it safe. The fair offered a wide yet readable panorama, shaped by a distinctly experimental approach and independent projects, often able to break away from conventions without ever falling into formula or complacency. In fact, I wanted to give a special mention to the booth of Cable Depot (Sofia), for a proposal of strong, intense, coherent and necessary political impact. At the same time, I was also struck by the choices of Dilalica (Barcelona) and Romance x Iowa (Pittsburgh & Brooklyn), two projects marked by delicacy and coherence, able to hold meaning without overloading it, balancing fragility and precision. Many works addressed issues as identity, body and memory, but did so – mostly – without didactic tendencies and with a strong experimental inclination. I perceived a widespread tendency toward layering, productive ambiguity, and the hybrid and intelligent use of languages and materials. In more than one case, the strength of the work lay precisely in its resistance to definition, in the impossibility of reducing it to a recognizable genre or format. And perhaps in this openness, in this fertile indeterminacy, lies one of the most interesting spaces for artistic research today: it is wonderful to see it in a fair context. I also found interesting the way the local context responded, with numerous openings, studio visits, and a constant presence of visitors.
Installation view of the Cable Depot Gallery booth at Art-o-rama 2025, artworks by Gabriela Löffel, photo by Margot Montigny, courtesy of Cable Depot and Art-o-rama
Based on your curatorial experience, what do you consider to be the most significant trends in contemporary emerging art? How are artistic practices evolving in their confrontation with the social, political, and environmental challenges of our time?
I honestly find it difficult to identify univocal trends. Today’s emerging landscape is so vast and varied that any attempt at systematization risks oversimplifying what, instead, should be observed in its complexity. The real difference, perhaps, is precisely that forms, languages, perspectives – and above all, the subjects who speak out – are multiplying. Contemporary art has opened up to a plurality of voices that in the past were marginalized or simply ignored, and this inclusion generates a richness that makes it hard to speak of “one” emerging scene. As a curator, I am especially interested in looking at how artists respond to the pressures of the present, not so much in terms of themes but within the structures of their work. Many question dominant production models, distancing themselves from performative logics or from expectations tied to visibility. This critical stance seems to me aligned with certain reflections by Han, who argues that our era is dominated by an excess of exposure and performance that ends up emptying the meaning of action. In this context, the contemporary artistic process appears, in my view, as a possible space for slowing down, for ambiguity, for resistance. What fascinates me, more than directly tackling themes such as the climate crisis, inequality, or geopolitical instability, is observing how these urgencies enter the works laterally. Even without explicit intentions, they filter into practices, profoundly influencing them as a reaction to the present..
Installation view of the Dilalica Gallery booth at Art-o-rama, artworks by Chloé Vanderstraeten & Huaqian Zhang, photo by Margot Montigny, courtesy of Dilalica and Art-o-rama
The winning work will become part of the Taurisano Collection. How would you describe the vision and mission of this collection? And in what way does the selected work fit into the dialogue with the other works already present in the collection?
The Taurisano Collection has a clear identity, but not a closed one. It is a fluid entity, in constant motion, open to different languages and nourished by discontinuities, mutations and interferences. Over the years, it has built a coherent ensemble without ever hardening into a defined aesthetic, maintaining strong openness toward emerging practices, hybrid forms, and critical positions. Today, it includes over four hundred works, ranging from installations, videos and sculptures to paintings and photography, with a consistent interest in works capable of articulating new sensibilities and new ways of relating to the present. The Because of Many Suns Award develops within this trajectory. It was not conceived as an external initiative but as part of a broader curatorial vision, in which collecting also means taking responsibility for activating processes, supporting research and generating meaning around works. Anna Irina Russell’s work fits naturally into this path. Her practice combines installation elements, soft forms, ambiguous narratives and relational devices, creating environments that play with the viewer’s expectations and question their position. I believe her work does not simply occupy space but enters into relation with its surroundings, changes its geometries, and stimulates new readings. Every new acquisition is an opportunity to question the whole and make it evolve.
Installation view of the Romance Gallery x Iowa Projects booth at Art-o-rama 2025, artworks by Naomi Hawksley, Ingrid Yi-ChenLu & Emilia Wang, photo by Margot Montigny, courtesy of Romance x Iowa and Art-o-rama
Considering that this is the fifth edition of the award, how do you see the evolution of this project? What role can an award like Because of Many Suns play within the contemporary art landscape and in supporting emerging practices?
Undoubtedly, the award will continue to support artists and the galleries representing them, while maintaining its multiform and multimodal nature. It will not necessarily follow a rigid format but will remain a space in transformation, capable of adapting and renewing itself over time. Each edition will be an opportunity to create connections, activate dialogues and generate possibilities. The goal is to remain attentive to the present, intercept its dynamics and accompany emerging practices in the construction of new trajectories.
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Actor and performer, he loves visual arts in all their manifestations.
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