The artist, put forward by the gallery Dürst Britt & Mayhew, received the award for his artwork WHEN IS IT THAT WE FEEL THE CHANGE IN THE AIR? from an international jury composed of Diana Campbell Betancourt, artistic director, Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka; Krist Gruijthuijsen, director, KW Berlin Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; and Antje-Britt Mählmann, director, Kunsthalle St. Annen, Lübeck.

“Lennart Lahuis’ installation at Dürst Britt & Mayhew is a poignant example of how context and materiality is manifested in a multi-layered process of what is considered ‘sustainable’,’” said the jury. “Lahuis is placed in dialogue with Dutch modernist painter and poet Willem Hussem, influential within the Netherlands but largely unknown internationally. The abstract colorful paintings by Hussem are juxtaposed by crates, bluntly placed right in front of them and used to transport Lahuis’ work with. A display of industrial products reveal a system in which words evaporate through water. When Is It that We Feel Change in the Air? could have been adapted from one of Hussem’s poems tracing the ephemeral and poetic complexities of (art) history within our everyday changing environment”.

The award – last year given to Renato Leotta for his artwork MARE – is the fruit of reflections dear to FPT Industrial, a company oriented towards the design and production of engines for the industrial sector – commercial vehicles, agricultural equipment and generators – as well as for the nautical sector, and which, through this project, is consolidating its continuous commitment to environmental protection. The FPT for Sustainable Art award was conceived together with Artissima with the aim of FPT Industrial conveying the company’s commitment, even in a context apparently far removed from the industrial one, and reaching an audience that is becoming increasingly attentive to these issues. Sustainability as a driver for the transformation of materials and creative and industrial processes: the award is intended to recognize an artist whose research and works are the result of a virtuous and sustainable conceptual production chain.

“We are very happy that Lennart Lahuis is the winner of this second edition, as his work perfectly represents the vision of this award,” says Egle Panzella, Sustainability Manager at FPT Industrial. “FPT Industrial’s commitment to promoting this award stems from two elements that we consider fundamental: protection of the environment, which is intrinsically linked to our production of industrial engines, and a growing commitment to the development of increasingly sustainable production processes.”

The FPT for Sustainable Art Award is the most recent step in a path that the company embarked on in 2019 and which saw it become the Main Sponsor of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale and promoter of the Consider yourself as a guest (Cornucopia) installation by the artist Christian Holstad (born in Anaheim, California in 1972), exhibited at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and presented at Artissima 2019. The work, a large cornucopia – an ancient symbol of luck and abundance – made entirely out of plastic waste, represented FPT Industrial’s first reflections on the urgent need to tackle pollution of the world’s seas and oceans. Also, in the same year, the company linked up with a series of initiatives for the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci (1519), a figure capable of uniquely looking to the future and to innovation: among the projects supported, Roberto Cuoghi’s M I R A C O L A Artist Light in Turin – homage to the master’s theories on the relationship between light and shadow – and the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, Man is a model of the world, hosted by the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice.

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