The BPER Prize, devoted to enhancing feminine themes, is part of the BPER Group’s traditional efforts focused on inclusion and the fight against gender violent, united with the promotion of culture and art.
As in 2024 (the first year of the prize), BPER acquire the winning work and display it in its exhibition spaces, thereby providing visibility to the work and to the artist after the conclusion of Arte Fiera.
With over 20 thousands employees and more than 5 million customers, the BPER Bank Group is one of Italy’s largest bank groups. It has always supported projects aimed at promoting all forms and expressions of culture. BPER Bank Gallery was created in 2017: not just a place, but a wide-ranging project that safeguards, conserves, and presents one of Italy’s largest corporate collections, with about 10,000 art works, over two thousand of which are precious. In line with the BPER brand’s mission, the Gallery supports an active, open, stimulating culture that creates links with local areas and among people by means of constantly evolving initiatives such as exhibits and events.
Jury:
Sabrina Bianchi, Brand & Marketing Communication Service Manager - Cultural Heritage and Corporate Collection La Galleria BPER
Serena Morgagni, Director of Communications, BPER Banca
Caterina Riva, Director of MACTE - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Termoli
Frida Carazzato, scientific curator at Fondazione Museion - Museo d'arte moderna e contemporanea di Bolzano
Candidates:
Winner: Sabrina Mezzaqui
Title of winning work: Lettere, embroidered letters (from Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger “Lettere 1925-1975”), 44.5x31.5 cm, 2010
Gallery: Massimo Minini, A15
Motivation: The artist’s work, a manual copy of correspondence between Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, brings to weaving the slowness and intimacy of manual practices, but also fixes thoughts and stories of relations. The award acknowledges the continuity and consistency of an artistic itinerary that has always placed words and writing at the core of its conception, creating a means of sharing.
Special mention: Arianna Zama
Titles of winning works: Rosa, come le gengive dei leopardi, oil on canvas, 2025 e Pastorello non ti scordar di me, oil on canvas, 2023
Gallery: Fuocherello, B74
Motivation: BPER Award also decided to assign a special mention to a young Italian artist whose research is ironic and playful, creating a dialog with the space and the public, each time generating the possibility of different narratives.