Tortona Creativity and Studio Iroko present The first “Crossing the Bridge” ArtFestival in the Tortona Area, dedicated to the mythical Green Bridge of “Porta Genova”. This historical landmark, joining the P.ta Genova Square and Tortona Street has been used as a set and location for many historical movies, advertisement campaigns, videos and photo-shoots. 

On this occasion, Tortona Creativity launches a new format: The Instant Art Festival©, which is to say a very lightweight, fast and easy to organize art festival, which is nonetheless characterized by strong and profound themes and conceptual contents. In fact, there is no such thing as a fixed festival grounds or site, in the traditional meaning, but one or more locations, outdoors as well as indoors, with a rapidly evolving structure, which may be constantly managed and updated thanks to new communications means, in particular  web2.0 tools, such as Facebook or Myspace. In occasion of the first edition of CtB Artfestival, Tortona Creativity organizes a contest, inviting, without charge, a maximum of 50 young artists, which may be graffiti artists, street artists, cartoonists, graphic professionals, designers or art students. The contest will take place from April 22 to April 24 during the “Fuori Salone del Mobile” event (the biggest design and architecture exhibition in Italy and one of the most famous in the world), from 6 pm to 9 pm, when the maximum flow of visitors to above said exhibition is expected in the Tortona Area, which is a real “hot spot” for design professionals.

The participating artists, selected by the jury and by the public, will put up an epic fight during the three days of the festival, using only writing tools and paper, at or on the bridge, surrounded by a huge crowd. The tools, provided by the Tortona Creativity staff, will be notepads and pens or felt-pens. The works may be inspired by the bridge, as a physical as well as metaphorical entity (a bridge between civilizations, a bridge between generations, or a bridge for communicating, in general). The notepads, finished and filled in all pages, and signed by the artists on the last page, will be handed over to the jury. During the contest, the artists may be filmed by video operators and the video will be displayed in real time in a nearby gallery, and afterwards displayed and sold to the public. Music will be provided by a DJset. 

Meeting point: La Latteria, Via Tortona 12.

Showdown schedule:

First round: Wednesday, April 22

At 5.45 pm, notepads and pens are handed over to the artists, at the meeting point, and at 6 pm, the contest starts. The participating artists may position themselves anywhere around or on the bridge (for example on the stairs, under the bridge, without any limitation in movement).

At 9 pm, contest stops and works are handed over to the jury. During the night: 10 artists are selected and named for the second round.*

Second round: Thursday, April 23

The 10 selected contestants from the first round will follow the same procedure of the first round; the fight begins at 6 pm and ends at 9 pm.

During the night: 3 artists are named for the final round.*

Final round: Friday April 24

The final round will take place from 6 pm to 9 pm, as in the preceding rounds. At the end, the jury will proclaim the winner and the 2° and 3° place.*

The winners will acquire the right to participate in future collective shows organized by Tortona Creativity and its partner galleries and publication of works on the Tortona Creativity site. The prize also comprises three beautiful pastel sets of the renowned Lyra Rembrandt Line for the Fine Arts manufactured by Fila.°°

The criteria applied by the jury for evaluating the works will be: speed, technical skills, creativity, effectiveness of message.

The jury is comprised of artists, curators, art critics, designers and illustrators. The public is also invited to vote for their favorite artists. 

For info contact: Tortona Creativity. info@tortonacreativity.com  | Phone: 02:89421385 | 02:99103320

* updates will be published in real time on the Tortona Creativity 

website and on Facebook.

°°Fila is official partner of the event and also provides the TRATTO pens used by the participating artists.