past forward is a platform for curatorial research and experimentation founded by Francesca Zappia in order to explore the relationships between art and knowledge through artistic/curatorial research and production.
past forward was launched in 2014 with a series of commissions to artists to appropriate the "theatre of memory"* that is the Internet and present an online-based project. Followed a series of exhibitions, interviews to artists and professionals, performances, publications, workshops, research into collections and events: various formats that have led to different experimentations.
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*Reflections about the “theatre of memory” refer to the work of the Venetian Renaissance philosopher Giulio Camillo (1480-1544) and explore the similarity between the "hyperlink" structure of the Internet and the systematisation of knowledge as imagined by Camillo.
past forward was launched in 2014 with a series of commissions to artists to appropriate the "theatre of memory"* that is the Internet and present an online-based project. Followed a series of exhibitions, interviews to artists and professionals, performances, publications, workshops, research into collections and events: various formats that have led to different experimentations.
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*Reflections about the “theatre of memory” refer to the work of the Venetian Renaissance philosopher Giulio Camillo (1480-1544) and explore the similarity between the "hyperlink" structure of the Internet and the systematisation of knowledge as imagined by Camillo.
Francesca Zappia is an independent curator and writer based in Glasgow. She graduated in “History of Visual Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage” from the University Ca ‘Foscari of Venice and in “Contemporary Art and Its Exhibition” from La Sorbonne-Paris IV. As an exhibitions assistant she has worked with the FRAC Ile-de-France and the François Pinault Foundation.
Since 2014, Francesca works as an independent curator focusing her research around transmission of memory and knowledge production in artistic practices and, widely, in our culture. In 2015-16 Francesca has obtained a grant from the Centre National des Arts Plastiques in Paris for her project “Curatorial research and the reproduction of artworks: a cultural exploration of the Fonds national d’art contemporain”. Within this research she questions the social, sociological, political, cultural and art-historical reasons under the production of manual and technical reproductions of masterpieces within the varied historical and cultural contexts that have occurred since the creation of the CNAP collection in 1791.
Since 2014, Francesca works as an independent curator focusing her research around transmission of memory and knowledge production in artistic practices and, widely, in our culture. In 2015-16 Francesca has obtained a grant from the Centre National des Arts Plastiques in Paris for her project “Curatorial research and the reproduction of artworks: a cultural exploration of the Fonds national d’art contemporain”. Within this research she questions the social, sociological, political, cultural and art-historical reasons under the production of manual and technical reproductions of masterpieces within the varied historical and cultural contexts that have occurred since the creation of the CNAP collection in 1791.