Var Digital Art

VDA, with its projects, aims to highlight the relationship between Art, Digital, and Business, fostering cross-disciplinary interactions among professionals, thus bridging the worlds of industry, education, and art.

The idea stems from the "Renaissance 4.0" event held in 2018 at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, where the digital art pieces of two renowned Italian artists, Fabio Giampietro and Marco Mendeni, were presented, accompanied by a musical performance featuring a DJ set by William Orbit, known for collaborations with Blur, Depeche Mode, and Madonna.

From there emerged the concept of merging the worlds of business and art, giving rise to Var Digital Art as a patron of digital art. Its objective is to place Var Group's expertise and values at the service of contemporary art and artists, fostering growth and offering shared spaces, significant platforms, and the opportunity to experiment and create new modes of expression.

Var Digital Art by Var Group is the main partner of the great exhibition "SOLMI - Ship of Fools" that will be held from 18 April to 28 July 2024 at Palazzo Donà Dalle Rose in Venice in conjunction with the  Biennale d'Arte LX.

Federico Solmi, one of the pioneers of media art, returns to Italy with a solo exhibition after 20 years presenting 10 video works, 10 paintings, a VR work, ceramic sculptures and a new monumental work inspired by the Raft of the Medusa by Gericault, inserted in a fascinating exhibition designed for the occasion.
The exhibition also presents an innovative holographic sculpture developed in collaboration with Var Group. Curated by Dorothy Kosinski and co-curated by Renato Miracco, "Solmi - Ship of Fools" also includes important American private institutions among its partners, such as the prestigious The Phillips Collection (Washington DC) and The Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation (Chicago - Santa Fe).

VDA Award by Var Group is the biennial prize that, for the first time in Italy, depicts digital art trends and investigates the dissemination and experimentation of digital technologies to support, enhance, and promote contemporary artistic creation.

Key figures of the VDA Award: 12 artists, 4 finalist works, 1 sole winner. The award received submissions of 12 screen-based digital art pieces from a selection of contemporary artists identified by a scientific committee. Only 4 of these artworks proceeded to the final stage, showcased during the Var Group 2023 Convention for the decisive vote.
Luca Pozzi with "Rosetta Mission 2022" clinched the inaugural VDA Award, thanks to the jury's and the event attendees' votes during "Shape the present. Build the future" event.

Var Digital Art was the highlight of the Var Group Convention on October 20 and 21, 2022. VDA delved into the concept of "Digital Soul" using Artificial Intelligence and digital technologies, consistently focusing on sensitivity in relation to the digital world.

Two projects were realized:

• an immersive 9-meter tunnel, a Stargate between the physical and digital worlds, symbolizing a journey through time - past, present, and future, interpreting various meanings conveyed by the works of artists Leonardo Petrucci, Pamela Diamante, and Matteo Basilè;
• the collaborative piece "Digital Soul", created by Antonio Barbieri, translated Var Group's sentiment into art form. During the Var Group 2022 Convention, the artist conducted a performance where the audience chose words related to the human-nature and society-technology relationships. The generated data fueled a recursive algorithm that produced a series of modifiable fractal "branches" in color and form based on the processed data.

The forum "Digital Soul: Digital Connections between Art and Business," organized by Var Digital Art, was a multi-voiced reflection on the relationship between digital art and business. It was also an occasion to present the collective work "Digital Soul," created by artist Antonio Barbieri, brought to life during the Var Group Digital Soul Convention 2022, thanks to the contributions of all those who followed the event.

The collaboration between Var Group's Var Digital Art project and the Academy of Fine Arts of Brescia Santa Giulia unites art, digital, business, and education, creating new interconnections with young people and the university world.

VDA met with students in the "Digital Image Processing" course taught by Prof. Vincenzo Marsiglia, as part of the Painting triennial, delivering a lecture on the use of the Metaverse, NFTs, and Blockchain in art. The students also had the opportunity to present the creative process behind their digital art projects: from inspiration to artwork development, exploring the technologies used.

The #unritrattoperunirci project, born during the early months of the 2020 pandemic and conceived by artist Vincenzo Marsiglia, aims to merge art and digital platforms to place individuals at the center, creating a large real and virtual community, expressing the energy to react, stay connected, and feel united to restart in a better world. VDA and Var Group joined this movement, expressing the desire to restart and remain united through portraits.