"Arte Laguna Prize is, as I like to reiterate, a privileged observation post over the art world and, at times, over realities as well.

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From this standpoint you can actually look at the contemporary art world in its entirety, in its most spontaneous features, not just in the ultra-glossy look of international fairs and major galleries, but also in the part of it which is made of the more spontaneous and sometimes more courageous minimum and minimal experiences, a world that spans the terraqueous globe and comes in hundreds of languages and accents.

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From this living, energetic world, we seem to perceive the response of a recovery, a genetic force, a desire for redemption and faith in the human being. In spite of everything, in spite of the economic crisis and the social-political instability, the artists are there and are alive and creative, and believe in doing art as a pure and truthful form of expression, which turns into a warning to our survival.

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Browsing through the thousands of works that have been submitted to the prize, you have an almost sociological account of the fears, hopes, and desires of humanity.

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The uncertainty surrounding the role of women emerges predominantly in the work of artists from countries where the condition of women is poor and characterized by the systematic deprivation of certain fundamental rights, is placed alongside a rich array of works that deal with the condition of children and child labor.

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The anguish of a raped and distorted nature seems to be a common theme shared by many artists. especially from Asia, where the emotional legacy of Fukushima is still strong and palpable. Next to this, the search for identity of the human beings, be them men, women, transgender, migrants or emigrates, seems to affect quite strongly the work of artists from all over the world almost as if it were a common thread connecting the situations most disparate and diverse.

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This should not, however, lead us to believe that in general what comes through is only a sense of anxiety or drama, and that the issues dealt with are only the result of trouble, because the pleasure of beauty, the search for new inner dimensions or for the inherent strength of life, are actually very popular and much investigated issues.

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A thousand themes, a thousand suggestions, a thousand ways but most importantly, a strong desire for growth that entails and inherent sense of life, not just survival.

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The prize is a lyrical and multifaceted fresco of what it means to be an artist at all levels and in all the regions around the globe, and just because of its complexity there are no real winners nor losers, but only those proposals by a group of observers the world of art who seek to reconstruct the fragments and the iconographic meaning of this fresco.

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The interpretation and selection criteria can be variable and closely associated with the individual personalities who intervene, exposing their professionalism to the thousands of questions and thousands of inputs that are inherent in the works presented in competition.

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The final exhibition is the result of this attempt at unraveling the tangle, this attempt at understanding, sorting and historicizing a reality that most often looks complex and elusive.

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This exhibition is dedicated to all of you, the artists who have participated in the prize, to the artists who have been selected and also to those who haven't, because your work, the work of all of you, as a whole and its entirety is an unmissable witness to our contemporary world and joyful shout of hope for the future.

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Thanks to all of you who hold on with courageous arms to Art."

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Igor Zanti