Eugenio Viola

Eugenio Viola (born 1975, Naples) is an Italian art critic and curator. He got his Ph.D. in “Methods and Methodologies of Archaeological and Historical-Artistic Research” at the University of Salerno. He is the current Senior Curator at PICA – Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, which is one of the leading Australian institutions

From 2009 to 2016 he has held curatorial positions at MADRE, the Contemporary Art Museum of Naples. From 2009 to 2012, he was the Curator of the Project Room, a space dedicated to the young and experimental artists. He arranged - right before the “Arabian Spring”- a network residence and exhibition program in partnership with some institutions and nonprofit organizations from Middle East (Transit Project: Madre Museum, Naples / Townhouse, Cairo / PiST, Istanbul / CCA, Tel Aviv / State Museum, Thessaloniki, 2009-2011); and an annual performance festival named Corpus. Art in Action (2009-2012), presenting site-specific actions of a number of artists such as Tania Bruguera, Regina Josè Galindo, Teresa Margolles, Maria José Arjona, Ron Athey, Milica Tomic, Tobias Bernstrup, Kira O’Reilly, Davide Balliano, Francesca Grilli, Jamie Shovlin and Lustfaust, and many others.

From 2013 to 2016, as Curator at Large, he has been responsible for the research and development of the Madre Museum's collection ('Per_forming a collection' project ) and co-curated the first Italian large-scale exhibition of Boris Mikhailov and Francis Alÿs (Reel-Unreel. Afghan Projects, 2010–14); a complex Daniel Buren’s project, conceived in two times: 'Comme un jeu d’enfant' (Work in situ, 2014-2015, Madre Museum, Naples - #1); 'Axer / Désaxer' (Work in situ, 2015, Madre Museum, Napoli - #2); the biggest exhibition ever devoted to the Italian artists Gian Maria Tosatti, Vettor Pisani and Giulia Piscitelli.

As a guest curator he worked for several Italian and International institutions, curating amongst the others, solo exhibitions devoted to: Regina José Galindo (Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany, 2016; PAC | Contemporary Art Pavilion, Milan, ZAC Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo, 2014-15); Karol Radziszewski (CoCA – Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Torun, Poland, 2014); Mark Raidpere (held in Morra Greco Foundation in Naples / EKKM - The Contemporary Art Museum of Tallinn, Estonia, 2013); 'The Abramović Method', the pioneering project of Marina Abramović at PAC (Contemporary Art Pavilion, Milan, 2012), "the first after the artist’s dazzling retrospective of 2010 at MoMa in New York." was curated by Eugenio Viola together with Diego Sileo; He also curated the retrospective of ORLAN’s work at the Tallina Kunstihoone in Tallinn (Estonia, 2008) after her most comprehensive retrospective 'Le Récit', curated with Lorand Hegyi at the MAMC in 2007 (Saint Etienne, France).

Eugenio Viola curated the Estonian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Art Biennale (Jaanus Samma, ‘NSFW- Not Suitable For Work. A Chairman’s Tale’, Palazzo Malipiero, Venice, later rearranged at the Museum of Occupations in Tallinn, which was listed by the American Hyperallergic amongst the top 15 exhibitions around the world in 2016.

As a thinker Eugenio Viola is one "of the most talented and inspirational young people who are driving forward the art world today" as stated by the British art magazine 'Apollo' in 2014. He was voted the best Italian curator for 2016 by the Italian art magazine Artribune.

He is a scholar in theories and practices related to performance and Body Art. On this subject he has extensively lectured in Italy and abroad. He has published several essays and he has edited the monographs on Regina José Galindo (Ed. Skira, Milan, 2014), Hermann Nitsch (Ed. Morra, Naples, 2013), Marina Abramović (Ed. 24 Ore Cultura, Milan, 2012), and ORLAN (Ed. Charta, Milan, 2007). He collaborates on regular basis with "Artforum"(USA) and "Arte" (Italy). His writings also appeared in several Italian art magazines such as Flash Art, Segno, Arte e Critica, and on the Spanish Exit Express. He is a member of IKT (“International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art”); and he is on several awards international committees and panels like Tent.