Press

illycaffè, in collaboration with Arco – the COntemporary ARt Fair of Madrid, which has Brazil as this year’s guest nation – launches the illy SustainArt Prize, dedicated to young Brazilian artists under the age of 35.

February 14, 2008

Madrid, February 2008 - illycaffè, in collaboration with Arco – the COntemporary ARt Fair of Madrid, which has Brazil as this year’s guest nation – launches the illy SustainArt Prize, dedicated to young Brazilianartists under the age of 35.

The winner, selected by an international jury chaired by Berta Sichel, director of the audio-visual department at the Reina Sofia Museum, will receive a prize of euros 15,000 and the possibility of presenting a project for the production of a series of art coffee cups for the illy Art Collection, which the company has been promoting for more than 15 years, withthe involvement of leading and emerging talent at an international level.

The awards ceremony will take place on Friday 15th February at 12 pm in the Foro Break at Arco within Pavilion 14.1. Lourdes Fernández, director of ARCOwill also be present.

There are 23 young Brazilian artists entered for the prize, represented by 13 galleries:
A Gentil Carioca: Carlos Contente, Paulo Nenflidio, Thiago Rocha Pitta; Box 4–Silvia Cintra: Cinthia Marcelle, Maria Klabin; Casa Triangolo: Felipe Barbosa; Galeria Fortes Vilaça: Mauro Piva, Tiago Carneiro da Cunha, Sara Ramo; Galeria Leme: Mariana Manhães; Galeria Luisa Strina: Laura Belém, Marcius Galan; Galeria Mendes Bahia: Marcelo Moscheta; Galeria Mercedes Viegas: Ana Holck; Galeria Nara Roesler: Rodolpho Parigi; Galeria Novembro Arte: Laura Erber, Matheus Rocha Pitta; Galeria Vermelho: Chiara Banfi, Lia Chiaia, Marcelo Cidade, Marilá Dardot; Galeria Virgilio: Marcone Moreira; Ybakatu Galeria: Debora Santiago.

illycaffè, sustainability and contemporary art
The prize forms part of a broader illy SustainArt project created to deepen the company’s involvement in contemporary art as launched at the 52nd International Art Exhibition in Venice. The aim is to extend the company’s approach to sustainable growth to the international artistic community, offering opportunities for visibility and market exposure to all emerging artists from coffee-producing countries from which illy buys coffee beans: in particular, Brazil, India,Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ethiopia.

The first concrete step in this project was the collaboration initiated at the 52nd International Art Exhibition in Venice with the Italo-Latin American Institute, an international body commissioned by the Biennale since 1972 to organize the participation of Latin-American artists, with their own pavilion, in Venice’s International Art Exhibitions.

Last November in Turin, in collaboration with Artissima, the international contemporary art fair, three curators Meskerem Assegued (Ethiopia), Mariangela Mendez Prencke (Colombia) and Suman Gopinath (India) – selected in collaboration with the Fair – were involved with the objective of launching and stimulating the creation of an art system in their countries. This process continues today in Madrid at ARCO, the international contemporary art fair, at which the company presents the SustainArt Prize, dedicated to promoting and supporting youngartists from Brazil.

Based in Trieste, Italy, illycaffé produces and markets a unique blend of espresso coffee, under a single brand leader in quality. It is available in more than 50,000 of the best restaurants and coffee bars and is sold in 140 countries around the world, serving over 6 million cups of illy espresso coffee a day. On a global level it employs more than 700 peopleand has a consolidated turnover of euros 246 million.

illy buys green coffee directly from the growers of the highest quality Arabica through partnerships based on the mutual creation of value. The Trieste-based company fosters long-term collaborations with the world's best coffee growers - in Brazil, Central America, India and Africa - providing know-how and technology and offering above-market prices.

illycaffè and art
Every day, more than 6 million cups of coffee are prepared around the world using the illy blend. Founded in 1933 by Francesco Illy, illycaffè produces and markets a single, leading-quality blend of espresso coffee. It is present in 50,000 of the finest restaurants and coffeebars in over 140 countries around the world.

For more than ten years, the company has contributed to the realization of broad-ranging cultural events and exhibitions, having picked on contemporary art and creativity to communicate the values of its brand. Major exponents of the international artistic scene have worked with illy: from Sandro Chia to Daniel Buren, James Rosenquist to Nam June Paik,Robert Rauschenberg to David Byrne, Jannis Kounellis to Louise Bourgeois.

In 1999, illy supported “Minimalia”, a display of Italian contemporaryart hosted at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York.

In 1997, 2003, 2005 and again in 2007, the company was a main partner of the Venice Biennale for Visual Arts, developing ad hoc projects aimed in particular at visitorsof long-term exhibitions.

The link with art is so significant for illy that in 1996 the company entrusted the design of the current logo to James Rosenquist,one of the most important exponents of pop art.

Artists – both celebrated ones as mentioned above, together with Jeff Koons, Mimmo Paladino, Francis Ford Coppola, Joseph Kosuth, and young, emerging figures offering lively creativity – are the creators of the illy art collections, the famous artists’ cups produced by illy since 1992 and now a cult object amongst collectors and lovers of espresso coffee. To date, over 60 limited series of signed and numbered collections have been produced. Drinking a coffee has thus become, thanks to the illy ArtCollections an intellectual stimulus as well as a pleasure.

For some time, the company has been promoting emerging talent in contemporary art and design in partnership with the best international melting pots of creativity, and also participates actively in spreading awareness of art and experimentation, providing support to the most important bodies in the sector: the Italian Studio Program of P.S.1, the Central St. Martin’s College in London, the Fondazione Pistoletto and Artissima.

Download press kit for Acro and the illy SustainArt Prize

For further information
Anna Adriani /Christine Pascolo, illycaffè Trieste - Tel +39 040 3890111
Susanna Picucci/Giorgia Meretti - Cohn & Wolfe Milano - Tel +39 02 20239386 -
Barbara Martinez, illycaffè España – Tel +34 93 303 4050, barbara.martinez@illy
Marta Cacho, Jefa de Prensa ARCO – Tel +34917 225094, mcacho@ifema.es