Richard Demarco: The Italian Connection

Since the 1960s Richard Demarco has had a pivotal role in the production and promotion of the visual and performing arts in Scotland. The Italo-Scottish artist, cultural entrepreneur and educator has organised and fostered cultural exchanges and collaborations throughout Europe and has been a champion of European culture and the avant-garde in Scotland. Although some research and publications have been devoted to Demarco's endeavours, little is known of the numerous cultural exchanges and collaborations between Italy and Scotland that he initiated and developed in the past fifty years. This gap in the historical canon of knowledge is extraordinary because in the Demarco's archives - a portion of which is at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA, (representing activities from 1963 to 1995) and a portion at the Demarco European Art Foundation, Edinburgh - are many traces of exchanges between Italy and Scotland promoted by Demarco as part of his larger European network and contribution to the Edinburgh Festival. These documents include photographs, ephemera, notes, catalogues and artworks that feature events involving relevant Italian or Italian-based artists, producers, performers, directors, critics including: Palma Bucarelli, the Count Panza di Biumo, Giulio Paolini, Jannis Kounellis, Bruno Ceccobelli, Toti Scialoja, Carlo Quartucci and Carla Tato, Mimmo Rotella, Mario Merz, Fabrizio Plessi, Achille Bonito Oliva, Maria Gloria Conti Bicocchi, Giuseppe Chiari, Guido Sartorelli. This publication is the main outcome of the eponymous research project, Richard Demarco The Italian Connection and uncovers and retraces many stories and reassesses how Demarco promoted Italian visual and performing arts in Scotland and Scottish art in the Italian cultural context.

Table of Contents:
Preface by Amanda Catto Introduction by Laura Leuzzi Chapter 1 "Navigating Italian Migration to Scotland:Richard Demarco and the Ricardian Road" Terri Colpi Chapter 2 The Long 70s: Italian Journeys through theDemarco Archives Laura Leuzzi Chapter 3 Musings on an afternoon with Richard Demarco Terry Anne Newman, Elaine Shemiltand Stephen Partridge Chapter 4 The International Outreach of Mara Coccia:the Roma Punto Uno Exhibition Francesca Gallo Chapter 5 Meikle Seggie: The Celtic Connection Adam Lockhart Chapter 6 The audiovisual and dramaturgical landscape of Carlo Quartucci and Carla Tatò. The experience of Zattera di Babele Marco Maria Gazzano Chapter 7 Demarco and Yugoslavia in the 1970s Jon Blackwood Appendices:Travelling with Richard Demarco by Gabriella Cardazzo, and La Strada, Le Route, The Road an exhibition about the life of Richard Demarco by Deirdre MacKenna

About the Author :
Laura Leuzzi is an art historian and curator. She was Post-Doc Researcher on the AHRC funded research projects REWINDItalia Artists' Video in Italy in 70s and 80s and on the AHRC funded research project 'EWVA - European Women's Video Art in the 70s and 80s', both at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee. Currently she is Co-Investigator on the AHRC funded research project 'Richard Demarco. The Italian Connection' at DJCAD. Stephen Partridge is an artist, academic researcher and the principal investigator on the AHRC funded research projects: Rewind Artists' Video in the 70s and 80s; REWINDItalia Artists' Video in Italy in 70s and 80s; and Co-Investigator on the AHRC funded research projects EWVA – European Women's Video Art in the 70s and 80s and Richard Demarco The Italian Connection. His video work has been exhibited extensively since 1974 and his seminal work Monitor (1974), was acquired by TATE in 2016. Professor Elaine Shemilt is an academic, researcher, practicing artist and was the Chair of Fine Art Printmaking at DJCAD, University of Dundee (2001–2021). Elaine is especially known as a printmaker and was a pioneer of early feminist video and multi-media installation. She continues to address the impact of war, conflict, censorship and constraint on psychologies and environments in her work. She is P.I. on the AHRC-funded research projects: EWVA, investigating early video art by European women artists; and Demarco the Italian Connection. She is the Director of the Centre for Remote Environments – a research and consultancy unit for environmental projects, mainly concerned with the Island of South Georgia for which she was made a Shackleton Scholar in 2001.

Review :
Richard Demarco is a remarkable force of energy whose vision has sustained artists and inspired audiences for nearly sixty years. An Italian Scot, a founder of the Traverse Theatre, Demarco is an artist, a writer, a philosopher and an entrepreneur. He is the man who brought contemporary visual arts to the Edinburgh Festival where he has contributed to more than 50 Festivals. His exhibitions have opened our eyes to the work of artists, like Joseph Beuys and Kantor, who later became internationally recognised, as well as bringing the visual arts from Eastern Europe and from across the world, long before other people were interested. He has inspired us all. - Sir Nicholas Serota - Chair of Arts Council England and former Director of the Tate