Meet the Scientific Committee that presides over the selection of works exhibited at the BIIC
Maria Antonella Fusco
President
Art historian and museologist, she chairs the Scientific Committee. She was a senior executive of the Istituto centrale per la Grafica (MIC) from 2009 to 2019, directed the Museo Pignatelli Cortes in Naples and was head of the Museology section of the Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. From 1998 to 2008 she established and directed the Centro per i servizi educativi S’ed of the MIC. From 1994 to 2014 she taught History and Technique of Photography at the Università Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples. Her work focuses mainly on the relationship between art and history in the nineteenth century and in the contemporary period.
Gabriella Bocconi
Art historian and librarian, she is in charge of the book collections of the Istituto centrale per la grafica. She has experience in designing educational programmes for museums and works on graphic art collections, illustrated books and artists’ books. Her studies mainly concern reproductive engraving after Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, and the relationship between reproductive prints and teaching in the Academies. She curated the exhibition “Regina Viarum. La via Appia nella grafica tra Cinquecento e Novecento”, as part of the activities for the recognition of the Appian Way as a UNESCO heritage site.
Rino Cardone
Formerly head of desk at TGR Rai, he is an art critic, essayist and poet. His essays include “Contemporanea – Appunti per una storia delle arti visive nel Molise dal 1945 al 1992”, “Convergenze – Aspetti dell’arte in Basilicata tra Ottocento e Novecento” and “Le terre del Silenzio”. In 2006-2007, for the “Rete della Cultura” of the Province of Potenza, he curated the exhibitions “Michelangelo: splendide anatomie” and “Quando i sensi si fanno cielo – Renato Guttuso, dipinti e disegni 1946-1986”. In the 1980s he was editor-in-chief of the contemporary art magazine “Perimetro”; he is a former Secretary of the Basilicata Order of Journalists.
Cecilia Casadei
Critic, curator and art journalist, formerly professor of Philosophy and vice-president of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Urbino, she is an art expert and consultant for the Court of Pesaro. She writes on art for Il Resto del Carlino and, with the State Archive of Pesaro, has developed a format that puts historical documents in dialogue with contemporary art. She is the author of “L’arte I giorni Le parole” (Quaderni del Consiglio Regionale delle Marche, 2024), presented at the 2025 Turin Book Fair. She has written critical essays for the catalogues of the VII Biennale (2012) and the XI Biennale (2022).
Franco Fanelli
Born in Rivoli (Turin) in 1959, with a degree in Humanities and a thesis in modern art history, he is an engraver: since 1984 he has exhibited in Italy and abroad in group and solo shows. From 1987 to 2026 he taught Engraving Techniques – Art Printmaking at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin. As an essayist and journalist he has written mainly on the art and artists of the twentieth century, and on printmaking from the sixteenth century to the present. His works are held, among others, at the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin, the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in Rome and the Museo della Grafica in Pisa.
Vittorio Manno
Born in Squinzano (Lecce), he obtained the Maestro d’arte diploma at the Istituto Statale d’Arte in Lecce in 1957 and has taught drawing in secondary schools since 1959. From 1976, after meeting engravers such as Guido Strazza and Giulia Napoleone, he has devoted himself to experimenting with intaglio printmaking techniques. In 1988 he co-founded the Associazione Incisori Grafica di via Sette Dolori in Matera, which he has headed since its foundation. He has taken part in biennials and triennials in Italy and around the world and, in Łódź (Poland), received the Medal of Honour at the Small Format Biennial.
Angelo Rizzelli
Born in Andrano (Lecce) on 24 February 1940, a graduate of the Liceo Artistico in Lecce, he taught Drawing and Art History at a science lyceum and Art Education at middle school. He attended intaglio printmaking courses with Guido Strazza, Giulia Napoleone, Peter Willburger, Assadour and Lorenzo Bruno. Since 1988 he has been a founder of the Associazione Incisori Grafica di via Sette Dolori in Matera. His works are held, among others, at the Civica Raccolta delle Stampe Achille Bertarelli in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan and at the Silesian Museum in Katowice; he has taken part in numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including Venice for the Biennale (2011).
Giuliana Valenza
Born in Piovà Massaia (Asti), she lives and works in Turin. At the Accademia Albertina she attended the engraving school of Franco Fanelli and Ermanno Barovero, focusing in particular on etching and berceau mezzotint (“maniera nera”). Since 1999 she has taken part in group shows and engraving biennials in Italy, receiving mentions and prizes, including first prize with a gold medal in Saluzzo (Cuneo). In 2010 she founded the s.t.Ars – sistema Torino Arte association, which works to promote and protect the cultural and artistic heritage of the territory, starting from the Piedmont Region.