Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro and Fondazione ICA Milano present Dancing at the Edge of the World, a group exhibition bringing together the five finalist artists of the eighth edition of the Arnaldo Pomodoro Sculpture Prize: Bronwyn Katz, Dan Lie, Yu Ji, Trương Công Tùng and Luana Vitra. The exhibition marks a central moment in the history of the Prize and offers the public an overview of the latest trends in international sculptural research.

Established in 2006 by Arnaldo Pomodoro, the Prize is among the few - both in Italy and internationally - specifically dedicated to sculpture. Each edition acts as an observatory of the international scene, identifying artists between 25 and 45 years old whose individual research offers a reflection on the very idea of sculptural practice, seeking to recognize artists who make a tangible contribution to the development of contemporary sculpture, highlighting the connections between past, present and future.

Starting this year, thanks to the generous support of Venini, the award increases from €10,000 to €30,000, further strengthening the Prize!s commitment to supporting artistic research and experimentation for the winner of the eight edition.

The exhibition of the finalists represents a moment of dialogue and production in which new works, conceived specifically for the occasion, engage with the spaces of Fondazione ICA Milano, taking it as an active element of the creative process. Sculpture thus emerges as an open field of critical inquiry, sensitive to the cultural, ecological, and social transformations of the present.

Curators Federico Giani and Chiara Nuzzi state:
"The curatorial project takes its title from the collection of essays by Ursula K. Le Guin (1989), in which the author invites readers to imagine and welcome alternative perspectives and to consider imagination as a generative political and social tool. Drawing on this theoretical framework, the exhibition addresses some of the most urgent issues of the contemporary moment - the decentralization of human agency, the ecological dimension, and the contraction of the future horizon - proposing incursions into territories of possibility that redefine the relationship between bodies, matter, and environment.”
 

In this context, sculpture manifests itself as a living entity in continuous transformation: not a static object, but a critical and visionary intervention capable of reformulating relationships between human and non-human, natural and artificial, time and space. Although the human figure is visually almost entirely absent, the works deeply question the embodied experience of existence and the many forces - natural, environmental, climatic, architectural, political, and technological - that determine its conditions. As noted by Anne Reeve, President of the Prize Jury, the research presented here outlines a new biomorphism, a morphology of the body capable of inhabiting the dissolution of physical and temporal boundaries.

The practice of Bronwyn Katz employs materials as vectors of memory and knowledge, exploring the convergence between the human body and geology. Luana Vitra investigates the subjectivity of minerals through installations in which ceramics, coal, and metals generate dynamic and symbolic tensions. The works of Yu Ji - spanning video, print, and sculpture - compose a unified organism that challenges the atemporality of material, revealing sensitive ways of inhabiting the world through time, space, and movement. Dan Lie constructs ecosystems on display in which non-human presences become co-authors of the work, opening reflections on memory, mourning, and interdependence. Trương Công Tùng introduces the exhibition path with a work that poetically synthesizes the tensions of the exhibition, immersing the viewer in a universe where temporalities and dimensions interpenetrate.

The curators add: "The works respond directly to the architecture of Fondazione ICA Milano, which becomes a co- creator of the project. Installations and materials unfold through organic processes and reciprocal relations that continuously transform the exhibition space, affirming a conception of sculpture as a dynamic and relational practice in constant evolution.”

Through the plurality of the research presented, Dancing at the Edge of the World invites the public to recognize an interconnected and transforming world, stimulating new ways of perceiving and understanding contemporary geographies. The exhibition, accompanied by a publication edited by Lenz Press and scheduled for release in May 2026, thus reaffirms the mission of the Arnaldo Pomodoro Sculpture Prize: to support artistic researches capable of exploring new conceptual and relational borders, promoting the dialogue between artistic experimentation and critical reflection.

At the same time, the project reaffirms the role of Fondazione ICA Milano as a space for dialogue and cultural production, where contemporary artistic practices find a context open to research, collaboration, and the international circulation of ideas.

The synergy between the two Foundations allows a shared exhibition and curatorial framework in which artistic production, institutional vision, and research converge to support new perspectives on sculpture and its relationship with the present.

Thanks to Venini, Main Partner of the project, for its valuable support of the Prize and for its commitment to promoting contemporary art, and to IGPDecaux, Media Partner of the Prize for the fourth consecutive edition.