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Giorgio Verzotti analytically traces his own experience as curator of the 1997 Venice Biennale, with Nancy Spector and Vicente Todolì and under the direction of Germano Celant. Despite working against “pathologically limited amount of time,” Verzotti shows how the curators managed to “conceive the Biennale as it should be, that is, a review of the best that is produced on the international art scene, and not as it usually is, that is, the occasion for thematic exhibitions that are often specious and serve more than anything else to build a sort of self-portrait of the curator-critic.” Past, Present, Future juxtaposed the work of historicized artists with that of the most promising young artists to narrate the last thirty years of art history.

Giorgio Verzotti (Boca, 1953) is an art critic and curator. He has taught at the Carrara Academy of Bergamo, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and the Catholic University of Brescia. He is member of the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Antonio Ratti and of Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro in Milan. From 1991 to 2001 he was curator (since 1999 in the role of chief curator) of Castello di Rivoli – Museo d’arte contemporanea in Rivoli (Turin), while from 2002 to 2005 he was chief curator of MART – Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto. At Castello di Rivoli he curated exhibitions by Giulio Paolini, Wim Delvoye, Giuseppe Penone, Guillaume Bijl, Enzo Cucchi, Carla Accardi, Haim Steinbach, Maurizio Cattelan, Mona Hatoum, Armando Testa, Shirin Neshat, Wolfgang Tillmans, Keith Haring, Pier Paolo Calzolari, among others. For Mart he curated the exhibitions Nuovo spazio italiano, 2002; Il racconto del filo, with Francesca Pasini, 2003, Skin Deep. Il corpo come luogo del segno artistico, 2003, Montagna. Art Science Myth, 2003; Reading Rooms. Giulio Paolini dialogues with the permanent collection, 2004, Carol Rama 2004; Mimmo Jodice from the Cotroneo collection, 2004; Il Bello e le bestie, with Lea Vergine, 2004; Runa Islam, 2005; La danza delle avanguardie, 2005; Douglas Gordon, 2006, among others. He has curated numerous exhibitions for other institutions, writes regularly for magazines such as Artforum and Flash Art, and holds lectures and conferences in Italian and European institutions.