Francesco Urbano Ragazzi

Francesco Urbano Ragazzi is a curatorial duo founded in Paris in 2008. They have developed an extensive range of production strategies and invented exhibition formats working closely with pioneers such as Jonas Mekas, Kenneth Goldsmith, Jennifer West, Miltos Manetas, Cheryl Donegan, Haroon Mirza, Pauline Curnier Jardin, and others. Establishing new alliances between art and reality, the team has not only operated in museums and academic contexts but also in a wide variety of physical and mediatic spaces.
Francesco Urbano Ragazzi was commissioned with projects for, among others, MMCA (Seoul), Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Missoni (New York), CERN (Geneva), Bucharest Biennale, Maraya Art Centre (Sharjah), Centro Ricerca Castello di Rivoli (Turin), ISCP (New York), Reykjavik International Film Festival, Centre d’Art Contemporain Gèneve, La Loge (Brussels), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Institut Français (Paris), Ikon (Birmingham), Futura (Prague), Ruya Foundation (Baghdad), Emirates Foundation (Abu Dhabi). In 2012 they curated Io Tu Lui Lei, the first institutional exhibition about the cultural legacy of LGBTQ+ movements in Italy, with the support of the National Ministry of Equal Opportunities.

Between 2017 and 2022 the team directed the archive of feminist artist Chiara Fumai, organizing her first solo show in the U.S. as well as the main retrospective exhibition and comprehensive publication of her work to date. In 2021, the duo co-edited FUORI!!! 1971-1974 (Nero Editions), an award-winning anthology dedicated to the first LGBTQ+ magazine in Italian history. Between 2022 and 2023, the duo directed the 17th Lofoten Biennial in Norway and “Jonas Mekas 100!” in Italy, the international program celebrating the centenary of the hugely influential Lithuanian filmmaker.

The duo held lectures and seminars in academic contexts such as Collège International de Philosophie, Nordland School of Arts and Film, Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, ZHdK Zurich, Universiteit Antwerpen, UC Davis Humanities Institute, Yale School of Architecture. Their words have been published in magazines such as Flash Art, Purple, NERO, South as a State of Mind, Mousse, CURA, and Spike.

Francesco Urbano Ragazzi@DAI: AEROPONIC ACTS 2023 ~ WHERE THE MOON IS UP