The American Academy in Rome is pleased to announce that Giulia Colletti has been selected as the Italian Fellow for Curatorial Research for the second edition of this program, promoted in partnership with the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The fellowship supports curatorial research aimed at advancing the international visibility of Italian contemporary art and its systems.
Colletti has joined the Academy through June 12, 2026. The residency will conclude with public presentations of her research in Rome and, in fall 2026, in New York, cultivating future international collaborations. The fellowship underscores the Academy’s mission to strengthen connections between Italy’s contemporary art ecosystem and global institutions, highlighting the critical role of Italian support in cultivating a dynamic research and curatorial community.
The jury, comprising Ilaria Puri Purini, Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the Academy, Matteo Piccioni, Senior Art Officer at the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity, and independent curator Luca Lo Pinto, selected Colletti’s project Italian Brainrot. From Futurist Rupture to Algorithmic Language from a highly competitive pool of 27 candidates.
Giulia Colletti is a curator whose work explores technological imaginaries, examining how energy infrastructures and computational epistemologies shape visibility and cultural narratives. She collaborates with artists addressing extractive legacies, fossil fuel technocracy, and AI. Colletti is co-curator of the 5th Industrial Art Biennale, The Vast Automaton, supported by the Italian Council. She has held fellowships at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) and has overseen public programming and digital content at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea.
Her recent projects include Subsurface Resistance: Feminist Legacies and Technological Imaginaries in (Post-)Industrial Taiwan (2025, NTMoFA); Dark Factory (2025, MMCA); Allegory of Public Happiness (2024, Galleria Civica – Mart, Rovereto); and Dominique White: The Fugitive of the State(less) (2023, ART CITY – MAMbo, Bologna). She teaches Contemporary Art at ABADIR Academy and coordinates the international program Bodies of Water. Colletti has lectured internationally and contributes regularly to CURA., as well as publications such as Mousse, Flash Art, and e-flux.
Italian Brainrot investigates semantic opacity in the AI era, using the viral phenomenon of brainrot as a lens to trace transformations in language and artistic practice. Colletti situates digital folklore within a broader genealogy of European avant-gardes, linking early Futurist experimentation to contemporary AI discourse. Italy provides a unique vantage point for this research, reflecting the country’s historical and ongoing contributions to artistic innovation and technological thought.
The jury highlighted the project’s clarity, theoretical rigor, and strong connection to both Italian and international art contexts. Colletti’s work demonstrates a capacity to foster dialogue between Italian artistic practice and global institutions, creating meaningful opportunities for exchange during her residency and beyond. Her curatorial profile is recognized as a significant and promising stage of her professional trajectory, reflecting the Academy’s commitment to supporting excellence in research, curatorial practice, and international cultural engagement