Making the electrical grid invisible with projects like Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Link and at the same time, building an intergenerational network to promote and support the cultural development of the country. These are the goals Terna sets to accompany the energy transition by enhancing tomorrow’s talents. A target it aims to achieve also through the “Driving Energy Award – Contemporary Photography,” now in its third edition with record numbers: 3,300 participating photographers. Who was there and what was said during today’s award ceremony, part of the event organized by Terna “The Path of the Invisible.”
DE BIASIO (TERNA): “WE WANT TO BECOME INVISIBLE FOR THE TRANSITION”
Becoming invisible so that every territory can “see itself better,” working based on four key principles: sustainability, transition, culture, and international collaboration. This summarizes Terna’s commitment, which materializes in the “Driving Energy Award.”
“Terna’s Driving Energy Award is a new success for us, one of the most important. We will try to be more invisible, while at the same time making an even greater contribution to guiding our country towards the energy transition. We have tripled the number of participants in the Award, a recognition that looks to the future. The Award also helps to showcase what Terna is doing for the transition in Italy and abroad. Our work concerns all of Italy; it is also important to tell what we do in our country on the electricity front,” says Igor De Biasio, President of Terna.
“This Award is a strategic infrastructure of this country. In three years, we have given the project a top position in the sector. The key to success is having given the Award a form of connecting infrastructure for all of Italy. Different generations participate with their work and connect different approaches. It connects people with their visions and aspirations, allowing them to identify with shared values. Connecting with the academic world means connecting with the future of culture and our country. Young people from the academies are citizens who will live the energy transition, who perhaps have come to know it through contact with the Award. Thanks to new marine connections like Adriatic Link and Tyrrhenian Link, Terna is becoming increasingly invisible so that every territory can see itself better under the banner of sustainability, transition, and connection among different countries bordering the Mediterranean,” added De Biasio.
YOUTH AND CULTURE FOR THE TRANSITION
Culture is another way to transmit energy. Terna knows this and has decided to focus on photography to promote Italian artistic talents.
“Terna is doing remarkable work promoting Italian culture, particularly photography. One of the characteristics of this art is that it captures aspects of everyday life. The government has allocated more than 2 million euros through the Photography Strategy Fund. We are collaborating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote Italian photography abroad, an excellence of Made in Italy. The Italian photographic cultural scene is increasingly vibrant, also thanks to Terna’s work,” said Federico Mollicone, President of the Culture, Science and Education Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
“The Driving Energy Award is highly anticipated; photographers count on it a lot. It confirms that the initiative is substantially contributing to the growth of photography in our country. The number of participants is growing beyond the 2023 record. The Award is intergenerational, representative, and inclusive. We have exceeded 3,000 registrants, 3,337. We have all generations from 18 to 28 years old. Participants have come from 107 provinces and 20 regions in Italy; youth participation has tripled. In three years, the Award has become an integral part of Italian heritage. Promoting culture is another way to transmit energy,” said David Massey, Director of External Relations and Institutional Affairs at Terna.
TERNA, THE WINNERS OF THE DRIVING ENERGY AWARD
Among over 3,300 interpreters of the 2024 Award theme, “The Path of the Invisible,” the Award’s Presidency Committee (Igor De Biasio and Giuseppina di Foggia), the Award Curator (Marco Delogu), the Jury (Lorenza Bravetta, Director of the National Automobile Museum), and the Honor Committee (five winners from last year) selected five winners: Silvia Camporesi for the Senior Award with the work “Shimmering Cinecittà,” Giovanni Sambo for the Young Award with “The Transparencies (of Mr. Vitelli),” Alessandra Book for the Academy Mention with “A Song for Our Ancestors,” Marco Filipazzi and Francesca Villani for the Amateurs Award with “Forgotten Echoes,” and Leli Baldissera, whose work “Ocupação” was the most voted by Terna employees.
The 5 winning works, awarded prizes totaling 29,000 euros, and the 35 finalists are on display starting today at Palazzo Esposizioni Rome, in a free-entry exhibition, until Saturday, October 12. This year, the exhibition also hosts, out of competition, an unpublished work by Mimmo Jodice, an avant-garde photographer active since the 1960s and a major figure in the cultural debate that led to the affirmation and recognition of photography in Italy and abroad. “Petra, 1993” is the title of the work the Master wanted to dedicate to the Driving Energy Award 2024: the image, part of the Mediterranean project, is the result of the artist’s long research on the ancient culture of our sea, understood as a mental place and a laboratory that allows the present and memory, imagination and emotion to coincide.
Also this year, the Award exhibition, realized in collaboration with Palazzo Esposizioni Rome, is presented in the digital universe in three versions, to increase access points and ways to enjoy the works: Metaverse, the free PDE (Driving Energy Award) app, and a virtual tour accessible from the Award’s official website https://premiodrivingenergy.terna.it/.
The selected works are also published in the photographic volume ‘Driving Energy’.
