“I have more female masters than male ones, Peggy Guggenheim above all”
“Even though I am not an eccentric – she explained- I admire the vitality of her eccentricity as well as her curiosity and her daring nature, elements of a path made of an extraordinary high cultural level”.
Which do you feel are the most urgent measures that should be adopted in Italy in terms of coordination and synergy for a broader internationally oriented cultural policy?
The Italian museum system includes nearly 200 state-owned ones with an annual average of 170 thousand visitors. Such a high number of museums represents an all Italian characteristic that could seem virtuous, but that also hides our system’s difficulty in creating a network and focusing financial resources on medium-large structures that can compete with other country’s cultural bodies. France, for example, only has 30 state-owned museums and an annual average of 400 thousand visitors, Spain has 140 museums of this type and an annual average of 212 thousand visitors. In order to create a greater synergy between the public and private sectors in Italy, we should try to improve the cultural offer and create a network between the university world, the academies and the cultural production. Moreover, to improve Italy’s image abroad, cultural events should be closely linked to the tourism industry. In order to be aligned with other countries, the Government should also allocate at least 1% of its budget to cultural policies, as compared to the present 0.28%.
How do you think the collaboration between the public and private sectors could become productive in terms of funding?
The creation of private Foundations that operate in the different cultural sectors is a recent and limited phenomenon in our country and inadequately supported by the tax policy. The lack of tax incentives prevents companies and private bodies from making a contribution to cultural life. The Foundations that are presently active are generally characterized by their agile structures and their partial relying on public funds for supporting the costs of their activities. If the Government were to improve the de-taxation system for contributions to cultural bodies without diving up its control on the quality of projects and events, it could obtain a reduction in costs and a better offer in terms of contents and services offered to visitors.
Which is the model of Cultural Foundation, Gallery or Museum you use a source of inspiration?
I observe and continue to refer to many different models, with a spirit of discovery, dynamic quality and in line with the Foundation’s principal objectives. We rely on examples, ideas and methods; we create and develop new ones also through work and business contacts established by the Foundation with other bodies belonging to the local and international art systems. The passage from the private collection to the Art Center refers to those collectors that during the 1900’s, particularly in the United States, transferred their passion for art from the individual sphere to the public one, shared and civic, opening foundations and museums, or financing their activities. The choice of operating as an “observatory” involved in demonstrating and supporting the exploration of new generations of artists has its model in the German Kunsthalle and in the French Centre d’Art Contemporain: both structures are characterized by their strong flexibility and by their high-level offers. With regard to visiting students (and others) and accessibility to contemporary art –a central theme in the Foundation’s policy- we were the first to introduce in Italy the figure of the art cultural mediator that has French origins and is based on educational examples from that country and from the Anglo-Saxon world; we are now aiming at training teachers and developing inter-active projects with the communities in the territory.
Which is or which are the masters that inspire you as a curator in organizing an exhibit, or more generally, in managing your foundation?
From its very first ideas, every exhibit organized by the Foundation represents an opportunity for me and all the team, to broaden and expand our cultural models and references. With Francesco Bonami, the Foundation’s artistic director, we define the exhibition program according to macro themes that we identify as being emergent (women, young people, architecture) and we approach it based on research, multi-cultural aspects and a cross-over of different subjects. The exhibits are mostly curated by Francesco Bonami or some times by other curators of other nationalities and other generations. As the President of the Foundation, I have had more female masters than male ones: Peggy Guggenheim above all: even though I am not an eccentric, I admire the vitality of her eccentricity as well as her curiosity and her daring nature, elements of a path made of an extraordinary high cultural level. Alongside, the women that came before her: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Mary Quinn Sullivan and Lillie P. Bliss founders in 1929 of the MoMA in New York and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney who in 1931 opened the Whitney Museum of American Art: two bodies which are still strategic in the contemporary art world scene. Today, I look at women such as Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum of New York, who received this year the award “Premio Stellare by the Foundation”, established for recognizing and awarding women’s commitment in the various fields of knowledge.
The flourishing of art festivals, fairs and spaces devoted to contemporary art: which role and which importance do these take on in the international art world?
The myriad contemporary art festivals and fairs has the positive advantage of providing artists with many more opportunities for production and visibility as well as promoting contemporary art among an increasingly vaster public. On the other hand, this inflation of artistic events always leads to the risk of lowering the quality. Faced with such a large offer, it becomes difficult –particularly for those not working in this sector- to distinguish between the truly valid and interesting proposals and those that are not.
The Terna Prize 02 intends to join best company practices with cultural ones favoring a reflection on the need to responsibly looking ahead to the planet’s future focusing on the environment and on energy. Do you feel that art today is still capable of favouring a greater critical awareness?
Art definitely creates a critical awareness. Art has always been and still is a vehicle to a critical approach toward the world that surrounds us. In a world where the great ideologies have failed, art, more than ever, feeds the debate within society based on the present and the future. The environment and energy undoubtedly represent fundamental and compelling themes for artists. The Foundation has devoted a full year to planning exhibits on this theme. Artists have raised many questions. Through painting, sculpture, photography, videos and installations, their works have analyzed the excessive uses and wastes of our society– water, garbage, waste materials, oil – so as to highlight the mechanisms and processes that are not always visible to the wider public. Their art has examined and questioned our actions and our perceptions, indicating more responsible lifestyles.
2009-10-02
