MILAN.- In Milan, the
Fondazione Carriero has opened an exhibition space dedicated to modern and contemporary art.
Located within the Parravicini palazzo on Via Cino del Duca 4, the venue was inaugurated with the exhibition imaginarii, curated by Francesco Stocchi.
The Fondazione Carriero opened in the heart of Milan, in one of the oldest and most evocative buildings in the city center. An important new player on Milan's cultural scene, the Foundation's mission is to promote and support the art and artists of our time. The Foundation's exhibition calendar opened with the show imaginarii, curated by Francesco Stocchi, in Palazzo Parravicini on Via Cino del Duca. The show will be on view until December 13, 2015.
The Foundation became a reality thanks to the enthusiasm of the founder, Giorgio Carriero, a businessman and collector who is keenly interested in every form of art and wishes to share this passion with the public at large. One of the Foundation's main characteristics is that it won't be tied to the presentation of a private collection, and it will explore new frontiers. The Fondazione Carriero will become a center of artistic production and cultural presentation, with activities that will include the organization of exhibitions by means of new commissions, the publication of catalogues, debates and conferences open to the public, and specific educational and training activities.
The Fondazione Carriero is an expression of a distinctive "Milanese" identity, in which there has always been a close link between private collecting and the principles of commissioning new art and of social responsibility, above all with regards to the host city. In fact, Giorgio Carriero's intention is to create a new venue that is both a prestigious point of reference for everyone interested in art and a place in which to meet and discuss contemporary art. In the founder's own words, it is intended as a location "that can develop over time and take different directions, while always retaining its mission of sharing art more widely.”
At the Fondazione Carriero, the historical context blends with the contemporary dimension, in a setting that calls to mind a private home, opened to enable the general public to come into contact with its art heritage.
For the launch of the foundation's activities, Francesco Stocchi was invited to work on a concept, and he devised a site-specific exhibition, dedicated to exploring the spatial dimension. The show imaginarii presents a selection of works by three artists—Gianni Colombo, Giorgio Griffa, and Davide Balula—with some pieces specially created for the setting. The result is a carefully orchestrated combination that, in a minimalist framework, develops a new space in which the work is in close contact with its immediate environment. Shape, lighting, space, and the observer are interwoven into a constantly changing interaction.
The exhibition imaginarii occupies the entire Parravicini palazzo. On the ground floor, one room has been totally dedicated to the youngest artist, Davide Balula. On the first floor, visitors are able to view a site-specific work by Giorgio Griffa. In the seventeenth-century frescoed hall on the second floor, decorated with stucco and majolica, a Spazio elastico has been reconstructed, as a tribute to Gianni Colombo.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue consisting of four volumes: a publication dedicated to each artist, and a general catalogue with critical essays and views of the exhibition (texts by Giorgio Carriero, Francesco Stocchi; Adam Kleinman for Davide Balula; Céline Condorelli, Gabriel Kuri, and Luca Trevisani for Gianni Colombo; Gavin Delahunty for Giorgio Griffa).
Davide Balula and Giorgio Griffa used their individual publication to create an artist's book, while for Colombo, a catalogue dating to 1968 has been republished. It was originally issued for the exhibition that the artist held at Galleria L’Attico in Rome, and to this, some hitherto unpublished projects of the Spazio elastico have been added.
