Conversations with the scientific direction of the festival for the first anticipations and reflections on 'Forms of collecting/Forme della committenza': Angela Vettese.
Italy used to be the country of big collectors. Unfortunately, key figures such as Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, Claudia Gian Ferrari e Paolo Consolandi have recently passed away. How is it possible to create a young collecting system in our country? How will it be different?
Angela Vettese: I think it will be, necessarily, a less innovative collecting system and perhaps less focused on the Italian scene, because the movement of art is more and more international.
What kind of relationships are there between artists and collectors? Could you please tell us some anecdotes?
A.V. There are some collectors who prefer not to have any direct contact with the artist. For example, Panza told me that he didn’t like visiting studios before buying, because he felt oppressed by the idea of pleasing the artist. Sometimes a relationship of deep friendship is generated, such as the one between Giuliano Gori and Robert Morris, who lived together for several months while Morris was creating the labyrinth at Villa Celle. I think that Panza himself regretted the fact he didn’t see the Roden Crater, by James Turrell, completed. With regard to Consolandi, I remember the pleasant way he used to host artists in his house, for dinner or whatever. Not to mention, the relationship between a collector such as Giuliana Setari and artists such as Ettore Spalletti or Vettor Pisani. She even bought a marble quarry for Pisani. Big patrons such as Maria Gloria Bicocchi had forgotten the boundaries between private life and life with artists, having lunch or dinner with them even at Christmas.
continue reading:
http://www.festivalartecontemporanea.it/intervista-ad-angela-vettese-1
