On March 7th, I went to the Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia for the press-preview of the exhibition “Novecento mai visto: From Albers to Warhol to (now)” that until June 30, brings for the first time in Italy 230 works from the private collection of the historic German automotive group Daimler.
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| Michael Sailstorfer, C111, 2011 |
Renate Wiehager, curator and director of the Daimler Art Collection, guided us through the most significant works of the 2000-pieces-collection, ranging from 1909 to the present days.
Daimler is the only company in the world to have a private art collection of this kind.
The collection was born in 1977 as a way to educate the employees to the contemporary art, putting the works in the common areas of every Daimler venue, but since 1999 this opportunity has been given even to the public with the opening of the Haus Huth in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, a sort of Daimler art gallery. The works are also exported in exhibitions around the world, and today are finally in Italy for the first time thanks to the twinning between the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart and the Mille Miglia Museum of Brescia. In this way Mercedes-Benz Italia emphasized the shared passion for automotive culture and confirmed the commitment of going beyond the commercial vocation, organizing specific art-education programs for the children and students of Brescia region.
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| Renate Wiehager curator of Daimler Art Collection (right) |
The exhibition begins with the first group of works collected in 1977 and related to Classic Modernism, with important works of the Bauhaus;
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| Novecento mai visto: Capolavori dalla Daimler Art Collection – Room 1 |
The second part is dedicated to the ZERO European avant-garde, the movement founded in 1957 by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, that redefined the traditional concept of work of art, setting the stage for the Conceptual Art and Minimalism, treated in the third section of the exhibition.
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| Novecento mai visto: Capolavori dalla Daimler Art Collection – Room 2 |
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| Novecento mai visto: Capolavori dalla Daimler Art Collection – Room2 |
In the spaces dedicated to contemporary art we find important movements such as: Conceptual Art, founded more on the thoughts and ideas provoked by the works, rather than on the aesthetic pleasure;
the Ready-made, which transforms everyday life objects into works of art (from Marcel Duchamp’s fountain(urinal), to Warhol-Campbell’s soup); and, finally, the New Media Art, including photography, video and multimedia installations, focused on political and cultural issues of the contemporary society.
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| Pietro Sanguineti, Void, 2010 |
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| Natalia Stachon, Zoning 04, 2011 |
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| Daniel Buren, Ein Tanz mit einem Quadrat N°47 C, 1989 |
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| Philippe Parreno, Marquée, 2009 |
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| Eckhard Schene, Trophy III/69, 1969 |
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| Ulrike Rosenbach, Art as a criminal action, 1972/1996 |
The final section is dedicated to the commissioned works by the Daimler house on the subject of motoring. The Cars series by Andy Warhol is definitely the most famous piece, held to mark the 100th anniversary of the invention of the car, and for which were planned 80 works, but only 35 images and 12 drawings were completed before the artist’s death in 1987.
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| Andy Warhol, Cars, 1986 |
Among the other art works I was particularly impressed by the Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury and her series of 3-channel-projections especially made for the opening of the Mercedes-Benz Center in Paris. She mixed the charm of fashion and the legendary Mercedes-Benz cars, taking beautiful models inside the Mercedes-Benz maintenance and restoration workshop. I liked even her ready-made work called Aura Soma (2002), a small light-boxes-shelf on which there are 102 bottles of 50ml of colored oil and water developed by the Aura Soma holistic therapies of Vicky Wall (80s).
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| Sylvie Fleury, Swiss Polish Meditation, 2005 |
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| Sylvie Fleury, Cosmic atelier 2005 |
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| Sylvie Fleury, Aura Soma, 2002 |
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| Sylvie Fleury, Aura Soma, 2002 |
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| Sylvie Fleury, Aura Soma, 2002 |
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| Sylvie Fleury, Aura Soma, 2002 |
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| Sylvie Fleury, Aura Soma, 2002 |
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| Sylvie Fleury, Current issues, 1994 |
The Daimler Art Collection exhibition is intertwined with another one titled “Novecento mai visto: works from the collections of Brescia. From de Chirico to Cattelan and beyond“, curated by Elena Lucchesi Ragni and dedicated to the Italian art of the twentieth century with the pieces kept in the storage of the old gallery of modern and contemporary art of Brescia, closed in the 70s and never reopened.
In this exhibition I discovered the curious figure of the collector and dadaist inspired artis Guglielmo Achille Cavellini. An extravegant genius who in 1971 coined the term “auto-storicizzazione”: a way to auto-promote the artist through the writing of a wide and imaginative autobiography to be published in the Treccani encyclopedia, re-proposed on clothes and art objects.
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| Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Dalla pagina dell’Enciclopedia, armadio e abiti, 1973/1975 |
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| Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Dalla pagina dell’Enciclopedia, armadio e abiti, 1973/1975 |
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| Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Dalla pagina dell’Enciclopedia, armadio e abiti, 1973/1975 |
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| Piero Manzoni, Merda d’artista n°079 (Artist’s shit), 1961 |
The special setting of the exhibition allows the unusual dialogue between the works of contemporary Italian artists and the ages that characterize the historical layers of the museum: from the Benedictine nunnery wanted by the Lombard king Desiderio in 753, to the remains of Roman domus preserved in the cellar of the monastery itself, as well as the related archaeological finds such as mosaics and bronze statues.
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| Rupert Norfolk, Untitled, 2007 next to the Roman mosaics |
The visit to the exhibitions is a real journey through the history of Brescia, a unique industrial town of the northern Italy, recently declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site, that has an impressive tourist potential, but unfortunately still unknown to most people.
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| Brescia – Capitolium |
Alessandro Masetti – The Fashion Commentator
Special thanks to Mercedes-Benz Italia
looks great
Ciao Alessandro,
una bella presentazione della mostra, che invoglia un gita a Brescia per vederla.
Complimenti per i post, li leggo tutti d’un fiato!
A presto,
Silvia
http://ordinarysilly.blogspot.it
Ciao Silvia!
Io sono rimasto sconvolto dalla bellezza del centro storico di Brescia, non facevo in tempo a girarmi che scoprivo scavi romani, piazze rinascimentali, una barocca e addirittura quella realizzata nel XX secolo in pieno stile fascista rifacendosi ai principi del foro romano. Ti giuro una piazza più bella dell’altra. L’ultima volta ci sono stato 7 anni fa, non me la ricordavo affatto così bella!!! Un vero peccato che non sia valorizzata a dovere!
Molto interessante non mancherò per una visita!
Complimenti come sempre per i tuoi articoli!
Barbara
Che meraviglia! ottimo post, e ottima mostra! Deve essere stat una bella esperienza 😀
S. – Zuckerfrei
ciao Alessandro ,
purtroppo la mia cultura nel campo dell’ arte è molto limitata , non riesco quindi a valutare perchè assolutamente sprovvista di un background che mi faccia apprezzare i vari passaggi e collegamenti storici e artistici, nonostante ciò le fotografie che hai pubblicato e quanto hai scritto hanno acceso anche in me un lampo di curiosità e interesse .
L’ambientazione è stupenda , post interessante e di spessore come ormai ci aspettiamo da te
ave
Ciao Ave,
ti assicuro che l’arte (soprattutto quella contemporanea) è l’unico mezzo d’espressione che non ha bisogno di interpretazione perché è un dialogo tra l’oggetto e chi lo guarda. Certo i vari critici devono spiegarti l’opera storicizzandola e contestualizzandola, ma spesso gli stessi artisti non sanno spiegare il “perché” delle loro opere!
E poi ne vale davvero la pena per visitare la città!!!
😉
Bellissimo!! penso sia stato stupendo e super interessante!!
passa da me se ti va, nuovo post nel mio blog!
ci possiamo seguire a vicenda se ti fa piacere?
fammi sapere
Alessandro, ci sembra una mostra davvero bella e tu sei stato sicuramente fortunato a visitarla!!
La foto della prima macchina ci fa venire in mente la macchina di ” Ritorno al Futuro”!! 😉
XOXO
Marci&Cami
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BASTA CLICCARE SUL CUORE
GRAZIE!!!!!!!
Eh… non ci siete andate poi così tanto lontane!!! 😉
I love your blog
followed
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Aleeeeee sei in finaleeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sono troppo contenta per te, ti ho già dato il like, in bocca al lupissimo!!!!!!!!!!
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Ps. Ero sicura, te l’avevo detto che stavolta ti eri superato…
Valeria grazie milleeee!
Pensa che me lo ha detto Electromode, io non me n’ero nemmeno accorto! -.-“
Ahahaha
Grazie per il sostegno!!! 😉
come sempre i tuoi post sono perfetti.
gli adoro.
baci
http://nonsidicepiacere.blogspot.it/
Ciao Ila! Grazie mille, a prestissimo, un bacione!
Grazie a tutte per i complimenti, spero questo post vi abbia invogliato a fare un viaggetto a Brescia… magari nella bella stagione, così ci scappa anche una gita al Lago di Garda! 😉