IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca Lucca, Italy the Promotion of Contemporary Art in Italy an Institutional Perspective
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IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca Lucca, Italy The promotion of contemporary art in Italy An institutional perspective PhD Program in Analysis and Management of Cultural Heritage XXXIII Cycle By Alice Labor 2020 The dissertation of Alice Labor is approved. PhD Program Coordinator: Prof. Emanuele Pellegrini, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy Advisor: Prof. Andrea Averardi, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy The dissertation of Alice Labor has been reviewed by: Prof. Francesca Castellani, Università IUAV di Venezia, Italy Prof. Elisabetta Morlino, Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa, Italy IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca 2020 “Solo mettendo l’accento sul valore della libertà, anziché su quello dell’arte, ci si può contrapporre efficacemente alla politica culturale. Si è in grado cioè di chiarire che la politica culturale viene respinta non perché riduce l’arte a valore strumentale, ma perché nega il valore della libertà (…). Non crediamo più che la civiltà liberale, vale a dire quel particolare sistema di vita in cui gli artisti sono liberi, sia in grado di trasformare il mondo?” Norberto Bobbio, Politica e cultura, Einaudi, 1955 “Art is not outside politics, but politics resides within its production, its distribution, and its reception” Hito Steyerl, Politics of Art: Contemporary Art and the Transition to Post- Democracy, in e-flux 21st December 2010 Contents Abstract VII Vita VIII Publications IX Abbreviations X Introduction to the investigation 1. The question of promoting culture in Italy 1 2. The importance of investigating the promotion of contemporary art 15 3. Structure of the thesis and investigative tools 19 Chapter 1. The difficult task of defining contemporaneity 1. Introduction 25 2. Perils and promises of the legislative proposals for contemporary art 33 3. Fragments of a relational notion. Emblematic administrative acts for defining the contemporary in the XXI century 50 4. Contemporaneity as a hybrid and mobile object of knowledge 55 Chapter 2. At the origins of the ministerial organisation for contemporary art 1. Introduction 59 2. Institutionalising culture in response to a democratic crisis: the Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Heritage 69 3. Acts of resistance for the contemporary. The role of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea 72 4. Biennale, Triennale and Quadriennale: a brief history of three sisters for the contemporary 100 4.1. Esposizione, ente autonomo, società di cultura: the Venice Biennale 100 4.2. From decorative arts and architecture to design and fashion: the Triennale in Milan 105 4.3. An institution for Italian artists: the Quadriennale in Rome 108 4.4. Final remarks on the organisational evolution 110 5. The challenge of founding the National Museum of the Arts of the XXI century 114 6. Ministerial satellites for the promotion of contemporary art 124 V Chapter 3. Centralising ministerial organisation for the contemporary in the XXI century 1. Introduction 128 2. A new era for promoting contemporary art. The season of the Directorates General (2001-2013) 131 3. The institutional re-birth of the contemporary and new fields of promotion (2014-2020) 148 4. The organisational limitation of the Directorates General 160 Chapter 4. How to support contemporary art. A roster of ministerial instruments 1. Introduction 164 2. Enriching museum collections through acquisitions 166 3. Prizes between public and private initiative 180 4. Financial interventions for the contemporary: the funding programmes 190 5. Institutional choices for exhibiting the contemporary 204 6. Other ministerial tools for supporting contemporary art 221 7. Reflections on discretional tools for the contemporary 234 Conclusions 1. Drawing conclusions and future developments of the ministerial promotion of contemporaneity 241 2. The way forward for the institutions for contemporary art in Italy 255 Appendix Analysis of the ministerial funding for contemporary art 1974 – 2019 263 Acknowledgements 284 Chronology 285 Bibliography 288 Archival documents 301 VI Abstract The aim of the research is to trace a critical history of the organization and tools of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage for the promotion of contemporary art between its establishment in 1974 and today. The study of the ministerial support to the contemporary in Italy opens up a series of crucial dilemmas that do not solely concern the administration of contemporary art, but have a more wide-reaching impact regarding the whole administration of cultural heritage. The research is based on the study of the archival documents related to ministerial activities and policies towards contemporary art, coming from the archives of the Directorate General for Budget and the Directorate General Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, the Quadriennale, the Triennale and the Biennale. The documents include ministerial acts, decrees, publics calls, circular letters, internal and external communications between the Ministry and its institutions. The research is complemented, through a multidisciplinary approach, with the analysis of the specific regulations and parliamentary debates surrounding the ministerial organisation and promotion of contemporary art. Several reforms followed multiple changes of government, leading to fluctuating expansions and retractions of the ministerial competences for the contemporary. After reconstructing the history of the ministerial organization and tools for the promotion of contemporary art and artists in Italy, the research defines their possible future evolutions. VII Vita 1993 Born, Rome - Italy Gagosian Gallery 2011 Intern, London 2013 Visiting Student University of Oxford 2014-15 Erasmus Program Aix-Marseille Université 2016 M.A. Law 110/110 cum laude Sapienza University of Rome 2017 Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera di Roma Intern, Rome 2017-present PhD Analysis and Management of Cultural Heritage IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca 2018 Workshop for Registrars Centro di Ricerca Castello di Rivoli, Turin 2020 The Communal, the Museum and the End of the Contemporary: Decolonial Summer School UCR & Van Abbemuseum, Utrecht 2020 Advanced Training Course Museology and Museography MAXXI & Sapienza University of Rome, Palermo VIII Publications 1. Labor A., Atlases of modernity. Reshaping museum collections through constellations in the XXI century, in 900 Transnazionale, n. 4, 2020 2. Labor A., New synergies for museum management, in Aedon, n. 3, 2017 Conferences & Workshops 1. Forum dell’arte contemporanea italiana 2020, Tavolo 2: È il momento di trasformare l’Italian Council, May 2020, online 2. X Congreso Internacional de Teoría e Historia de las Artes/XVIII Jornadas, CAIA, 25-27 September 2019, Buenos Aires 3. Le musée face à l’art de son temps, Bicentenaire du Musée du Luxembourg, 1818-2018, Archives Nationales, Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Orsay, 10-12 October 2018, Paris 4. Changing Global Hierarchies of Value? Museums, artefacts, frames, and flows, University of Copenhagen and National Museum of Denmark, 20-22 August 2018, Copenhagen 5. Fourth North American Workshop on Cultural Economics, Association of Cultural Economics International, 3-4 November 2017, Montreal IX Abbreviations art. – articolo Cost. – Costituzione della Repubblica DARC – Direzione Generale per l’Arte e l’Architettura Contemporanea DG – Direzione Generale DGAAP - Direzione Generale Arte e Architettura contemporanee e Periferie urbane DGCC – Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea d.l. – decreto legge d.lgs. – decreto legislativo D.M. – Decreto Ministeriale DPCM – Decreto del Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri DPR – Decreto del Presidente della Repubblica GNAM – Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea G.U. – Gazzetta Ufficiale l. - legge MAXXI – Museo delle Arti del XXI secolo MiBACT – Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali PaBAAC - Direzione Generale per il paesaggio, le belle arti, l’architettura e l’arte contemporanee PAC – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea PARC - Direzione generale per la qualità e la tutela del paesaggio, l’architettura e l’arte contemporanee r.d. – regio decreto t.u. – Testo Unico X Introduction to the investigation 1. The question of promoting culture in Italy The right to culture is protected and promoted by national and international jurisdictions and regulations and was further globally developed and explicated in the second half of the XX century1. The promotion of culture from the State perspective has always been a crucial aspect of the public policies of modern nations and was exploited by totalitarian regimes in the first half of the XX century. Contemporary democracies, since the end of the Second World War2, exalted its promotion as a tool for human development and a common 1 Regarding the right to culture in the Italian Constitution, besides the bibliographical references that follow, see SETTIS S., Il diritto alla cultura nella Costituzione italiana, Forum, 2016, where the author contextualises the provisions of the Constitution with the Italian and European political environment. This research showed how the Italian State disinvested in culture during the past decades and red this tendency in relation with the political transformations. For a brief introduction to the international, European and national regulations concerning the protection of culture see also, BILANCIA P., Diritto alla cultura. Un osservatorio sulla sostenibilità culturale, in Diritti culturali e nuovi modelli