ONCE UPON A TIME IN ITALY

The journey of discovering Italy in the United States has taken us just about everywhere, but it is clear that the American state with the most people, institutions, and events representing the countryis New York. New York, however, is not just Manhattan, nor is it just the five boroughs that take the name New York City. We travel an hour’s drive north of Manhattan, where an extraordinary institution that describes and showcases Postwar Italian Art has sprung up. MAGAZZINO Italian Art is a white, Modernist building that looks chic and minimal against the green pastures of Putnam County. Designed by the architect Miguel Quismondo it is dedicated to select works from the Olnick Spanu Collection and directed by a talented young Italian named Vittorio Calabrese. AFG: What is MAGAZZINO italian art?

VC: “MAGAZZINO”, an Italian word,was co-founded by Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, who were inspired to share their love and passion for Italian art with their community. The institution as it is today is the result of an identity in evolution, which began as a private initiative.

AFG:What is the DNA of an institution such as this one?

VC: MAGAZZINO Italian Art is devoted to shaping a diversified and inclusive work environment, and to supporting these same values within our academic, educational and curatorial efforts.We are committed to embracing the community as the main principle of our mission, both internationally and locally. This

is a direct reflection of the spirit of its founders. Our institution is fueled by two values: the first of these is that art shouldbelong to the public. The second is the promotion of an artistic approach that favors a civic mentality, and that considers the viewer an active contributor to the liveliness of the work. For us the arts and the public must support each other. Our institution prospers also thanks to the strength of our local and international communities. Relations are what guide our institution. We place our trust in a solid network of artists, collaborators, staff and supporters so that we can set our program in motion. AFG: What’s the best thing about MAGAZZINO?

VC: In addition to being a museum MAGAZZINO Italian Artis a research center dedicated to advancing the public’s appreciation of Postwar and Contemporary Italian Art in the United States. It is a non-profit cultural institution thatserves as an advocate for Italian artists as it celebrates the range of their creative practices from Arte Povera to the present. At MAGAZZINO Italian Art, we seek to cultivate broader definitions of Italian art and a better understanding of its enduring impact from the international avant-garde to today. Fueling dialogueand collaboration across borders and cultural perspectives, we strive to renew these definitions to better align with the global contemporary Italian identity. Through our annual programming, we work to advocate for Italian artists and to serve as a cultural beacon at the crossroads of Italy and the United States,providing a platform for the exploration of Italian art withina diverse and expansive context.

AFG: What a wonderful task that is, Vittorio, communicating Italian art, making it live and breathe in such a global context.Helping it to grow in NY is sort of like wanting it to breathe tothe world by crossing the entire social fabric.

Cultural nourishment for all. Almost a commitment and a challenge.

VC: Since the building was inaugurated and the museum launched in 2017, I have covered the role of director, developing our program, coordinating our shows, and leading a team of almost twenty talented people. With the imminent opening of the new Robert Olnick Pavilion in June 2023, the breadth of our activity will continue to grow and expand, and I am eager to deal with these future challenges in such an important role.

AFG: If you agree, I would like to divide our path into chapters that start from the heart, from Arte Povera. What did it mean, and what does it represent today?

VC: The current ARTE POVERA exhibition represents the heart of Postwar Italian Art in the Olnick Spanu Collection, allowingthe space to serve as one that is exclusively dedicated to this generation of Italian artists. Their work came at a crucial timein the 1960s, when Italy was experiencing an era of flourishing industrialization, student protests and the decline in the “economic miracle” of the 1950s that had been fostered bythe Marshall Plan. The artists aimed to uproot the boundaries between the media and between art and nature by embracing the mantra “Art is Life”. The exhibition comprises a complete view of the artistic practice of twelve artists linked to the Arte Povera movement: Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Gilberto Zorio. AFG: Chapter 2, Gilardi: Tappeto-Natura,the exhibition that is on now, and the previous one, Nivola: Sandscapes. What did they bring with them?

VC: These two exhibitions both represent major efforts on our part to create a platform for artists who are not studied enough, who have always been overlooked by traditional art history. Both of the exhibitions include examples of the original techniques used by each artist: “sandcasting” for Nivola, and intaglio on color- saturated polyurethane for Gilardi and his “Tappeti-Natura”.The latter show will be on view until January 9th, 2023. AFG: Unlike the previous message, what did Chapter 3, DRAGON ROCK mean and what does it tell us today?

VC: Manitoga’s Dragon Rock is the home-cum-studio of the architect and designer Russel Wright. It represents the relationship between design and the natural world. It is an ongoing visual and introspective dialogue between interior and exterior, between architecture and nature. The stone and wood building is iconic, and it is an example of Modernist architecture in the idyllic region of the Hudson Valley, currently known as Dragon Rock. MAGAZZINO Italian Art has announced its collaboration with Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center to present “Formafantasma at Manitoga’s Dragon Rock: Designing Nature”. This installation made it possible to encounter Wright’s work outside of his mastery of industrial design. An approach that collaborated with their curatorship was adopted to guarantee that the works on display be involved in a critical conversation with the surrounding environment. The selection of objects, presented in harmony with the architecture of the space, mainly focused on Formafantasma’s early works. In these pieces, the search for the materials and the preference for the organic

are in line – in a familiar and unexpected way – with Wright’s experimental approach, his vision of architecture as the extension of the surrounding landscape. This installation reveals the parallel nature between Formafantasma and Wright’s practices. Each of them works intuitively with the surrounding environment for the purpose of producing a seamless collaboration.

AFG: What other exhibitions do you have planned from now until the end of 2023?

VC: At the moment we have an exhibition planned in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in New York and the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at New York University, featuring works by the Italian contemporary artist Margherita Raso.

This will be Raso’s first solo show in the United States and it will include three different bodies of work that focus on fabricsand ceramics in response to the architecture, history and locality of the space at the Cultural Institute. A free-standing aluminum- cast sculpture will also be on display.

AFG: In light of the black political cloud over Italy at the present time, as Karl Kraus would say, when the sunlight of culture is low, dwarves resemble giants.Our commitment is to keep the sun high in the sky!