Allegro Giusto - Works from the BSI Art Collection - Preparations for a new building

A special exhibition in Rome – displaying the great international artists in the BSI Art Collection – gives the opportunity to visit and discover the wonderful and centrally-located Istituto Svizzero in Rome at the charming Villa Maraini.

The works by some of the great international artists in the BSI Art Collection are in Rome for the first time. They may be viewed by the public until 20 June 2015 in the charming surroundings of Istituto Svizzero di Roma at Villa Maraini. This exhibition originates from an important refurbishment project on the Villa planned for 2016. The remodel will significantly transform the spaces inside the building based on the plan by the Bosshard Vaquer architecture studio in Zurich, winner of the international design competition for this very project.

Before implementing this significant project, with Allegro Giusto – Works from the BSI Art Collection – Preparations for a new building the same architects – who are familiar with projects focusing on the redefinition and development of pre-existing structures, including public tenders – are redesigning the spaces shared by Istituto Svizzero di Roma. They will be putting those spaces into dialogue with a selection of contemporary artworks from the BSI Art Collection, using a system of bookcases containing artworks and a part of the Institute’s library collection. This is not merely a decorative installation, but rather an exercise in reconfiguration and transformation of the function of a place and a work of art, where the artworks will be able to dialogue with their environment starting from their day-to-day existence.

This is why the works in the BSI Art Collection – which was created in 2000 with the intention of connecting the financial institution to the world of contemporary art – have been chosen based on both the spaces in Istituto Svizzero and to provide a representation of the double nature of the collection, in a constant dialogue between past and present, which simultaneously reflects the aims of the new installation at Villa Maraini. On the one hand, there are some artists who have been historically associated with BSI, such as Armleder, Barry, Buren and Halley – who have created site-specific artworks for some bank offices – or also, Melotti, Paolini, Merz, Cragg, Boetti, Chamberlain and Carroll. On the other hand, young, internationally renowned artists were also selected, such as Vo, Kuri and Epaminonda, along with the so-called post web generation artists such as Price and Domanovic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Info and images courtesy of ddl studio

Allegro Giusto - Works from the BSI Art Collection - Preparations for a new building