A direct commitment, on the field, in the field of art linked to the moving image. Beatrice Bulgari tells us about the Penumbra project of the Ospedaletto CON/temporaneo, in a Venice projected body and soul at the Biennale Arte.
When did you start to get interested in art? Was it a question of instinct, knowledge or cultural disposition?
I always lived in a family rich in cultural incitements, my mother was a writer, my father an antiquarian, and I started painting very early. I attended the Academy of Fine Arts and then my career developed in the world of cinema and theater as a set designer and a costume designer. My interest in moving image grew out of my two passions in contemporary art and cinema. I have been dealing with moving image since 2007, first trough the CortoArteCircuito platform, then the production company In Between Art Film, which also dealt with documentaries, arthouse cinema, performance and video-art. Finally in 2019 I created In Between Art Film Foundation whose mission is more focused on specific video-art commissions.
Do you consider yourself more a patron or a collector? And why?
Surely, I am an art lover and I have been collecting artworks for many years. The word patron does not suit me, although the role of the Foundation I chair is to support artists and put them into contact with the institutions where their works can be best enjoyed. What I’m really interested in is to follow the creative process that we have established with an artist since the first moment, because I think that some important points for reflection on the urgency of our contemporary world can emerge from this exchange and interaction with the artist himself.
What characteristics of a work of art or of an artist are more interesting to you?
I am always very impressed by the poetics and the gaze of the artist that can take various forms. There are artists who work on extremely strong and radical themes and I’m very interested in their way to manage to filter reality. Then there are artists who approach the same themes in an extremely lyrical and poetic way and they fascinate me because of their ability to tell a drama through moving images.
In our first exhibition Penumbra, the eight artists we have commissioned eight video installations to, address themes, poetics and various issues related to working conditions, social conflicts, foreign occupation of a territory, geopolitical and historical turmoil, memory and chaotic flow of visual and sound objects which make up the contemporary fabric.
What I’m really interested in is to follow the creative process that we have established with an artist since the first moment, because I think that some important points for reflection on the urgency of our contemporary world can emerge from this exchange and interaction with the artist himself.
What is the role of a foundation like yours? Can there be a concrete and constructive dialogue between public and private and can such a dialogue be really strategic?
Our Foundation was born from the desire to make the artists’ visions possible. Sometimes artists are given this opportunity through the support of a public institution, be it a museum or a biennial, other times through our commission. What matters is that contemporary creativity finds some ways to express itself and to exist in those spaces the public can have access to, broadening both the horizons of our knowledge and the debate around current themes. My experience with institutions such as MAXXI in Rome and Tate Modern in London – institutions that the Foundation has been supporting for years – teaches me that the dialogue between public and private is not only constructive but it must be included in the broader educational context promoted by such institutions.
The presence of In Between Art Film in Venice on the occasion of the Biennale Arte marks your first very important and demanding participation on the highest scene of the global contemporary. What are the essential reasons for this choice and what are your strategic goals within the multifaceted context which is characterizing more and more the Biennale?
From the very beginning we decided to have no exhibition venue for our Foundation because I wanted to focus its activity on those artistic contexts where our contribution could make the difference. We work with moving image, with those “immaterial” media that take shape each time in different spaces and supports. After the first two years of hard work, we wanted to have the opportunity to meet the international public in order to make our commitment to artists tangible. That’s why we have chosen such a prestigious context such as Venice on the occasion of the Biennale Arte, whose long history has marked the most significant moments in the history of contemporary art.
