The Historical Archive:
Four Interpretations
26 May – 10 August 2010
Opening: 25 May 2010, at 6 pm
UniCredit Studio
Palazzo Cordusio – UniCredit Banca Branch
Milan
With the first exhibition in the Carte Blanche series entitled The Historical Archive: Four Interpretations, UniCredit launches a network of exhibition spaces inside UniCredit Banca branches, designed to foster young artists and curators, both from Italy and abroad, paying particular attention to Eastern Europe.
The first exhibition is curated by Francesca Pagliuca and features four young artists – Riccardo Beretta, Ludovica Carbotta, Mirko Smerdel and Cosimo Veneziano – who have been invited to create a series of new works based on their elaborations and interpretations of material from the Historical Archive of the Group. The artists started out from a set of specific lines of research, using material linked to the key themes of the company’s identity. Thus the elements ranged from the advertising campaigns of the ’70s onwards to the evolution of the machinery that has accompanied banking practices over the decades, from the bank’s staff training centres right up to an analysis of the development of the recurrent logos and icons of the company image.
This exhibition takes on a challenge: to reread the past through a new gaze, reinterpreting elements of great value for the Group, and thus opening up a dialogue with the research implemented by young artists. Riccardo Beretta has created an imposing sculpture that represents the bank as a tree, a recurrent image in the financial press; Cosimo Veneziano recounts the graphic evolution of the logo through evocative graphic strokes. Mirko Smerdel and Ludovica Carbotta, through their collages and drawings, tell the story of how banking has changed, hand in hand with technological development.
On the occasion of the exhibition, Carte Blanche #1 will be presented, the first publication of the UniCredit Studio.
Halfway between a catalogue and a collectable magazine, each edition will make use of transversal contributions, some of which directly linked to contemporary art, others that investigate complementary elements for a better understanding of the themes dealt with in the exhibition. This first issue features an essay by Giampietro Morreale and Francesca Malvezzi (from the UniCredit Historical Archive) which examines the images used in the marketing of Credito Italiano, from the years following the First World War to the ’80s, drawing on a rich selection of iconography.
After Milan, the exhibition will be moved to Trento, to the UniCredit Studio in Palazzo Firmian (the UniCredit Banca branch at No. 1 via Galilei), from September to November 2010.
UniCredit Studio
The idea behind the Studios is to set up a network, both on a national and international level, for the promotion of young talent both in Italy and all the other Countries where the Group is present, paying particular attention to Eastern Europe.
Shows, meetings, presentations and publications: UniCredit Studio gives artists a free hand to research and experiment. And Carte Blanche is in fact the title of a series of exhibitions and a series of catalogues created to support and promote artists not yet represented by private galleries, as well as young Italian and international curators.
Bridging the gaps between museums, institutions, academies and training centres, both in Italy and abroad, and above all with the cultural partners of the Group through the UniCredit & Art project, the Studios thus cover a different and complementary area from that of the purchasing sector and the Group’s Corporate Collection. Thus the aim is to give greater visibility and support to the works of young emerging artists, providing them with their first major international exposure.
Info
Artists: Riccado Beretta, Ludovica Carbotta, Mirko Smerdel, Cosimo Veneziano
Title: The Historical Archive: Four Interpretations
Curator: Francesca Pagliuca
Venue: UniCredit Studio
Palazzo Cordusio – UniCredit Banca Branch
Milan
When: from 26th May – 10th August, 2010
Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:15 pm, free entrance.
Opening: 25th May 2010, 6 pm
Further Info: UniCredit & Art, unicreditandart@unicreditgroup.eu
Press Office: Viviana Vestrucci – Tel. +39 02 8727 5790 viviana.vestrucci@unicreditgroup.eu
Special thanks are due to Giampietro Morreale and Francesca Malvezzi (UniCredit Group Historical Archive).
