The Giuliana and Tommaso Setari collection, behind closed doors again
October 20, 2012–January 13, 2013
la maison rouge
10 bd de la bastille
75012 Paris, France
La maison rouge continues its cycle of exhibitions showing private collections and presents, from October 20th, the collection of Giuliana and Tommaso Setari.
This new stage in a journey which since 2004 has taken the public through different attitudes and ways of collecting is a step off the beaten track. The ninth collection to be shown, its identity is all the more powerful for its intimate dimension: a collection that is part of a home. More than anything, it is the attitude it reveals towards art and artists that appeals to la maison rouge.
The Setari collection echoes the couple’s life story and the many places they have lived: Brussels, New York, Rome, Capri, Milan and finally Paris, where they settled in the early 2000s. Wherever in the world they have been, living with art in their home and contact with artists have become essential to their existence.
While international in flavour, the Setari collection gives emphasis to Italian artists from the 1960s to the ’80s; in particular Carla Accardi, Luciano Fabro, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ettore Spalletti, Giulio Paolini and Alighiero Boetti; European artists such as Thierry de Cordier, Günther Förg, Bertrand Lavier, Gerhard Richter and Franz West; and certain American artists including Sol LeWitt.
These established names join a younger generation with Elisabetta Benassi, Bruna Esposito, Paola Pivi, Grazia Toderi and Luca Vitone.
Far removed from the global, speculative circles of contemporary art, since 1980 the Setaris have made their support of working artists a part of their lives. What began thirty years ago as an informal and occasional endeavour, as and when opportunities arose, in 2001 led to the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art, a private, non-profit foundation to support young artists. The Foundation, which is based in Paris, proposes grants and residencies for artists and curators in Paris and New York, presents an international award, supports exhibitions and publications, and hosts events.
Alongside this showing of the Setari collection, la maison rouge has given the Dena Foundation carte blanche to present young Italian artists through a selection of reviews and structures led by independent artists. They play a vital role in keeping Italy’s contemporary art scene thriving after recent years of neglect by public institutions.
