The Art Newspaper

Gallery gets home but no budget

Around €3m is now being sought through private backers to fund new media space in Brescia

By Gareth Harris. Web only
Published online: 18 February 2010

London. A planned new media art centre in Brescia, northern Italy, spearheaded by international curator Adelina von Furstenberg, has hit a financial hurdle. Adriano Paroli, mayor of Brescia, has said that the council will provide a space free of charge for the new venue but only on the condition that operational costs are met by the organisers. The city's cultural commissioner, Andrea Arcai, added: "[It] is not up to his administration to find funds from the Italian ministry of culture." Around €3m funding needed to kick-start the initiative will now be sought from private backers.

Von Furstenberg, the director of Art for the World, a foundation that she established which is associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information, hopes to launch the video art gallery in Brescia following a campaign spearheaded by Maurizio Bernadelli Curuz, director of the city's museums. The organisation frequently places contemporary works of art in historical sites to “bring new life to ancient monuments", says the Art for the World website. “The site of the centre will be decided by the mayor of Brescia,” says von Furstenberg. The organisation declined to comment on other possible locations should the Brescia project flounder.

A well known Armenian curator born in Istanbul, Von Furstenberg founded the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva in 1974, and served as its director until 1989, when she left to head Le Magasin, Centre d’Art Contemporain in Grenoble, France. In 1993, se co-curated the Italian and Russian pavilions for the 45th Venice Biennale. She has worked with many celebrated artists to produce new projects and exhibitions, including Robert Rauschenberg, Marina Abramovic, Robert Wilson, Jannis Kounnelis, and Ilya Kabakov.