Carla Accardi
Luciano Fabro
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Ettore Spalletti
Giulio Paolini
Alighiero Boetti
Thierry de Cordier
Gunther Forg
Bertrand Lavier
Gerhard Richter
and Franz West
Sol LeWitt
Elisabetta Benassi
Bruna Esposito
Paola Pivi
Grazia Toderi
Luca Vitone
Santo Alessandro Badolato
Debbie Ding
Matteo Fato
Elio Germani
Hafiz B Osman
Diego Perrone
Christian Frosi
Valentine Meyer
Francesca di Nardo
Chiara Parisi
Nicola Setari
Behind closed doors again. What began 30 years ago, in 2001 led to the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art. While international in flavour, the Setari collection gives emphasis to Italian artists from the 1960s to the 1980s and now a younger generation. For this occasion the Foundation presents a selection of reviews and structures led by independent artists.
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 appealed to la maison rouge.
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. In the 1990s, Giuliana Setari gave her support to Vettor
Pisani's total artwork project, the Virginia Art Theatrum (Museum of Catastrophe), "the philosopher's
house" installed in an abandoned quarry which she acquired for the artist in Tuscany. She is also actively
involved in the Cittadellarte, Pistoletto Foundation, which she has presided since 1998.
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.
La maison rouge and these Italian collectors first met in the early 2000s, when they were invited to show
the entrance to their Paris apartment in la maison rouge's first exhibition, L'Intime, Behind Closed Doors,
in 2004. This affinity has grown ever since and now takes the form of this solo presentation of the
couple's collection.
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
1980s, 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.
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.
Featured artists:
Carla Accardi (1924), Marco Bagnoli (1949), Bizhan Bassiri (1954), Vanessa Beecroft (1969), Elisabetta
Benassi (1966), Davide Bertocchi (1969), Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994), Anna
Boghiguian (1946), Maurizio Cattelan (1960), Thierry De Cordier (1954), Jimmie Durham (1940), Gino
De Dominicis (1947-1998), Bruna Esposito (1960), Jan Fabre (1958), Luciano Fabro (1936-2007),
Matteo Fato (1979), Günther Förg (1952), Ryan Gander (1976), Matthew Harrison (1974), Rebecca
Horn (1944), Fabrice Hyber (1961), Mimmo Jodice (1934), Jannis Kounellis (1936), Bertrand Lavier
(1949), Sol LeWitt (1927-2007), Margherita Manzelli (1968), Mario Merz (1925-2003), Giulio Paolini
(1940), Cesare Pietroiusti (1955), Vettor Pisani (1934-2011), Michelangelo Pistoletto (1933), Paola Pivi
(1971), Emilio Prini (1943), Michael Rakowitz (1973), Gerhard Richter (1932), Mimmo Rotella (1918-
2006), Remo Salvadori (1947), Ettore Spalletti (1940), Donatella Spaziani (1970), Grazia Toderi (1963),
Jan Vercruysse (1948), Fabien Verschaere (1975), Luca Vitone (1964), Franz West (1947).
Exhibition catalogue
In French and English with colour illustrations, this is the ninth catalogue in the Privées collection, jointly published by la maison rouge and Fage Éditions.
With contributions by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Francesca di Nardo, W.J. T. Mitchell, Chiara Parisi, Nicola Setari, Daniel Soutif and Gérard Wajcman.
Le associazioni libere (free associations)
A project by the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art
Within a space inside la maison rouge, surrounded by the exhibition of the Setari collection, the Dena
Foundation for Contemporary Art asked Chiara Parisi and Nicola Setari to propose a presentation of the
Italian art scene today. Italy's contemporary art scene is rebellious and unpredictable. Attitudes are
remarkable, powerful, but also astonishingly radical and poetic.
A "national" approach could not convey its full diversity, hence Le associazioni libere takes a different
angle. It invites independent, artist-led structures and reviews to show this diversity and alternative
projects happening alongside or concomitant to Italian public and private initiatives, and to present their
idea of what art can be in a non-institutional context.
With artistic coordination by Francesca di Nardo, this project shows one aspect of Italian contemporary
creation, seen through some of the alternative vectors set up over recent years, and through multiple and
ambitious editorial slants: as many representations of curatorial and artistic practices spread throughout
the country.
All these initiatives - with their various ideological and political frameworks, often pursuing very different
strategies to survive, some digital, some in print - stand out as a possible heritage left to society by Arte
Povera, a movement that reawakened our sensibility by expanding the artistic sphere and practices.
Lucie Fontaine in Milan, Cripta 747 which started out in Turin, and Cherimus in Sardinia are just three of
these artist-run alternative venues. Among the reviews, Mousse and Kaleidoscope in Milan, Cura, Nero and
Artribune in Rome are examples of the intellectual and editorial outpouring behind this renewal.
Thanks to an international connection and unfailing solidarity, Italian artists worldwide who identify with
these reviews and structures are demonstrating amazing vitality.
Established in 2001 by Giuliana Carusi Setari, from its offices in Paris and New York, the Dena Foundation
for Contemporary Art promotes and develops synergy for Italian artists. Alongside the presentation of the
Setari collection, the project at la maison rouge celebrates the inventiveness and creativity with which
Italian art expresses its response to all forms of crisis, whether political, ideological, intellectual or indeed
artistic.
Curated in close consultation with the structures, reviews and in particular artists Diego Perrone and
Christian Frosi, who based their design for the exhibition on their first-hand experience of these systems,
the project shows recent works and special commissions.
Francesca di Nardo, Chiara Parisi, Nicola Setari
Related events
Thursday November 22nd at 7pm
Germano Celant lectures on Carla Lonzi
This event coincides with the publication of Autoportrait by Carla Lonzi, published by Giovanna Zapperi in
the "lectures maison rouge" collection, JRP Ringier, Paris, 2012.
Thursday November 29th at 7pm
Round table on the young Italian art scene (participants to be confirmed)
Thursday January 10th 2013 (to be confirmed)
Launch of volume 6 in Davide Bertocchi's Top 100 project.
Top 100 is a series of compilations of the 100 favourite songs of 100 people on the contemporary art scene.
Volume 6 is a special release that links with the exhibitions of the Giuliana and Tommaso Setari collection
and of the Dena Foundation project for young Italian art.
Focus on an artist in the Setari collection
An art critic or historian looks at an artist in the Setari collection, with an observation of the work and an
informal discussion over coffee and a scone.
Sunday November 18th at 11am
Sunday December 16th at 11am
Sunday January 6th at 11am
Dates subject to modification – Advance bookings only: reservation@lamaisonrouge.org
elsewhere
Friday November 16th at 6pm
Preview of Primavera, an exhibition of Dena Foundation artists-in-residence.
Immanence – 21 avenue du Maine-75015 Paris
Until December 1st
Artists: Santo Alessandro Badolato (Italie), Debbie Ding (Singapour), Matteo Fato (Italie), Elio Germani
(Italie), Hafiz B Osman (Singapour)
Curatrice: Valentine Meyer
With the support of the National Arts Council of Singapour
Encounters with Italian art
Wednesday November 21st: Michelangelo Pistoletto / Germano Celant
Thursday January 17th: Giuseppe Penone / Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Each time focusing on two important figures of Arte Povera, two events consider the emergence and
configuration of the Italian art scene in the 1960s, which left its mark on the history of art.
Organised at the Centre Georges Pompidou for Giuliana and Tommaso Setari collection, behind closed doors again.
Image: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Uomo col panchetto, 1962-1980. Screenprint on polished stainless steel, 230 x 125 cm © Attilio Maranzano
Press relations
Claudine Colin Communication - Julie Martinez t : +33 (0)1 42726001 f : +33 (0)1 42725023 julie@claudinecolin.com
Press preview Friday October 19th 2012, 9.30am – 11.30am
Preview Friday October 19th 2012, 6pm – 9pm
la maison rouge
fondation antoine de galbert
10 bd de la bastille – 75012 Paris
open Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 7pm late nights Thursday until 9pm closed
December 25th, January 1st