From July 4, some preparatory sketches made on paper by Jannis Kounellis for the realization of the work Resistance and Liberation, were temporarily exhibited until the end of the fist exhibition in the New Saint Agnes. 

For the first time, thanks to the collaboration of the University of Padua General Archive, it was possible to visit the sketch on paper realized by the artist in the New Saint Agnes.

The relationship with the artist began in 2021 when the president Alberto Peruzzo decided to restore the site-specific work Resistenza e Liberazione (Resistance and Liberation) made by the artist in 1995, in the prestigious Palazzo del Bo (Bo Palace), venue of the University of Padua. After the restoration, the foundation realized in collaboration with the university the notebook that tells about the history, the artist and the restoration after 25 years from the inauguration.  

Among the objectives of the foundation there is the recovery and enhancement of the cultural heritage and the territory, in fact, the recovery of the work of Jannis Kounellis is not a random choice; today the foundation has chosen to permanently place a work by the artist in the position of the former altar of the New Sant’Agnese, destined to become the symbol of the former sacred place.

The University of Padua
Carlo Manfredi of the University of Padua Archive
Professor Guido Bartorelli
Dott. Chiara Marin

Dir. of the Venice Academy of Fine Art, Riccardo Caldura
Soprintendenza Archeologica e Belle Arti  e Paesaggio per l’area metropolitana di Venezia e le province di Belluno, Padova e Treviso

Restauro dell’opera “Resistenza e Liberazione” di Jannis Kounellis
Resistenza e Liberazione. Le parole di Michelle Coudray

The New Saint Agnes becomes part of the Arte del Novecento network, a project created in collaboration with the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Padua which provides for the first time the distribution on the territory of a map dedicated to a #20th century art itinerary in Padua.

The posters were displayed in the windows of what will become the Alberto Peruzzo Foundation’s bookshop. Their presence shows the community a process that is underway: the restoration and renovation of the Church of Saint Agnes, the Foundation’s new exhibition space.

The project was developed in collaboration with the Multiplo graphic design studio and involves six artists: Serena Fineschi, Susanne Kutter, Marc Nagtzaam, Giulia Siviero, Esther Stocker and Ignacio Uriarte.

It is presented as a ‘public art’ initiative conceived and realised with the intention of being visible and accessible to the community. It is about giving back to the community an important place in the city, which through contemporary art can come back to life, expressing new meanings.

The foundation’s roots lie, among other things, in the printing of books and art catalogues, and the project will be completed with the printing of six artist posters on fine art paper in a 50×70 cm format in a limited edition of 100 numbered and signed copies, available to the public.

Available
Ignacio Uriarte, Semicircle Shift, 2020
Susanne Kutter, The “Even Given” on Her Way Through the Suez Canal, 2020
Giulia Siviero, Full Coverage Painting, 2020
Esther Stocker, Senza titolo, 2021
Serena Fineschi, Ingannare l’attesa (about Rothko), Trash Series, 2021
Marc Nagtzaam, This Variation/ The Same Arguments, 2021

send an email to info@fondazionealbertoperuzzo.it

The painting Saint Agnes Refusing Gifts (ca. 1650) is being restored by the Alberto Peruzzo Foundation.The painting, once part of the spaces of the Church of Saint Agnes, will be temporarily relocated within the new cultural space of the foundation once it is open to the public.

Moved from its original location, the church of Saint Agnes, immediately after the building was deconsecrated in the 1940s, the work is still housed in the Church of San Nicolò in Padua. The painting, whose execution was initially attributed to Francesco Minorello, is part of a pictorial cycle created between the end of 1500 and 1600.

Jannis Kounellis’ work Resistenza e Liberazione, commissioned in 1994 and inaugurated on 29 May 1995, was strongly backed by the University of Padua in order to commemorate the heroic deeds of three of its professors, Ezio Franceschini, Concetto Marchesi and Egidio Meneghetti, who played a leading role in the Italian resistance movement. For the artist himself, the site-specific installation represented an important stage in his career; a commemorative work that was not long in provoking heated debate in the community for aesthetic reasons. The initial bewilderment was overcome in time and today the work is a symbol of the precious value linked to the history of the university, but also to the city of Padua.

The work was made with a series of wooden beams showing the signs of age, chipped and damaged, of different colours, and assembled using a technique used by the artist himself since the 1970s. Embedded in the wall, it is composed of irregular stratifications that take on a more linear shape in the upper part. Jannis Kounellis collected old wooden beams around the outskirts of the city with the intention of giving the entire project a value linked to the territory. The choice of wood takes on a second meaning in this context, recalling Galileo Galilei’s famous chair in the Bo Palace’s Sala dei Quaranta. The work is completed by the flag of the Italian Republic, reminding us of the value, identity and history of the nation and of Italians.

The Alberto Peruzzo Foundation supported the restoration of this important work by Kounellis a little over 25 years after its creation, for participation in the 800th anniversary celebrations of the university that hosts it.

Extraordinary maintenance on the work Resistenza e Liberazione, carried out by the restorer Valentina Piovan, was planned by assessing the artist’s intentions in its execution. The degradation of the work had to be considered as intentional on the part of the artist, therefore as an ‘execution technique’. Incoherent deposits were removed, the adhesion of colour residues was checked, wooden surfaces were prepared and fixed (using non-invasive techniques), and disinfection was carried out using suitable and previously tested solvent-based biocide agents. Lastly, mapping was carried out to catalogue the elements used to create the work, indicating their position, size, composition status of the wood species used and the level of degradation in progress in order to monitor the work over time.

Thanks to Università degli Studi di Padova, Giovanna Valenzano, Kounellis Archive and Michelle Coudray for the partecipation.

Restoration: Valentina Piovan
Photos: Marco Furio Magliani
Texts: Vincenzo de Bellis e Guido Bartorelli

Resistenza e Liberazione. Le parole di Michelle Coudray

A multimedia project for the church of Saint Agnes in Padua, born from a collaboration between the Fondazione Alberto Peruzzo Foundation and IED Venice. Through in-depth historical research into the archives of the Paduan territory and the church, the students of Media Design of the European Institute of Design in Venice reconstructed an urban scenario halfway between the past and the present.

The Venice Pavilion of the Biennale has been a historically exceptional space since 1932, reserved for special projects, owned and managed by Venice City Council. Inaugurated for the 18th International Art Biennale, it was conceived as a pavilion for the decorative arts, from glass, through fabrics, to mosaics, in order to allow for the finest worldwide examples of work being done in those fields to be compared and contrasted. In the post-war period, it was no longer used for its original purpose and fell into disrepair. Thereafter it was not occupied on a continuous basis.

In architectural terms, it embodies the idea of an exedra – a sort of stage set – inspired by Renaissance and baroque models. The external hemicycle also conditions the rigorous, white internal spaces, which are lit from above. The pavilion was designed in the early 1930s by the architect Brenno del Giudice, who was also responsible for the beautiful marble flooring. Over the decades, the pavilion held up a mirror to the local avant-garde movements, serving as a showcase above all for exquisite craftsmanship and technical mastery.

In 2011, the reinstatement of the Venice Pavilion’s original function was a commitment that indicated the vitality that the city intended to express – a commitment that continues to this day. Fondaco co-ordinated the works, Lares dealt pro-actively with the restoration, while two companies helped to fund the interventions: Arzanà Navi and Louis Vuitton. 

The ex-Mayor, Giorgio Orsoni, said: “Arzanà Navi is a prestigious, young, local business, with the ability to export innovation and expertise in the high-end nautical sector – a sector that is very much part of Venice’s DNA. The city, which boasts a rich artistic legacy, is itself a workshop of creativity and not simply a theater for the representations of others. As such, Venice needed its own impressive space in which to present the very best output from those local exponents of art on the cutting edge”.

Madile Gambier, Commissioner of the Venice Pavilion, referred to the operation: «a philological restoration of the highest order, which refers back to the city’s great history of artistic virtuosity».

After the restoration, in the same year during the 54ª Internation Exposition of Biennale Artehas been presentd at Venice Pavilion (curated by Renzo Dubbini and Madile Gambier) the exhibition of Fabrizio Plessi, “Mari Verticali”. An exhibition that essentially connects the two greatest passions of Arzanà Navi and Louis Vuitton: sailing and the sea. The artist has proposed here a new vision of his digital fleet that has developed in a symbiotic way within the hemicycle structure of the Venice Pavilion.