White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 14driving the growth of galleries withsufficient economic resources tocompete on international markets andto really invest in leading Italian artists.An important role can be played byformer-bank foundations, a network ofplayers, typical of the Italian situation,with strong buying power andconsiderable interest in culture. Butwith a few exceptions, they have notshown a great interest in qualitycontemporary art and have preferred topursue a more local, culturally modestlogic. Lastly, public commissions couldbe boosted by seriously applying theso-called “2% Law”. In its latestformula, managed by the publiccontrolledcompany ARCUS (Societàper lo sviluppo dell’arte, della cultura edello spettacolo S.p.A), this law nowallocates 3% of the cost of constructingor redeveloping public buildings to thecommissioning of a work of art to beinstalled on site. Today this law is oftenignored or gives rise to debatableoperations from the cultural point ofview.Another weak point in public action isthe way Italian artists are promotedinternationally. The promotion ofItalian art usually takes place throughthe organisation of exhibitions, at timesrather costly, and often hosted inrelatively minor venues in theinternational art capitals. The art worksare typically parachuted into thesecontexts without any real preparatorycommunications with the local scene,which would help the featured artists tointeract and make themselves knownby those who might be interested intheir work and could then open up newspaces and opportunities. But thiswould mean public institutionsinvolved in promotional activities, ortheir art advisers, would have to have asolid up-to-date knowledge of the mostimportant local scenes of internationalart and equally solid and up-to-datecontacts with the leading players onthose scenes. In the absence of all this,the most convenient and painlesssolution for everyone is the “tourist”exhibition in which the artists arrive,install their work, attend the openingand leave without ever having gainedthe slightest knowledge of the artisticcontext with which they have (not)interacted. Paradoxically from the pointof view of an artist’s reputation thiskind of operation will have greaterrepercussions at home. The worldwidenetwork of Italian institutes of cultureabroad is not usually much help in thissense. They are often not competent inthe field of contemporary art and hostprogrammes of art events with noconsistent quality criteria and havedifficulty in being noticed on the artscene in the country in question. Butthere could be various more efficientsolutions in this sphere, such as:offering grants for exhibition projectsand artist-in-residences to artists whoare capable of making a name andtherefore will receive invitations fromcultural institutions, galleries and majorindependent exhibition spaces; fundingprogrammes for internationalcuratorships in Italy in order to giveforeign curators a real opportunity toget to know the Italian art scene andestablish a genuine dialogue with Italianartists; attaching competentprofessional contemporary artconsultants to Italian institutes ofculture in the cities of most interest forthe contemporary arts system; andWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 323