“While everyone was
“While everyone was getting complacent with how well things in the art world were organised, one always sensed with Francesca that she was on a trajectory and had this sense of urgency” Bornemisza Art Contemporary) and TBA21- Academy, a roving and experimental cultural nonprofit that commissions art and research focusing on marine preservation, which she cofounded with Markus Reymann. Thyssen-Bornemisza never stops moving. Al though she follows the art world circuit of fairs and biennials, she also toggles between cruising the remote Pacific on her research vessel, the Dardanella, and TBA21- Academy-initiated happenings in Croatia and Venice – along with visits to Alligator Head, her family’s estate and marine preserve in Jamaica, where she recently added several guesthouses for artist residencies. Within the art world at large, Thyssen-Bornemisza is a renegade, and part of a small but ambitious group of female impresarios who are rethinking the role of the patron. There is the Swiss-born pharmaceutical heiress Maja Hoffmann, who, a few years ago, took over a defunct industrial park in Arles, France, and turned it into LUMA, a cultural complex of exhibition and studio spaces. And there’s Alda Fendi, of the fashion dynasty, who established Fondazione Alda Fendi Esperimenti in Rome, a group of historic buildings housing galleries as well as apartments for artists and travellers. These women are not just collecting and commissioning but also engaging with contemporary art as a way to promote social responsibility and cross-disciplinary exchange. “It’s as if the world is too small for Francesca,” said the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, a longtime collaborator. “While everyone was getting complacent with how well things in the art world were organised, one always sensed with her that she was on a trajectory and had this sense of urgency.” This year alone she has opened › From top: the grounds outside Lopud 1483; a pavilion designed by David Adjaye and Olafur Eliasson now sits on the property CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 43
Art & Design Patron Saint What makes Thyssen-Bornemisza unique among collectors is that she invests a lot in the artistic process; in some ways, she is more interested in the journey than in the final result two ambitious cultural projects: Ocean Space, an ancient church reborn as an arts centre in Venice; and Lopud 1483, a 15th-century former Franciscan monastery on the Croatian island of Lopud that she has spent the past 20 years renovating. On a visit to Lopud 1483 this past spring, I shared a water taxi with Åsa Andersson, a shaman from Lapland. She was there to oversee the design of some of the monastery’s gardens – a maze of meditative stations. Thyssen-Bornemisza likes to work with genre-spanning individuals, including spiritual healers, musicians like Sigur Rós, and architects like David Adjaye, whom she connected with Eliasson in 2005 to build a work for the Venice Biennale entitled Your black horizon, which is now located on Lopud. These unexpected pairings of personalities from outside the art world often add another dynamic dimension. In fact, Thyssen-Bornemisza told me that it was Andersson’s animistic worldview that helped push the Academy’s focus towards environmental issues. When Thyssen-Bornemisza came across the Renaissance-era complex in the early 1990s, it lay in ruins. “How could such an architectural marvel, with so many layers of history, be left so neglected, for so long?” she wondered at the time. In 1996, the building was added to the World Monuments Fund’s list of endangered sites, which inspired Thyssen-Bornemisza to negotiate a longterm lease and to call in a series of restoration experts as well as a small architecture firm in Zagreb to help modernise it. Upon arriving, I entered a sun-drenched courtyard with a raised terrace surrounded by rooms including a small exhibition space showcasing centuries-old Franciscan medicinal recipes and tools. I saw an installation of Renaissance-era objects from Thyssen-Bornemisza’s family collection, alongside a mix of works including a Thomas Struth photograph of a crowd in the Vatican that hung opposite a monumental 16thcentury tapestry depicting the Rightful Judgment. Bringing some of the family’s collection from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, in Madrid, to the monastery was an obvious mission for her. “One of the magical things about this part of the world is that much of the ecclesiastical architecture still contains original altars and sacred art, but hardly anything remains of traditional interiors,” she said. “I wanted to recreate an entire interior that included the decorative arts to give the visitors a feel for the Renaissance. Now the only reference people have for that time is Game of Thrones!” On the second floor, I peeked into five stylish bedrooms appointed with modern furniture created for the project by the Italian designer Paola Lenti. In the master bedroom, the words il duce were scrawled on the back wall in faded black paint, a remnant of the presence of Mussolini’s army in the region in the early 1940s. Thyssen-Bornemisza said that she was advised to clean it off, but she refused. “We can’t pretend things didn’t happen,” she said. “We should face history rather than erase it.” Later she recalled that the best advice she had received was from the architect Frank Gehry. When she brought Joan Jonas performing at Ocean Space in Venice in 2019 PHOTO MOIRA RICCI 44 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
