September 2010

Emilie29 October, 2009

Have I ever told you that the pace at work is fast and furious and while I’m busy working on one thing, I’ll be handling two or three other things at the same time? Well, let me tell you now.
When I got back from New York, I immediately rushed off to … Reggio Emilia where we’re based and where the Maramotti art collection is located. The reason for the rush was the vernissage of the work by artist Hannah Rickards, winner of the second edition of the ‘MaxMara Art Prize for Women 2007/2009’, a competition for female artists living in the United Kingdom.
Reggio Emilia was awash with journalists from Germany, Great Britain, Russia and Italy along with collectors, curators, art experts, and so on. Obviously the artist was also there, in fact she just  spent six months in Italy because of the prize in order to prepare her work called “No, there was no red,” a film of the testimonies of people who have witnessed a rare visual phenomenon when the mirage of a city appears on Lake Michigan. It was interesting to see how many subjective differences there can be in the description of one phenomenon, everybody that was interviewed had their own version, their own perception of the light and colour, depth and size. To me, it was almost like a debate about the truth, everybody was expressing their own personal point of view, splitting reality into lots of partial views. Very fascinating, oh but I might still have been suffering from jet lag!

The journalists had a tour of the Maramotti Collection, the works of art collected by Achille Maramotti, the founder of MaxMara Group, and then by his children located in the company’s original and newly restored site. There are about 200 works in all, representing the main trends in Italian and international art over the last 60 years. Hannah Rickards’ film was screened in the Pattern Room. The screening was followed by a debate and a small cocktail gathering.

We finished off the evening with dinner at the ‘Arti e Mestieri’ restaurant. I sat with the French journalists, but it was up to me to check that there was the right mix of curators, journalists, people from the Maramotti family and other distinguished guests on all of the tables. You need eyes in the back of your head to check what’s going on in each group: if everything is going smoothly, if someone is bored or would rather have been with another group. But when I mooched around, I saw that everybody was chatting away and the mood was relaxed and enjoyable. Anyway, I started to relax when the lobster arrived. I had just grabbed hold of my fork when … off went the lights and we all held our breath. An impromptu performance by the artist? No, it was just the grand entry of the birthday cake complete with candles for a girl on the next table.

Oh, I almost forgot: if you would like to see the collection for yourself, you can visit it for free by simply reserving a place on one of the guided tours that take place between Thursday and Sunday. It is at 65 Via Fratelli Cervi, Reggio Emilia. Have a look at the website if you want to know the opening times and information www.collezionemaramotti.org.
It’s worth a look!
See you soon.

Tags: Collezione Maramotti, Hannah Rickards, Max Mara Art Prize for Women