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The Art of Doing Business

THE INTERVIEW/ Michele Coppola
by Luca Violo

How much does The Culture Project reflect the values and objectives of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank?

Cultural promotion, safeguarding, enhancement and sharing with the general public – all combined with efficiency, pragmatism and managerial skills. These are the values and objectives that characterise the cultural activities of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank – values and objectives that are expressed to the full in The Culture Project. The plan has a duration of three years in order so as to create a consistently well-structured and articulated cultural offering. Ideally, the plan will run alongside the bank’s business plan in order to emphasise the conviction that culture can be done with the same originality, professionalism and responsibility shown when offering banking services to private individuals and companies. The Culture Project defines the guidelines and the priorities to be undertaken by developing a series of initiatives that are supported by the existence of a coherent and sound programme. Preserving, enhancing and rendering usable the vast and heterogeneous cultural wealth belonging to the Group is one of our top priorities. For this purpose, the Gallerie d’Italia (Italian Galleries) have been founded in Milan, Vicenza and Naples. In these three places of outstanding beauty important art collections are being exhibited on a permanent basis. In Milan, works from the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries are organised into two itineraries with Da Canova a Boccioni (“From Canova to Boccioni”) and Cantiere del 900 (“Twentieth Century Worksite”). In Vicenza, Attican vases as well as vases from Magna Graecia, Russian icons and Venetian art from the Eighteenth century are on show and, in Naples, there are paintings and statues from the south of Italy with Caravaggio’s Martyrdom of Saint Ursula particularly standing out – the masterpiece of our collections. The Culture Project employs a significant amount of commitment and resources to defend and enhance Italy’s cultural wealth and testimony to this is the Restituzioni (“Restitutions”), the restoration programme in existence since 1989 that has saved from decay the country’s works in need of restoration. Furthermore, the three-year project also entails the setting up of big temporary exhibitions in the Gallerie d’Italia with pieces from our collections as well as works from other collections. Our museums are not merely places for the custody of art but they are also dynamic, open and ‘inhabited’ places. In general, the combination of all of our initiatives reflects our faith in culture as a strategic means for the development of the country and as an instrument for progress and social inclusion.
They are a driving force behind sustainable economic growth.

Promotion and enhancement of our permanent collections and exhibition sites as well as a highly focused programme of temporary collections have so far characterised The Culture Project’s calendar for the Gallerie d’Italia. What are the forthcoming initiatives undertaken by Intesa Sanpaolo Bank in order to underline its support for art and culture?

The enhancement and public fruition of our cultural wealth is one of our main objectives. I would like to emphasise that such cultural activities – provided for by the Gallerie d’Italia – are carried out with a certain dose of dynamism. This is demonstrated by the name chosen for one section of the museum in the Gallerie in Milan, “Cantiere del 900” (Twentieth Century Worksite), which is a reference to the fact that the “worksite” is actually in progress, in continual evolution. Groups of works are exhibited in everchanging exhibitions. The same “rotational” exhibition formula has also been adopted for the works of Vincenzo Gemito in Naples and for the antique ceramics in Vicenza where, from the 22nd October, there will be a renewed museum itinerary dedicated to the figure of Dionysus in vase paintings. In order to diversify the museum’s exhibits we are curating temporary a series of exhibitions connected to the collections exhibited or open to new explorations. Speaking of which, I would like to recommend the large retrospective exhibition on Francesco Hayez that we will be inaugurating in Milan at the beginning of November, bringing together 120 paintings by the painter of the famous Kiss, a work that will be exhibited, for the first time, in its three versions. In 2016, once this large exhibition has closed and during the same period as the General Conference of the International Council of Museums being held in Milan, the Gallerie d’Italia in Milan’s Piazza Scala will be hosting the 27th edition of Restituzioni (Restitutions). Carefully selected and restored works from Italy will be presented to the public and, for the first time, Restituzioni (Restitutions) will be reaching out to foreign countries with the inclusion of works from Slovakia. The Culture Project is a lot more still. The Officina  delle idee (“The Workshop of Ideas”), with the goal of supporting talent and creativity is offering young people training, research and creative opportunities.
There are at least two Doctorate grants assigned to students at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University and the Brera Academy in Milan as well as a project for the cataloguing and digitalisation of the works in the Drawings and Prints Cabinet in the Uffizi Museum in Florence.

The immense wealth of Italy’s cultural heritage requires a certain synergy between public and private institutions combined with the safeguarding and enhancement of a heritage that spans the centuries. The Culture Project is an example of a “virtuous model”.

Over the last twenty-five years, Intesa Sanpaolo Bank, in  collaboration with Italy’s regional cultural authorities and museums, has promoted and curated the project Restituzioni (“Restitutions”). Over a thousand works of art, some on a monumental scale, have been restored and “returned” to the public. This has been one of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank’s most significant initiatives and has been an example of cooperation between the public and private sectors that is worthy of note. Following along these very lines, the restoration and the re-launching of the Casa Manzoni (“Manzoni’s House”), inaugurated just a few days ago, is typical of such strategies. From the point of view of efficient preservation and promotion strategies concerning the country’s artistic and historic heritage, it is fundamental to reason in terms of synergy between public and private institutions. Considering the highly complex nature of managing Italy’s enormous heritage, the commitment by private individuals is only right and proper – in particular, the commitment undertaken by banks in support of culture and not in place of but working alongside public institutions deserves is a fine example of this. It cannot be put down to mere sponsorship but it is however a real and active partnership that also adds a certain contribution in terms of projects and contents to the financial support.
Recently, the CAMERA – the Italian Centre for Photography – has been set up in Turin and lntesa Sanpaolo Bank is the founding partner of the new centre along with several other important contributors. The sharing of resources and ideas, within a respectful mix of roles and competences, is the right way ahead in our quest for and achievement of the best possible results.