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Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Celebrates StellaRe Award and 20th Anniversary with Star-Studded Gala
On the eve of the Venice Biennale, Turin was the hottest destination.
Lorena Muñoz-Alonso
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Starting today, all eyes will be in Venice, where the press preview of the 56th edition of the Biennale is already underway (see Everything You Need To Know About the Venice Biennale 2015). And last Sunday, anyone who’s anyone in the art and fashion worlds met in Milan for the party that marked the launch of the new Fondazione Prada (see Rem Koolhaas Designed Prada Foundation Opens in Milan on Eve of Venice Biennale).
But the day before, en route to Milan and Venice, a group of art power players descended upon Turin, where the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, with the mighty Patrizia Sandretto at the helm (see artnet News Top 200 Art Collectors Worldwide for 2015, Part Two) celebrated its 20th anniversary and the 10th edition of the StellaRe prize with an award ceremony and a gala dinner.
An affable and relaxed Nicholas Serota was seen with Chris Dercon, dispersing any rumors of tensions related to Dercon’s departure in 2017 to direct the Volksbühne Theater in Berlin (see Chris Dercon Leaves Tate Modern To Direct Berlin’s Volksbühne Theater and Something Is Desperately Wrong With the Tate and Is Nicholas Serota to Blame?).
Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist, directors of London’s Serpentine Galleries; Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, curator of the 2015 Istanbul Biennial; the gallerist Pilar Corrias; and the artist Francesco Vezzoli were some of the guests present during the the StellaRe award ceremony, which was given to H. E. Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums.
The prize, which seeks to celebrate women who “through their work, dedication, and innovative vision, have opened up new perspectives across a diversity of fields,” has the shape of an out-of-scale engagement ring, a humorous touch that comes courtesy of the artist Maurizio Cattelan, who designed the award back in 2006.
The evening continued with a gala dinner hosted in a warehouse outside Turin, where highlights from the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo collection have been exquisitely installed under the banner “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” A title borrowed, in turn, from one of the exhibited artworks: an 8mm film by Steve McQueen from 1998 (see Steve McQueen Returns to Artmaking).
The exhibition gathered signature pieces by artists like Doug Aitken, Paul Chan, Urs Fischer, Thomas Hirschhorn, Damien Hirst, Carsten Höller, Philippe Parreno, Magali Reus, Rosemarie Trockel, and Patrick Tuttofuoco.
On an elevated platform, at the far end of the warehouse, a dramatic dinner arrangement had been set up. Over fine food and champagne, conversations struck up between guests including Nicholas Logsdail, founder of Lisson Gallery; the collector Maja Hoffman; Juan A. Gaitán, director of Museo Tamayo in Mexico; Carlos Urroz, director of ARCOMadrid; Michaela and Simon de Pury; and Franca Sozzani, editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia.
The following morning, Sandretto offered brunch in her Turin mansion to a group of guests—those who hadn’t left for Venice yet, or hadn’t dashed to Milan to attend the Prada Foundation’s launch that evening, that is. The occasion proved to be a fantastic opportunity to see how the collector actually lives with the art that she tirelessly collects and supports.
“I like having fun with the artworks, so we are constantly changing the hang of works around the house” Sandretto told artnet News, as she gave a tour of her private rooms, where beguiling photographs by Luigi Ghirri hung near a Carol Rama drawing and photographs from Larry Clark’s iconic series “Tulsa,” among many other treasures.
“I like having friends at the house all the time,” Sandretto told artnet News, as she offered more food and drink to a group of young artists—including Isabel Lewis—and art critics, who sat in the generous garden. “It’s very important to me to share what I’ve got,” she added. Looking at her impeccable skills as a hostess and her patronage record, it’s hard to disagree.
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