Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino

Magazzino Italian Art and the Musei Civici di Cagliari presented Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino at the Palazzo di Città in Cagliari, Italy.

Installation view of "Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino" at Palazzo di Città - Musei Civici di Cagliari, July 26 - December 8, 2019. Photo by Giorgio Marturana.

For the first time, Magazzino Italian Art Foundation worked together in partnership with an Italian museum to present two exhibitions, Arte Povera: From the Olnick Spanu Collection and Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino, in the spaces of the Palazzo di Città of the Musei Civici di Cagliari which were on view until December 8, 2019.

Installation view of "Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino" at Palazzo di Città - Musei Civici di Cagliari, July 26 - December 8, 2019. Photo by Giorgio Marturana.

The American institution was represented through fifteen carefully selected works by the main Arte Povera artists from the Olnick Spanu Collection, considered one of the largest and most complete collections of Arte Povera in the world. The story was enriched by the telling of the construction of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation through the photographs of Marco Anelli, presented for the first time in Italy with a series of unpublished works following exhibitions in New York and Washington D.C.

Installation view of "Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino" at Palazzo di Città - Musei Civici di Cagliari, July 26 - December 8, 2019. Photo by Giorgio Marturana.

The two exhibitions together defined the making of a the great cultural project of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation–located one hour from New York City. Magazzino Italian Art Foundation is devoted to presenting Italian Postwar and Contemporary Art, with a strong focus on the Arte Povera group, an explosive moment of artistic creativity recognized among the main movements of the national art of the second half of the 20th century in the United States, more specifically in the Hudson Valley, an area historically representative of American art and culture. The main creators of the project and co-founders of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation are Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, born in New York and Sardinia respectively, who have been collectors of Contemporary Art for years.

Installation view of "Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino" at Palazzo di Città - Musei Civici di Cagliari, July 26 - December 8, 2019. Photo by Giorgio Marturana.

The collaboration with the Musei Civici di Cagliari developed a relationship and an ideal bond, aligned by intentions and visions, which brought the Olnick Spanu Collection to the Contemporary Art Collection of the Musei Civici.

MARCO ANELLI: BUILDING MAGAZZINO

Twenty-seven photographs formed the exhibition of Marco Anelli, a Roman-born New York based photographer. The works which were on display are part of a large body of work published entirely in the book Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino (Skira Rizzoli, 2017). The selection of large-format prints included 12 portraits of the workers who participated in the construction of Magazzino Italian Art and a series of 15 photographs depicting the different phases of the construction of the building.

Anelli did not just want to document the construction of Magazzino Italian Art, but to testify to the humanity, emotions and experiences of those who made this project a reality, making it, from every point of view, a work of art in itself. As a result of his inclusive approach, the photographer’s intimate vision unfolds in time, proposing a constant dialogue between architecture, landscape and the workers, a story connected with the thread of art, in the name of which the project comes to life and becomes an art project in its own right.

Installation view of "Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino" at Palazzo di Città - Musei Civici di Cagliari, July 26 - December 8, 2019. Photo by Giorgio Marturana.

About Marco Anelli

Marco Anelli is a Roman-born, New York-based photographer. After specializing in black and white photography and printing techniques in Paris, he started working on photographic projects that evolve over long periods of time. His publications include works on sculpture, architecture, sports, and classical music.

In 2010 Anelli took portraits of 1,545 participants in Marina Abramović’s performance at the MoMA in New York City (Portraits in the Presence of Marina Abramović, Damiani Publisher 2010). Building sites and their workers are the subjects of his recent research. In 2015 he completed A Simple Story, his project on the construction of the new Whitney Museum of American Art; and in 2017 he released Building Magazzino, which documents the construction of Magazzino Italian Art in Cold Spring, NY.

Since 2011 Anelli has been exploring the character of the artist and their work spaces. Artist Studios in New York, which will be published by Damiani in the spring of 2020, is a project that leads the viewer into the creative process of internationally acclaimed artists.

In 2018 Marco Anelli started First American Portrait, shooting immigrants in major US cities right after their Oath Ceremony, the moment they become American citizens.

www.marcoanelli.com

About Cagliari’s Civic Museums

From the early 1900s to the contemporary, from Sardinian to Siamese art, Cagliari's Civic Museums preserve and display to the public the civic collections, gathered from the early years of the last century, in three distinct branches of the Municipal Art Gallery. The first civic museum of Sardinia was inaugurated in 1933 and dedicated to the art of the 20th century; its extension CArteC - cave for contemporary art, is dedicated to experimental site-specific projects; the Siamese Art Museum, which boasts Stefano Cardu’s precious and unique collection of Oriental Art from South East Asia, opened to the public in 1918; and Palazzo di Città, an exhibition space dedicated to temporary exhibitions.

These three locations, in the historic center of Cagliari, sites of extraordinary historical, architectural and landscape value, make the Civic Museums today a center of production and cultural dissemination, and a point of attraction for the city and tourists at the same time.

Related Press:

Press Agencies

AGENPARL.EU, July 10, 2019

ANSA, July 25, 2019 (lancio d’agenzia)

ANSA.IT, July 25, 2019 (notizia on line)

http://www.ansa.it/sardegna/notizie/2019/07/25/da-ny-a-cagliari-mostra-arte-povera_6ec732a1-3640-4e71-ba64-a5bf53210bdb.html

AISE.IT, July 26, 2019

https://aise.it/notiziario-flash/arte-povera-e-marco-anelli-in-mostra-a-cagliari/133827/159

Newspapers

IL GIORNO, July 27, 2019

LA NUOVA SARDEGNA, July 12, 2019

L’UNIONE SARDA, July 25, 2019