Talks with the scientific board of the festival of Contemporary art for the first highlights and reflections on Forms of collecting/Forme della committenza. We interviewed Carlos Basualdo
What kind of effects has the global crisis had on the system of patronage and the creation of works of art?
Today it is still not clear what the effect of the global crisis has been on the contemporary art world. This is probably caused by the fact that only during the last months we have begun to see the first effects, such as the budget cuts for museums decided by governments. The British situation has been very widely publicised. However, the Italian situation is also dramatic.
In the USA the impact has been less evident, also because museums do not receive much public funding, but receive especially private funds, from foundations, banks, firms and citizens. Certainly the crisis has had effects on foundations and firms in the cultural field.
There has been a slowdown but the situation is not dramatic. Today we are especially trying to evaluate the phenomenon as it happens and to understand which are the most stricken areas, but I think we will have a clearer vision starting from this year.
You live and work between the USA and Italy. What difference have you noticed between these two contexts in terms of considering a collection of an individual or of an institution? What kind of positive factors can these two different contexts share?
Private collecting in the USA is not so different from in Italy. They both show important examples of collections, with particular attention to the artists of their own country, which is understandable. Concerning public collections, we look at two different situations. In Italy, for example, collections belong to the public sector in its different forms. On the contrary, in the USA private collections often contribute to the developing of public collections. The policy of donations allows American collectors to obtain important fiscal advantages from the public sector thanks to the endowment of an artwork. As a consequence, the public sector promotes the “health” of the collections with policies and practices that do not exist in Italy, fostering and developing collections. This is a gap which Italy should work on.
In Faenza we will talk about the role of museums. Since the beginning of modern museology museums have gradually changed following the needs of the particular period of time. A new decade has just begun: in your opinion what is the role of museums as patrons?
Changes to museums in the last 20 years are evident. Today, museums play a fundamental role because they participate in many aspects of people and society. The role of museums as patrons is more and more important in the urban context and for the contemporary art system, because it promotes the creation of new artworks and the development of new public collections. I think that today museums are extremely dynamic collectors. MoMA, the TATE and the Pompidou Centre are evidence of this trend and I think that this tendency will go on.
The fourth edition of the festival of Contemporary art will be entitled Forms of collecting/Forme della committenza. In a tour that will involve different forms of patronage, what are the issues to focus on?
It is important to go into depth on the topic of patronage because in Italy it has strong historical roots. Think about Florence and the Medici family, or Vatican patronages, or the relationship between artists and the State or the Church… In the Anglo-Saxon context this topic does not have such a strong background. Nowadays we are developing a very different form of patronage. For this reason, I think it is important to ask ourselves what the changes are that have influenced this topic, clarifying the relationship between the public and the private sector.
