Italy's famous Farnesina Collection debuts in India with 72 contemporary artworks

New Delhi: After travelling out of Italy for the first time ever earlier this year, an exhibition featuring a broad selection of 72 important artworks from the famous Farnesina Collection opened here at Bikaner House on Friday.

"The Grand Italian Vision: The Farnesina Collection", curated by world renowned art historian Achille Bonito Oliva, features works by 63 celebrated artists including Carla Accardi, Afro, Enzo Cucchi, Arturo Martini, Alberto Burri, Mirko, Pietro Ruffo, Sandro Chia, and Fabio Mauri.

Iconic pieces of Italian contemporary art such as a futuristic bronze sculpture by Umberto Boccioni, titled 'Unique Forms of Continuity in Space', as well as 'L'etrusco', a gilded bronze version of the renowned Etruscan statue, by Michelangelo Pistoletto have also made their way to the exhibition.

Originally housed in the Palazzo della Farnesina, the building for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Rome, the collection with more than 530 works by 280 artists was accumulated by then secretary general Umberto Vattani.

'The Grand Italian Vision', which showcases avant-garde works of sculpture, mosaic, painting, photography, and installations, also marks the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Italy, Italian ambassador Vincenzo de Luca said at the opening ceremony.

"It is a moment of cultural dialogue between Italy and India. It's the centrepiece of a rich cultural programme that showcases the contemporary and traditional aspects of our partnership in India.

"An art collection says a lot about its collector. The Farnesina Collection represents Italy at its best. A country with solid roots and a precious heritage, not trapped in the past. Italy draws from its experience to face new challenges in a constantly changing world," De Luca said.

The exhibition, which explores different artistic movements including Futurism, Metaphysical, Abstractionism, Forma, Concrete, Informal, Kinetic, New Figuration, Conceptual, Povera and Transavantgard, aims to introduce the public to the Italian artistic identity through a selection of works, arranged thematically and not chronologically.

Bonito Oliva said that the Farnesina Collection is important as it emphasises the ability of art to be unlimited.

"We are here to allow art to do other things, to spread information and to change things. What is art? Art is a massage of the atrophied muscles of collective sensibility. Art has no limits, it has the ability to change things. It occupies an important historical moment. The Farnesina collection is special because it has the ability to spread and it is less cultural and more political. Art definitely celebrates the value of cohabitation and coexistense," he said.

The curator added that the collection also reflects "the cultural anthropology of Italy." "But it is not a fruit of a patriotic attitude towards art. Housed in the building of Italian foreign ministry, the collection stresses on cohabitation, coexistence, and shared experiences. In this case politics gives space to artistic expression. Here art gets to cohabit with bureaucracy, showing art can invade all kinds of spaces," he said.

The exhibition will stay open to public on all days 11am - 7pm, till June 22.