Roberto e Franco Calarota in una sala di Palazzo Franchetti | © ACP - Palazzo Franchetti
In the palace on the Grand Canal the Acp holders organize a high profile cultural and exhibition activity but also two «green» prizes.
In the San Marco district, overlooking the Grand Canal, Palazzo Franchetti has been home to the collection and exhibitions organized by Acp (Art Capital Partners) since 2019, chaired by Franco Calarota, owner of the Galleria Maggiore in Bologna. Acp, born in the early 2000s as an investment fund in which some Italian entrepreneurs participate, is today a company that produces cultural events: vice-presidents are Alessia Calarota and Roberta Perazzini Calarota, the daughter and wife of the gallery owner, who support him in the 'activities.
The new course started in 2019 with a Jean Dubuffet retrospective. Acp Palazzo Franchetti is now reopening its collection (booking 24 hours in advance at tickets@acp-palazzofranchetti.com) ranging from historical avant-gardes to current events. Magritte, Delvaux, Marini, Klee, Manzù, Severini, Sutherland, Campigli, De Chirico; and then the protagonists of the European Informal and American Abstract Expressionism (Leoncillo, Mathieu, Sam Francis, Franz Kline); and again Pablo Echaurren and Sissi, and of course Giorgio Morandi, to whom Calarota has dedicated numerous splendid exhibitions, are the names that follow one another on the first floor of the building, built in the fifteenth century and gradually remodeled until the nineteenth-century intervention in neo-Gothic style signed by Camillo Boito. «For these things it takes a pinch of madness, explains Franco Calarota, especially in times like the ones we are going through. I took over the Palazzo in 2019 from the Veneto Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts (which has its operational headquarters in Palazzo Loredan in Campo Santo Stefano, Ndr.) Presenting one of my projects based on a high-profile cultural and exhibition activity. In May we are planning an exhibition curated by Martina Corgnati and dedicated to the relationship between Massimo Campigli and the Etruscans. The painter's masterpieces will be accompanied by 50 finds from institutions such as the National Museum of Villa Giulia and the Etruscan Museum of Viterbo. I believe that the future of exhibitions will be centered on culturally refined projects capable of attracting the general public». Calarota has for some time intensified its collaboration with national and international museums. This is the case of the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, for an exhibition scheduled for October and dedicated to the command sticks of the civilizations of Oceania. «However, the dream of all time, reveals Calarota, is an exhibition that puts Morandi and Rothko in dialogue. The idea is to propose it in 2022, in conjunction with the Venice Biennale. I talked about it with Christopher Rothko, the artist's son, who is enthusiastic about it».
Green line at Palazzo Franchetti
And always concurrently with the Biennale, Alessia Calarota will enter the scene, with two awards, one dedicated to young people and the other to artists of all generations who work on environmental and sustainability issues. Time is running out: March 15 is the deadline for submitting the candidacy for two prizes organized by Art Capita Partners (ACP - Palazzo Franchetti in Venice). One is the ACP ArtAward, dedicated to artists who, even if not necessarily young by birth, are so in the curriculum, as long as it includes exhibitions in accredited and, above all, canonical locations with respect to the art system.
The other, the main one, is instead conceived for already established artists, authors of works, as the title of the award, ACP Green Art Award specifies, centered on environmental, eco-sustainable, bioethical themes and contexts. For the first competition, 10-12 artists will be pre-selected from all the applications received, each participant with a work exhibited from 15 March to 15 May in a dedicated viewing room on the website www.acp-palazzofranchetti.com, where it will also be possible vote. Yes, because if the winner identified by the official jury will be only one, and as a prize he will have a personal exhibition at the Galleria Maggiore in Bologna, sponsor of the event (Palazzo Franchetti is the prestigious Venetian outpost of the Calarota family, which directs the Bolognese gallery), another work will be chosen by the public by voting on the website and the social channels involved on Instagram in the stories of @acp_palazzofranchetti and @maggiore_gam.
The public (who also in this case will have access to the viewing room of the Palazzo Franchetti website and will express themselves on the Instagram channel @acp palazzofranchetti) will instead be the seventh member of the expert jury that will award the ACP Green Art World Award. But we will have to wait until the beginning of June to know the names of the 5 finalists. The winner will set up a personal exhibition at Palazzo Franchetti, where the prize-winning work purchased by the organizers for a maximum of 10 thousand euros will find its permanent destination.
The award ceremony is announced for next September. These are the juries: for the ACP Green Art Award, Alessia Calarota, creator of the two awards, as well as vice president of ACP-Palazzo Franchetti; Nathan Clement-Gillespie (director of Frieze Masters), Nicholas Cullinan (director of the National Portrait Gallery in London), Luca Lo Pinto (director of Macro in Rome), Margherita Maccapani Missoni (artistic director of M Missoni) and Svetlana Marich, vice president of the Phillips auction house. For the ACP Art Award, Germàn Fuenmayor (Studio Piuarch), Beatrice Maccaferri, Alina and Oliva Sartogo and Ilaria Sgravato (co-founders of On Fair), Etienne Macret (founder of The Collector List), Rossana Muolo (Masseria Torre Coccaro) will join, Rebecca Taylor (Arts & culture strategist of Los Angeles, New York and London) and freelance curator Carlotta Testori.
Franco Fanelli