There's a new space for contemporary art: it's SPA, in a neoclassical building in Oleggio

There is a new space for contemporary art in Italy. It is Palazzo Bellini, an ancient building located in the historic center of Oleggio (Novara), opened after a careful restoration commissioned by collectors Laura and Luigi Giordano , who in this space will share the works of their contemporary art collection with the city and the public. The space is called SPA | Spazio Per Arte and opened to the public in the rooms of the neoclassical building last Nov. 25.

The Laura and Luigi Giordano collection features a mix of artistic mediums and genres (from figuration to abstractionism, neo-expressionism to conceptual art) from the 1980s to the present day. It features pictorial, sculptural, photographic, video and installation works. The collection includes about 200 works from different generations of artists. The work of such historicized personalities as Hermann Nitsch, Arnulf Rainer, George Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Miriam Kahn, Wolfgang Laib, William Kentridge, and Antony Gormleyis joined by the likes of Roland Flexner, Roberto Cuoghi, Elmgreen & Dragset and younger artists Gina Folly, Anne Ihmof, Diego Marcon, to name a few.

“We envisioned SPA | Spazio Per Arte,” says Luigi Giordano, “as a space open to the city and to all visitors who would like to discover it so that, through contemporary art, it will also become SPAZIO per l’anima, SPAZIO per se. It may host a thematic exhibition, a musical event, the presentation of a book or a series of lectures, but it will always be in the form of an invitation to learn more about the reality we live by training all the five senses, in which we increasingly lose faith. We always hear so little, not with our hearing, but with our sensibility. SPA | Space For Art will offer itself as an opportunity for a break, from the too much, from the hectic. I discovered contemporary art out of curiosity,” Giordano stresses, “and it has become a fundamental part of myself that has guided me not only in my search for beauty, poetry, philosophy, but also in my work and life. For me, opening this space means inviting people to get closer to something that we do not see or feel, but that is inside us, the search for deep knowledge that helps us to live better and use all our senses in the best way.”

The renovation and new destination involves about five hundred square meters of Palazzo Bellini, spread over two floors. Palazzo Bellini, a historic building in the center of Oleggio, was purchased by collectors Laura and Luigi Giordano in 2020. They were responsible for the major renovation and conservative restoration, entrusted to architect Lorenzo Bini - Studio Binocle, which brought to light paintings, bas-reliefs, stucco work and valuable wooden ceilings. The operation returns to the city an important piece of its history. Palazzo Bellini, in fact, dates back to the 15th century and owes its neoclassical appearance to the intervention of architect Stefano Ignazio Melchioni (1765-1837). The restoration was carried out in close collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia belle arti e paesaggio for the provinces of Biella, Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and Vercelli.

SPA Spazio Per Arte

SPA Spazio Per Arte,ini, Studio Binocle

SPA Spazio Per Arte,ini, Studio Binocle

SPA Spazio Per Arte,ini, Studio Binocle

SPA Spazio Per Arte,ini, Studio Binocle

SPA Spazio Per Arte,ini, Studio Binocle

ini, Studio Binocle

“In the entrance hall, the walls and ceiling underwent a meticulous descialbo that brought back the 18th-century decorations and stuccoes,” says Lorenzo Bini. “In the adjoining main hall, eighteenth-century floral motifs coexist with nineteenth-century decorative apparatus consisting of iridescent faux tapestry and geometric motifs made on the wooden coffered ceiling. The original terracotta tile flooring in these two rooms has been restored. The next rooms, although much transformed, had decorated ceilings from the 19th century period, which it was decided to restore. Here the recent industrial terracotta was removed, replacing it with natural hydraulic lime (pastel) flooring that creates a continuous surface, chromatically close to the terracotta of the adjacent rooms. The tower on the north side connects through an internal staircase the floors of the building. In the lower part, which leads directly from the courtyard to the second floor, the old staircase made of beola blocks has been retained. In the upper part, in the absence of the original steps, a painted iron staircase has been built. Whenever we found ourselves having to insert new architectural elements, we decided to use iron. The boxes that house the light fixtures and the rods that support them, the elements that conceal the fan coils, and the new ceilings (which revisit the coffer type) of the most transformed rooms on the second floor are made of iron. Even on the second floor, which mirrors as distribution almost completely the lower floor, an effort was made to maintain the decorative apparatuses and repurpose the color tones in order to give uniqueness to each room. The use of flooring in line with the choices implemented on the second floor ensures continuity between the different rooms and the optimal use of the spaces of the renovated Palazzo Bellini.”

Laura and Luigi Giordano have entrusted the Scientific and Curatorial Supervision of the programming of SPA | Spazio Per Arte to Francesca Valentini, a researcher and curator who, in consultation with the collectors and with Federica Mingozzi, head of Education and Relations with the Territory of SPA | Spazio Per Arte, will develop the program in the years to come. The graphic identity of SPA | Spazio Per Arte is by Dario Pianesi and Alessandro Prepi Sot, Hapto Studio.

Luigi Giordano, son of Amedeo Giordano, a dairy entrepreneur who moved from Campania to Piedmont at a very young age, led the family business for more than four decades until 2020, when he began to envision the SPA | Spazio per Arte project. For more than 30 years, together with his wife Laura, he has cultivated a passion for contemporary art, inspired in part by the guidance of Enzo Cannaviello, president of the Galleries in Europe Association until 2000 and among the most important international gallery owners. “Enzo has been a reference point for me to learn more about the art world,” explains Luigi Giordano. “He made me understand that behind every work of art there is always a deep meaning, that in addition to the visible part there is always an invisible part that should make us think. This is what leads me and my wife Laura today to share what we have chosen for our collection.”

SPA | Spazio Per Arte was born from the desire to share Laura and Luigi Giordano’s private collection with the city and the public and to promote awareness of contemporary art in all its forms. SPA’s program will feature an annual thematic exhibition, curated each year by a different curator in close dialogue with the collectors and SPA’s curatorial team (the exhibition, set up in the spaces of Palazzo Bellini, aims to propose new keys to interpretation and put the works of the Laura and Luigi Giordano Collection in dialogue with each other, whose curation is entrusted to Rischa Paterlini); an annual public program, that is, a program of activities designed for different SPA audiences and organized in collaboration with institutions, organizations and personalities active locally, nationally and internationally (the events accompany the exhibition and function as a moment of discovery, debate and discussion around the proposed constellation of works); educational activities that consist of visits and workshops dedicated to different audiences, with special attention to schools; and special projects created ad hoc from year to year to accommodate the proposals and desires of SPA’s audiences and to offer new insights, to develop thinking, share ideas and insights.

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The inauguration of SPA | Spazio Per Arte coincides with the first exhibition entitled BIANCO, curated by Rischa Paterlini, which brings together a selection of works from the Laura and Luigi Giordano collection, some of which are being shown to the public for the first time, in which White is the dominant color. In the future, SPA | Spazio Per Arte will host contemporary art exhibitions accompanied by public programs, events, lectures and moments of insight, as well as a program of visits and workshops for schools. Use of the space and exhibitions will always be free of charge, organized for groups, by reservation, and will make use of a dedicated guide. Why White. White is the Giordano family’s favorite color; White is the color of milk; White is the color loved by Plato. White is the dominant color of the 25 pictorial, sculptural, photographic and video art works selected from the 200 that make up the Laura and Luigi Giordano collection. Wolfgang Laib, Mona Hatoum, Anne Ihmof, Robin Rhode, Trisha Baga, Vanessa Beecroft, Anselm Kiefer, and Diego Marcon are some of the artists featured in Bianco, an exhibition that invites us to “feel with our eyes,” exploiting the versatility of the color white and visual forms to communicate emotions and ideas. White is meant to be a reflection on the ephemeral nature of life, on the purity and beauty of simplicity.

“WHITE,” says Laura Crola Giordano, “is the color that allows us to observe, without distraction, the beauty of the Palace. WHITE is the color of milk and is undoubtedly the most beloved color in our family. And so WHITE is the title of the first exhibition that we decided to dedicate to Luigi’s father, Amedeo, who moved from the Amalfi Coast to Oleggio when he was only 22 years old, where he not only met love and built his family, but founded his company until it became the first producer of mozzarella in Piedmont to produce only Italian milk. To this ability to undertake and this vision we owe much of the inspiration that led us to imagine SPA | Space For Art, to share and return, through different modalities, the vision and beauty that guides us in our lives.”

“WHITE is the dominant color in the video, photographic, pictorial and sculptural works that have been chosen for the exhibition and collected over the years by collectors,” says Rischa Paterlini, curator of the exhibition and the Laura and Luigi Giordano Collection. “An exhibition that invites us to ”feel with our eyes,“ harnessing the power of white color and visual forms to communicate emotions and ideas. We will observe in the exhibition how some artists have used white as a symbol of purity, inviting us to reflect on the essence of life. Other works offer a visual and sensory experience by evoking contrasting feelings such as harshness and delicacy. This exhibition is meant to be a reflection on the ephemeral nature of life and the purity and beauty of simplicity.” Federica Mingozzi, head of Education and Land Relations, will develop an ad hoc program for each annual exhibition of the SPA | Space For Art project. For the inaugural exhibition White, the program will focus on the communicative and emotional value of colors. Fundamental to the educational proposal will be the search for new and different strategies that allow for the individual reappropriation of content in order to stimulate the children’s skills of interpretation and personal reworking. The direct confrontation with the works in the collection and the sharing of the plurality of meanings explored in the exhibition will represent a resource for integrating school curricula and stimulating critical thinking, while the workshops will be the privileged place to give space to creativity, consolidate knowledge and strengthen skills. SPA | Space For Art’s educational projects for schools will encourage interdisciplinary approaches and the contamination of knowledge.

SPA | Space For Art opens every first Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free admission. For information: www.spazioperarte.it

There's a new space for contemporary art: it's SPA, in a neoclassical building in Oleggio

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