Five Gallery
Igor Rucci's journey through the world of art is studded with original ideas, provocative initiatives, challenges and won bets. Until the recent launch of Arteconomy, which he presents here together with Prof. Andrea B. Del Guercio, curator of the works and collections.
How did the idea of opening a gallery in the center of Lugano come about?
«I must immediately say that my training and my professional experience has all matured in the economic-financial field. Art caught my attention because it has many similarities with the world of finance and I started by trying to understand its rules, how the market works, artists and their relationship with galleries, curators, auctions. In 2013 I judged that the time was ripe for my direct commitment in this sector and I gave life to Five Gallery, opening the gallery inside an elegant period apartment located in the historic center of the city of Lugano ».
What is the artistic path pursued by Five Gallery so far?
«The aim is to offer in-depth exhibitions and collections dedicated to the masters of the seventies and eighties and to the innovative forms of young international creativity. We want that through Five Gallery, the collector has the opportunity to interact freely with targeted expressive values consolidated by contemporary history, I think of a very poetic Giorgio Cattani and the dimension of Herbert Mehler, just to give some examples but also anticipate the discovery of new talents, I think to the extraordinary qualities of Carlo Alberto Rastelli, Riccardo Garolla and Ilaria Forlini. The authors and the works respond to the choices and careful selection made by Andrea B. Del Guercio, Artistic Director of the Gallery and holder of the Chair of Contemporary Art History at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts ».
Among the various provocations launched, Arteconomy stands out. What is it about?
«Arteconomy is an artistic movement that blends art and economy, making the latter an essential and constitutive element of the work of art itself and transforming the role of the artist into superfluous. The idea was presented for the first time on 25 November 2016, as a provocative response to the excessive weight that finance and the economy have reached in the world of art. Its first expression was “Continuity”, a set of works progressively composed of a cut of carbon fiber recycled through an innovative industrial process. The result is placed within a frame, creating a first interrelation between real economy and art ».
But what is the innovation element proposed by Arteconomy?
"In addition to the fact that it is an art form without an immediately recognizable artist who signs the individual works, we have launched the concept of" incremental emotion ", with the selling price becoming an integral part of the work itself : starting from a price of CHF 500 for “Continuity 1” the value increases steadily (CHF 100) with each work sold: consequently “Continuity 2” is worth CHF 600, “Continuity 3” CHF 700 and so on. The constant increase in the price is not linked to the increase in demand, but represents the emotion that every collector feels at the time of purchase. This increase, defined as “incremental emotion”, is entirely donated to charity, with the intention of putting the social aspect of art back in the foreground with respect to the current elitist value ».
And as happens in the world of finance, you too distribute a dividend ...
"Indeed. Our "(with) emotional dividend" arises precisely from the fact that our collectors constitute a community that in Arteconomy is seen as a company; just like in all companies that produce profits and distribute dividends when they grow, Arteconomy also distributes a dividend or rather an emotional (con) dividend. Therefore, we have decided to distribute 10% of the net price collected from the sale of each new Continuity among all previous buyers: an absolutely innovative formula that allows all collectors of the "Continuity" series to directly benefit from the growth and success of Arteconomy. ".
Prof. Del Guercio, for years you have been dealing with the complex issues related to the system of a new accessibility to the art system, working as a scientific consultant to create contemporary art collections. Why does Arteconomy totally revolutionize the rules of the art market?
«From Marcel Duchamp to Piero Manzoni, the history of art boasts illustrious precedents aimed at dismembering the very concept of a work of art, to the point of isolating its key element, the artist. In this perspective, Arteconomy constitutes a new form of contemporary art, a provocation that pushes the desecrating point a little further, even going beyond the concept of artist. It certainly destabilizes a rigid system such as the current one in the art market, based on many shadows, various ambiguities and few certainties. On the contrary, Arteconomy is based on the certainty of the price of the work, having been determined on the basis of a criterion borrowed from the world of finance, from a system of active rules within the framework of the real economy ».
You teach Contemporary Art History, you are an art critic, discoverer of young talents, organizer of collections. What does it mean to make the work of art accessible to an ever wider audience of potential users?
«Today the attribution of artistic value follows processes and variables that are often imponderable and no longer stable, as was the case for the ancient heritage, but in constant renewal and between frequent differences of opinion. Specifically in the state of collecting and more generally in the art market, we are witnessing the involvement of unprecedented actors, active in contexts and times that are not always uniform: many are worried about who associates a work with a value today? Who makes the quotations, which hang and hang over the artists and their production? Auction houses, experts, curators, merchants, but also fashions and trend lines affect the value of a work. But this situation must not lead us to surrender and immobility. There is space to react, to work on a concept like that of emotion, no longer just aesthetic and cultural generated by the work of art but not even for the sole purpose of investment, giving value to the pleasure of belonging to a community. united by the same project. And it is not to be believed that all this belongs only to an elite of a privileged few. The works of the artists we propose and the collections for individuals and companies that we create show that access to the world of art is easier and economically sustainable than we are used to thinking. But it is necessary to completely overturn the point of view from which to start, creating an independent system based on the extraordinary expressive power of the new generations, but also anticipating the rediscovery of great and very important authors ».
FIVE GALLERY
Via Canova 7
6900 Lugano
+4191 922 51 15
www.fivegallery.ch
