Elio Schenini, you were recently appointed Director of the Giovanni Züst Cantonal Art Gallery. What does this institution represent within the Ticino museum system?
Opened in 1967 to house the works that the entrepreneur Giovanni Züst had donated to the Canton, the Pinacoteca is the museum institution dedicated to preserving and promoting Ticino's historical and artistic identity as it developed over the long span of centuries from the Middle Ages to the first half of the twentieth century. This identity was characterized throughout this period by the massive emigration of Ticino's artistic talents to the main Italian and European centers and by the very close ties that its exponents maintained with the koine artistic heritage of the nearby Peninsula, particularly that of the Lombardy area.
Together with MASI, which was entrusted with the tasks once carried out by the Cantonal Art Museum, the Züst Picture Gallery Today it represents the main instrument with which the State implements its museum policy aimed at the conservation, study and dissemination of our artistic heritage."
The Pinacoteca Züst has been undergoing a phase of consolidation and development for several years. What are your goals for taking on this new role?
At the heart of this development phase is, as is well known, the transformation and expansion of the building housing the Pinacoteca. Its current appearance is the work of a major figure in Ticino architecture, Tita Carloni, who in 1966 was commissioned to transform the old parish house in Rancate into the museum we all know. The renovation of the building, which began to be discussed many years ago, during Carloni's lifetime, is now urgently needed for a variety of reasons, among which I will simply mention the essential upgrading of the structure to accessibility standards. The design process began in 2016 with an initial feasibility study by architect Jachen Könz and concluded last year with the publication of the competition, won by the interdisciplinary team led by Pessina Architetti of Zurich. At this point, the hope is that work can begin as planned in 2027 and that there will be no further delays or postponements. One of my primary commitments in the coming years will be to support the design team and collaborate with them to ensure that the new Pinacoteca has adequate, modern, and functional spaces, where we can continue to explore our past and thus seek to illuminate our present.
Is there a project that's particularly close to your heart and that you'd definitely like to complete in the coming months?
As always when you embark on a new adventure, there are many projects, and you'd like to see them all realized as soon as possible. The one closest to my heart right now, however, is a long-term project, which due to its size and importance requires complex preparation and study, as well as the creation of a dense network of collaborations, to which I have already begun to dedicate myself. 2030 will mark the fourth centenary of the death of Giovanni Serodine, who remains to this day the most important painter Ticino has contributed to the history of European art, and whose masterpieces, among others, the Pinacoteca preserves. St. Peter in prisonAs was the case with Borromini in 1999, I believe this celebration is not only an act of homage to an artist whom historian Roberto Longhi has defined as one of the greatest artists of the Italian seventeenth century, but also an opportunity to reflect on a cultural identity that in the past was able to define itself through a continuous exchange with what lay beyond its own borders.
Specifically, what interventions do you intend to promote with a view to defining and expanding the scientific profile of the Pinacoteca Züst collections?
In my view, the Pinacoteca should increasingly operate within a clear and coordinated framework of complementarity with the MASI. This complementarity has always existed to some extent, even during the days of the Cantonal Museum, but it has never been well-defined and structured. Therefore, I would say that if the Canton wishes to continue operating as a museum through these two institutions, their mandates must be better defined and clarified, with a view to complementarity and collaboration. This not only avoids unnecessary redundancies and overlaps, but also allows for a more prudent use of available resources and clearer communication with the public. Ten years after the founding of the MASI, it is perhaps time to take stock and analyze the reality of Ticino's art museums. In this context, a different and more rational distribution of the cantonal collections and their respective fields of activity between the two institutions, which, in one way or another, are under the control of the Canton, could, in my opinion, be a highly transparent and strategically valuable initiative.
You were a curator-curator first at the Museo Cantonale d'Arte and then at the Museo d'arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI) in Lugano. What are the main aspects of those experiences that you remember?
The long years I spent at the Museo Cantonale d'Arte, where I arrived in 2002, and at MASI were undoubtedly important for my professional growth and allowed me to gain decisive experience not only in the curatorial field but also in the various management areas that underpin a museum institution. One of the advantages of working in a medium-sized facility is also the ability to interact with and manage all the many and varied sectors that comprise a museum's activity, unlike in larger institutions where everything is rigidly compartmentalized and functions are clearly distinct. The construction of the LAC and the birth of a new museum resulting from the merger of two previous entities were undoubtedly unique experiences in which I had the opportunity to participate and contribute firsthand. For me, it was an extraordinary opportunity to test and explore firsthand, and not just theoretically, issues such as governance of museum institutions and the role that the latter are called to play within the social context".
You have a long career as an art historian and independent curator, having organized dozens of exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad. Which artists and movements have you focused on most?
I must say that I have always been a firm believer in Wölfflini's "history of art without names." This obviously doesn't mean that artistic figures are irrelevant in the study of art history. However, it's always a matter of giving priority to the works and the context rather than the figure of the artist. Meticulous genealogical reconstructions, however fundamental and indispensable, fail to fascinate me. I don't want to evade your question, but rather than cite the names and movements that have attracted my interest in recent years, I'd like to emphasize that my passion for artistic questions stems from the awareness that art—in the broadest, I would say Beuysian, sense of the term, not considering only the visual arts—is the activity in which the essence of the human being, which is language, is most fully realized. This is, ultimately, the reason for the interest I have had since I was young in the artistic experience, because it is through it that we give a name to the world, that we “bring it into the world” to quote the title of a famous work by Alighiero Boetti.
