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The second private collection visited from institutions; I will no longer direct, objects from Western culture had a
was the Swiss Suzanne Syz, who participate in councils, meet ministers magical meaning, such as the crucifix.
in the 1980s lived in New York and of culture, and politicians. I’m retiring “So I started to look at European art, or
became friends with iconic figures of from all that and hopefully becoming Italian art, in a more anthropological
contemporary art, such as Andy Warhol, young again,” she says, smiling. way”, she sums up.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel In these more than 20 years at Another important moment for
and Francesco Clemente, all exhibited Castello di Rivoli – she joined in 2002, building her alliances was when she
in his home on the outskirts of Siena, as chief curator, af er two years at ps1, defended, in 2001, together with Alana
alongside other more recent artists, in New York – museums in general have Heiss, then director of Moma-ps1, in New
such as the Italian Francesco Jodice, undergone an intense transformation. York, the realization of the exhibition
the Swiss Silvie Fleury and the German Walking through the collection of the The Short Century: Independence and
Carsten Höller. “Collecting is supporting Italian museum itself reflects these Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-
young artists and I do it with my heart”, changes, no longer telling a history of 1994, organized by the Nigerian Okwui
defended Suzanne to the group, next North American and Eurocentric art, but Enwezor, in early 2002. The exhibition
to Warhol’s portrait of her and her son opening up to other narratives, including was a project for the Villa Stuck museum,
Marc. Definitely, it’s not just quality wine that of the so-called “global south”, a in Munich, Germany, and had already
that you can find in Tuscany. term that Carolyn does not like very been exhibited in Berlin, at the House
much. She prefers to use the expression of Cultures of the World.
*Fabio Cypriano traveled at the invitation of “dissatisfied with the Eurocentric canon”. “It was the first show outside the
the Art of the Treasure Hunt organization From this group, she cites the South Harlem studios dedicated to African
African artist William Kentridge, the artists in New York. She really changed
international interview [pages 64 to 69] Australian Richard Bell, the North the pattern of African art in the United
‘THE MUSEUM BELONGS American Jimmie Durham (1940-2021) States, as well as transforming museums
and the Brazilian Maria Thereza Alves, in the country”, she argues.
TO THE ARTISTS’ all of her friends and with whom she Okwui, her friend at the time, was
The director of the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, has worked several times. the curator of Documenta 11, also
Carolyn Christoph-Bakargiev announces While the inclusion of these “non- in 2002, which, with its platforms for
retirement to ‘have time to think’ conformists” in the art circuit has debates in various locations around
by fabio cypriano become politically correct, this selection the world, created a new paradigm for
of en looks more like a cultural marketing large exhibitions, which were no longer
the repercussions of the announ- action, as institutions use this strategy as restricted to just a physical event, but
cement of the retirement of a publicity action. This is not the case with also functioned as a space for reflection.
Carolyn Christoph-Bakargiev, who for Rivoli. “I don’t want to boast about being Carolyn edited Documenta ten years later,
more than 20 years, between comings friends with artists, but this is my life, and in 2012, and the Istanbul Biennale, in 2015.
and goings, has been at the Castello these are alliances I’ve been building for
di Rivoli, scared her. Since 2016, she a long time”, she reports. With that, it is the past of the future
has directed the first museum of not just in the collection that artists are “Af er Sydney, Documenta and Istanbul,
contemporary art in Italy, about to present, but in spaces of power, such as I decided not to do any more biennials or
celebrate its 40th birthday in 2024. the Consultative Committee, in which, of major international exhibitions. I quit to
In her view, a “non-news” ended up the seven members, four are artists, one teach, but I wanted to go back to working
appearing in all the important art vehicles is a physicist and the others are curators, in museums”, she recalls. She then
and newspapers. “I think that means, on something quite rare in Brazil. returned to Rivoli in 2016. The museum,
a symbolic level, that a lot of people want “The museum belongs to the artists”, whose first director was the Dutchman
to say no, they want to stop, they don’t defends Carolyn. “As a museum director, Rudi Fuchs, also curator of Documenta,
want to be a slave to machines”, says this is the primary element. Our role is in 1982, operates in a palace that began to
Carolyn, in her office at the museum, how to make a work of art communicate be built in the 9th century, and even had
surrounded by books and folders, and in to the world what it means to the artist. the pretense of being a kind of Versailles
the company of her dog doctor Zhivago, It’s about how to make it alive, not inert for the Savoy family. But it was never
with whom she has to enter through a dead,” she explains. actually finished, having been plundered
special entrance, away from the public. This openness to productions beyond during Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion
Stopping, however, does not mean the Western standard originated, in a in the 19th century. Still, it’s a bit of an
stop working. She already has a large way, when she organized the Sydney unusual place to be Italy’s first museum
exhibition being prepared for Paris, in Biennial, in Australia, in 2007 and 2008. It of contemporary art, especially as Arte
2004, dedicated to Arte Povera, at the was in the desert, when she got to know Povera artists were heavily involved in
Bourse de Commerce. It will be the first Aboriginal production with her friend its conception.
exhibition that will not deal with the and Aboriginal curator Hetti Perkins, “Directing a museum is organizing and
collection of François Pinault, in the who she realized that the objects they taking care of a collection. What people
historic building that is maintained by produced, even if they were to be sold see are the temporary exhibitions, but
the French tycoon. to tourists, achieved results for the the director of a museum builds the past
What Carolyn will gain from retirement community, such as the construction of a future”, she says. The difference
at age 66, which she celebrates of a hospital, and that, therefore, they between biennial exhibitions is that this
next December, is freedom from had an important meaning. At the same type of exhibition, in its conception, is
administrative bureaucracy. “I am retiring time, she also understood that even to “react on the here and now”.
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