Quirinale opens up to contemporary art and design

(ANSA) - Rome, May 31 - A project titled "Contemporary Quirinale" will kick off on Italian Republic Day, June 2, at Rome's Quirinal Palace, also known as the "Home of the Italians".
    In the exhibition the Quirinal Palace, the residence of the Italian president, will put a selection of artworks and design pieces from the post-WWII era through today on display in its lavish rooms.
    Artists on display will include de Chirico, Guttuso, Fontana, Pomodoro, Burri, Accardi, and Fioroni, as well the brilliant designs of Ponti, Fornasetti, Aulenti, and Mendini.
    Italian President Sergio Mattarella was a big supporter of this exhibition, which will put nearly 70 works on display that pay tribute to the creativity and productivity expressed by the country over the past 70 years.
    The exhibition will be included in general admission to the Quirinal Palace and begins in the Courtyard of Honour, with the 1993-1994 work "Disk in the Form of a Desert Rose" by Arnaldo Pomodoro and the pair of artworks by Pietro Consagra, "Mythical Conversation" (1959) and "Mediterranean Mirage" (1961).
    Show curator Cristina Mazzantini said the Quirinal Palace is a "precious place, but it's not a mausoleum".
    "With this initiative we wanted to transform it into a medium capable of communicating contemporary identity," Mazzantini said.
    "Here, there's the Italy of our grandparents, but also of our children," she said.
    Other contemporary masterpieces on display include Giorgio de Chirico's 1968 work "The Archaeologists", visual artist Carla Accardi's 1992 work "Bacchus and Ariadne", and Lucio Fontana's 1961 work "Spatial Concept Venice Moon", among many other works.
    Design pieces include Alessandro Mendini's Proust Chair (1978), Aldo Rossi's Carteggio chest of drawers (1987) and the 1951 Trumeau Architecture by Piero Fornasetti and Gio Ponti.
    "This is a double exhibition, one is artistic and the other is historic," said Ugo Zampetti, secretary-general of the presidency.
    "It's neither a show nor a permanent exhibition; it's the palace entering in a new phase, welcoming the main artistic currents that animated the life of the Republic," he said.
    "The very rich cultural heritage of the Quirinal stops at the Kingdom of Italy, but this is a vital palace, and President Mattarella wanted to bridge this gap," he said.