The Centro per la Conservazione e il Restauro dei Beni Culturali (CCR) “La Venaria Reale”and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo presented the guidelines of a shared research program, titled Interview with Art.
The project, based and developed on an idea of Benedetta Bodo di Albaretto in partnership with Sara Abram and Antonio Rava, starts from the use of the interview to the artist as tool to know deeply and clearly what needed in order to design and implement a conservation intervention and/or a restoration of contemporary artworks.
CCR of Venaria in the last 10 years has focused its efforts in traning and in researching in the filed of restoration and preservation of cultural heritage, thanks to an agreement with the University of Turin for the realization of the Master of Science in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage. An important part of training and laboratory work is dedicated to the preservation of the art of our time. For its part, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has this year celebrated two decades of prestigious activities in the field of the protection and active promotion of emerging artists and contemporary heritage in Italy and abroad.
In this regard, the representatives of the project – under the supervision of the president Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and his staff – have selected some historical works in the collection, each with characteristics attributable to materials and specific techniques, motivated by the artist’s individual path, from their intrinsic value and the criticality of different conservative situations.
The information that can be derived from direct contact with the makers of the tested artworks are valuable as much as the scientific tests obtained in the laboratory, and can make a difference in the final result of a restoration.
As part of the project it was therefore organized for students of the fourth year of the degree course – engaged in this academic year in the study of contemporary heritage – a seminar that addresses the general characteristics about each artist and work chosen within the project Interview with art.
The true target?
Teach them to ask the right questions to the artist, starting from good examples of what is in a sense a real discipline, continuing with a theoretical analysis of the artist and the work in question, to allow them to arrive to study its composition aware of its meaning. Later, they can use the acquired knowledge for the design and implementation of the restoration, completed with technical and photographic documentation; the materials produced through meetings and interviews with the artists will also be used for educational initiatives and enhancement of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection works.
