6 october 2007 | VIA DI CITTà, 111 SIENA
6 – 27 october 2007
Collective exhibition for the gallery’s 10 years of activity.
Ten years of exhibitions and work is a long time; it is not an exceptional case in the most absolute sense, but, if we look at the city of Siena, there are not many examples.
The gallery was born from a passion for art. The genesis, in reality, dates back to a few previous years, when Edgardo Cerruti and Irina Biale met at the Faculty of Architecture in Genoa and realized that they shared the same passion for art. Thus was born the idea of opening a gallery. The two friends propose to follow some rules: try to maintain their own cultural line by promoting contemporary images expressed through modern figurative art, and build a precise identity through targeted artistic choices. In a city anchored to the past and tradition, the birth of a gallery is a necessity to dare a comparison, to encourage a debate, to create culture. The inauguration exhibition which took place in October 1997, featuring the French artist Arman, summarizes the gallery’s program and traces the path on which the two partners set out. The following year, after having set up exhibitions with the presence of artists such as Alain Bonnefoit, Mark Kostabi and Ugo Nespolo, a collective exhibition was organized entitled: “The horse in art”, a tribute to the city of Siena, also famous throughout the world. for the Palio. Works by Massimo Campigli, Marc Chagall, Primo Conti, Mino Maccari, Marino Marini, Andrè Masson, Salvatore Messina, Pablo Picasso, Mario Schifano, Tano Festa and others are selected for the exhibition.
On 12 April 2003 the Gallery moved to via di Città 111, a stone’s throw from the Duomo, the “Le Papesse” Center for Contemporary Art and the Santa Maria della Scala museum complex. Over the course of these ten years the gallery has worked to encourage an aesthetic debate, to reconnect art to life, to promote knowledge of contemporaneity, to discover new talents. Exhibition after exhibition, artist after artist, a small window on modern and contemporary art was offered in Siena. While remaining faithful to the initial program, the gallery has tried to capture the changes in art, and this is perhaps one of the characteristics that has favored the longevity of the Biale Cerruti Art Gallery, that is, the ability to maintain faith in the original assumptions by continually renewing itself. The objectives it sets for the next few years are first of all to continue with the renewal, and to defend freedom of expression by hosting exhibitions of artists with different orientations. Ten years for the gallery mean important and numerous goals behind it, but above all many projects for the future, to be carried forward with the same enthusiasm as on the first day.
The Biale Cerruti Art Gallery has been in existence for ten years, with ten artists invited: Roberto Altmann, Arman, Fabio Calvetti, Fathi Hassan, Alì Hassoun, Bruno Lucchi, Giovanni Maranghi, Claudio Missagia, Giorgio Moiso, Antonello Plantamura to represent and testify the work of the gallery, trying to underline the fact that the enthusiasm and desire to continue on the path undertaken remains unchanged.