Contemporary art has a new temple, it is called the Barriques Museum, a combination of Wine Art that was born thanks to the innovative genius of Professor Stefano Pizzi of the painting chair of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera and Tenute Orestiadi.
With this project, the life of a cellar with its flavors and fragrances has been tinged with the colors that the Academy has given it.
Barriques Museum is the first museum of contemporary art in an active barrel cellar in Italy, an initiative born 2015 with the participation of well-known artists, teachers and student artists of the Academy who have been invited to create works on special rounds supplied by Tenute Orestiadi and applied to barriques.
Then, in 2016, another project came to life, “Artisti in Tenute”, a series of artist residences, during which the invited artists created a work with wine on special handmade paper created for the occasion by a Sicilian artisan excellence, the Aetna paper mills. Thus, a particular art gallery was established, the “Wine Pictures Gallery” which together with the “Barriques Museum” further characterized the territory of Gibellina, already known to art lovers for the activities promoted over time by the Orestiadi Foundation. With these design and research activities in the context of contemporary artistic expression, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts is confirmed as a point of reference for public and private institutions and for national and international entrepreneurial realities.
How did the idea come about?
Gibellina is a reality completely rebuilt after the 1968 earthquake, based on the idea and project of Senator Lodovico Corrao, Mayor of Gibellina, intellectual and founder of the Orestiadi
says Professor Pizzi.
Reality was a completely destroyed country, which lives again thanks to a pool of young architects and artists and has become the largest outdoor contemporary artistic research site in our country. I met Corrao in the 80s, I had to go to Gibellina to create some works with Aldo Mondino, with whom I shared the studio at Castello di Rivara, then time passed, Corrao and Mondino left us and, accidentally, in 2015, in full EXPO, during a workshop in Brera on Art and Enology, with Alessandro Costantini, owner of Wine o’clock and collaborator of Tenute Orestiadi, the idea was taken. Many had painted barrels, but a museum in a barrel cellar was a completely new idea, I involved artists, teachers and students from the Academy and today the Museum has a body of more than 200 works.
How are the artists selected?
Based on the curriculum and clear fame; the subject of the work is free. The pool of the Tenet Oretiadi groups brands of various realities, is the largest winery in all of Sicily, the driving force behind the reality of Gibellina, they are all young, like the President Rosario Di Maria, or the communication guys Alessandro Parisi Annamaria Cipolla and Pietro Maltese, all under the age of 40. We have also activated an agreement with the Orestiadi Foundation, the Estates, the Academy and the Municipality of Gibellina in order to restore the most degraded works in the area. Our School of Restoration has already revived Severini’s large mosaic in the Civic Room and is working on the restoration of a work by Isgrò.
Has the lockdown slowed the project down?
Yes, but he urged me to perfect another idea, that of involving some great architects and extending the collection also to architectural design, which is very rare to find in a contemporary art museum. Also in this case the acquisitions are paid for with the estate’s oenological products.
Is Barriques Museum a registered trademark?
The brand and the idea are registered and therefore cannot be replicated otherwise. We are part of the Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums and adhere to its opening days for art.
Tenute Orestiadi produces white berried grapes such as Grillo, Cataratto, Inzolia and Zibibbo and black berried grapes such as Nero d’Avola, Syrah, Nerello Mascalese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, all vinified in purity with the exception of Ludovico, bland of Nero d ‘ Long aging Avola and Cabernet Sauvignon.
credit Lovatelli
