RIMINI.- PART is now open in Rimini. The new museum site combines in a single project the redevelopment for cultural purposes of two historic buildings in the heart of the city and the permanent placement of the eclectic collection of contemporary artworks donated to the San Patrignano Foundation by artists, collectors and gallery owners.




The new museum site is located inside the medieval monumental complex consisting of the 13th century Palazzo dell'Arengo and the 14th century Palazzo del Podestà, the two imposing adjoining buildings of great historical and architectural importance that together with Palazzo Garampi, Teatro Galli and the Pescheria overlook Piazza Cavour, the heart of the city.

The San Patrignano Foundation Collection, a collection of works donated by established contemporary artists on the Italian and international scene, finds its home in this evocative context, which is in constant expansion with the curatorial coordination of Clarice Pecori Giraldi, launched in 2017. The restoration and functional adaptation of the buildings were carried out by Studio AR.CH.IT led by Luca Cipelletti, who also designed the hanging and staging of the San Patrignano Collection. The museum project follows and mirrors the eclectic quality that the collection derives strength from, and offers, thanks to innovative display methods, an extremely free and personal approach to its content rather than one shaped by an itinerary highlighting historical or critical connection between the works. In PART, the works are the protagonists: of the relationship with the medieval spaces of the Palazzo dell'Arengo and the Podestà, and of the relationship with the visitor. The lighting, aimed at enhancing both the collection and the architecture of the venue, is the work of architect and lighting designer Alberto Pasetti Bombardella.

This artistic and cultural redevelopment project within the city was made possible through close collaboration between the public and private sectors: the agreement between the Municipality of Rimini and the San Patrignano Foundation, thanks also to the precious contribution of the Emilia Romagna Region, has enabled the city to acquire an innovative museum designed to be both an opportunity for the general public to discover contemporary art and a way to best display the donations the community receives.

The contemporary art collection housed in PART is the - constantly growing and evolving - product of the first major Italian endowment initiative modelled on the Anglo-Saxon format: the works in the collection were donated to the San Patrignano Foundation with deeds that commit the Foundation to not selling them for at least five years and to contributing to their valorisation by displaying them to the public; after that period of time they can only be sold in the circumstance of extraordinary needs of the community in order to meet essential needs of guests recovering from drug addiction.

The collection is already a rich contemporary collection that brings together many fine artists including: Mario Airò, Vanessa Beecroft, Bertozzi & Casoni, Domenico Bianchi, Alessandro Busci, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Maurizio Cannavacciuolo, Loris Cecchini, Jake e Dinos Chapman, Sandro Chia, Roberto Coda Zabetta, George Condo, Enzo Cucchi, Anne de Carbuccia, Thomas De Falco, Nicola de Maria, Gianluca Di Pasquale, Zehra Doğan, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Sam Falls, Flavio Favelli, Giuseppe Gallo, Alberto Garutti, Giorgio Griffa, Shilpa Gupta, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Carsten Höller, Emilio Isgrò, Giovanni Iudice, William Kentridge, Loredana Longo, Claudia Losi, Iva Lulashi, Ibrahim Mahama, Agnes Martin, Paul McCarthy, Igor Mitoraj, Davide Monaldi, Gian Marco Montesano, Mimmo Paladino, Yan Pei-Ming, Tullio Pericoli, Achille Perilli, Diego Perrone, Luca Pignatelli, Pino Pinelli, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gianni Politi, Matteo Pugliese, Jean Paul Riopelle, Pietro Ruffo, Mario Schifano, Julian Schnabel, Elisa Sighicelli, Andreas Slominski, Ettore Spalletti, Grazia Toderi, Francesco Vezzoli, Velasco Vitali, Silvio Wolf, Xiaongang Zhang.

PART hosts a site-specific work by artist David Tremlett, created with the help of young people at the San Patrignano community. The public will have access to the ground floor, second floor and monumental staircase of Palazzo dell'Arengo and the rooms on the ground floor of Palazzo del Podestà.

PART Palazzi dell'Arte in Rimini opened with a project for the future in the pipeline: after the beautiful experience with David Tremlett and Roberto Coda Zabetta, Kurdish artist and performer Zehra Doğan was invited to create a site-specific work for the museum together with young people from the community of San Patrignano. Zehra Doğan is the founder of the Kurdish feminist news agency "Jinha" and in 2017 she was sentenced to 2 years 9 months and 22 days in prison for "terrorist propaganda" because of her journalistic writings and a watercolour she made denouncing the Turkish government. During her imprisonment, the artist produced over 60 works, including drawings, paintings and mixed media works, sometimes in collaboration with her fellow inmates. For PART, on the other hand, the creative process will be shared with young people in the community.

The medieval architecture of the palaces will enter into an open dialogue with the contemporary works housed inside them; far from being mere containers, they will activate new networks of meaning that will allow the visitor to live a unique experience, offering unexpected and never before seen points of view.

Mayor of Rimini Andrea Gnassi commented: “Part is the creative hammer that breaks down all barriers. It is the space of the impossible that is made possible: past, present and future without interruption, towards a new direction. There are marvellous, historic buildings of the great history of Italy; there are dazzling international works of art; there is a 14th century masterpiece in a watershed position but which, in reality, directs and mixes a magical atmosphere in which the particular becomes universal. All of this is taking place in Rimini, a place that has been perceived for years as a symbol of instantaneous contemporaneity. Part is a lot like Rimini, old and new all at the same time. Processes of urban regeneration, in which art, culture and creativity are the drivers of a development finally based on relationships and the noblest concept of community”.